By Zakir Hussain

Surf the dozens of socio-political blogs, websites and forums here - many run by young Singaporeans - and one is struck by the paucity of views that are pro-People's Action Party (PAP).

The youth wing of the ruling PAP wants to remedy this.

But it faces a hurdle: Many of its members are reluctant to debate online, while others shy away from expressing views that are not quite in line with those of the Government.

New Young PAP (YP) vice-chairman Zaqy Mohamad, 34, wants to encourage members to change this mindset.

'You have a whole bunch of people who are better in the know about policies, able to project a certain amount of objectivity on the Internet, and who at the same time can build their own online presence,' he tells Insight, describing these reluctant party members.

'What's stopping them?' he asks, adding that just as there is a range of political views out there in cyberspace, YP activists should similarly be willing to express a range of views.

'If we had a whole bunch of yes-men, it's not healthy for the party either,' he says.

But even as the Hong Kah GRC MP seeks to get members to speak up, he also wants to get the YP to work out a strategy to engage youth through the new media.

His fellow vice-chairman, Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Christopher de Souza, is in charge of political education - making members aware of current issues so they can better explain the Government's policies and the party's views to their peers.

YP chief Teo Ser Luck hopes these two thrusts will help boost a third key area for the youth wing: the recruitment and retention of members.

In a recent interview, the trio explained to Insight why they want to focus on new media and political education.

Mr Zaqy believes new media will change the way in which politics is conducted over the next generation, just as United States President-elect Barack Obama had used it to his advantage during his campaign.

'Today, you need politicians who are comfortable on TV. Tomorrow, you'll need politicians who are comfortable on the Internet and on blogs,' he says.

'I cannot help but imagine in five years' time, a situation develops where you have a one-to-one political dogfight taking place in the space occupied by the new media.

'So if an election comes, and an opposition party's whole strategy is based on conducting it in the realm of the new media, there's no choice but for the PAP to take on the fight for that GRC in the new media space as well.'

But Mr Zaqy feels the YP should move at a pace that its members are comfortable with.

He notes that once political videos get the green light, the YP will dabble in making them.

The greater obstacle, it seems, is to overcome the scepticism of netizens about the online efforts of the 12 post-65 MPs - all born after Singapore's independence in 1965 and elected in 2006.

A dedicated blog they set up two years ago to reach out to youth is all but inactive, with many of the MPs just posting their parliamentary speeches on it.

Mr Teo, who is Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, and for Transport, says the criticisms are valid.

'If you don't have criticism, you don't know what's wrong. It's better that you experiment, know what's wrong and make it better,' the 40-year-old says.

'Now we're able to plan a strategy because we know what the gaps for blogs are, compared to Facebook, websites and other forums. These are different channels, suited to different uses.'

So the joint blog is all but sidelined in favour of the YP's own website and Facebook - where Mr Teo has over 1,200 friends, and logs on almost every day, and which is widely regarded as more conducive to instantaneous communication.

Facebook was, incidentally, the key platform on which Mr Obama's supporters mobilised youth to vote and rope in their peers to support their candidate.

Faces for the young

ALTHOUGH the P65 blog may have faded somewhat, Mr Teo says the loose group of P65 MPs still has a role to play.

'The MPs are advisers of YP anyway,' he says. 'We've built the P65 as a brand, people know who we are. P65 MPs are integral for the YP to succeed because they are the faces of the party representing the younger generation,' he adds.

'In future we'll have the P70s, P75s.'

Mr de Souza, who at 32 is the youngest MP, explains that the central YP structure alone is not enough to reach out to youth.

So MPs have to do their part to engage the youth in their respective branches.

He cites a recent dialogue for young people in his Ulu Pandan ward where more than 100 of them turned up.

'They are still in the polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education, and want to know whether there will be jobs for them, how the financial crisis will hit them. We didn't need to wait for YP to draw up an agenda of topical issues,' he says.

The MPs also point to how the youth they encounter now are much more well informed, raising questions about policies such as the Ethnic Integration Policy for Housing Board estates, for example.

This is why they feel that it is not enough for YP members to just have a greater online presence.

They want YP members to be up-to-date with knowledge of policies and issues.

Political education

MR DE Souza has been tasked with keeping YP members updated on current issues - from fiscal policy to transport policies - so they can help correct misperceptions and educate others about the intentions behind various schemes.

The hope is that they will also feel more engaged in party work.

Mr de Souza says party members he has met do not hold back from speaking their mind.

'They dare to question, they dare to contradict, knowing that in so doing, they are helping fine-tune a policy or giving an alternative view,' he says.

'At the end of the day, they are for Singapore,' he adds. 'They join to serve the community.'

But what next, once they join? How do you keep members in the party and get them to contribute to making it better?

It is a question Mr Teo keeps asking himself too.

He says the answer lies in giving members a sense of ownership, that they have a stake in the party.

'At the end of the day, we are a political party. They must feel they are doing this for a good cause; they must feel part of the team,' he says.

'They are aware of issues, they have an opinion, they want to be heard and taken seriously as well. So we need different platforms to engage them, and we want to build these platforms.'

He adds: 'I want young people to say, 'This is the party I want to join - it has a platform for diverse views, can embrace change, has substance, and has values very much aligned with what I believe in and which are good for this country'.

'Young people are passionate and want to do good for the country. But why don't they join the YP instantly?' he asks rhetorically.

Is it perhaps because they just dislike the fact that the PAP is the incumbent ruling party in power?

Mr Zaqy feels the party has to be adaptive, and here the YP ought to play a larger role reflecting the aspirations of the next generation.

'The more credible the members are, the more credible are the views that get funnelled up. And there is certainly scope to influence change from within,' he says.

Mr de Souza rejects the oft-expressed view that PAP members have a similar outlook.

'If you look at the 82 PAP MPs, each one is a different person, with views in his or her own right,' he says.

'If you listen to their views on Bills and the speeches that have been made, and the parliamentary questions that are asked, you see such a collage of views - different, unique. And every time a Bill is passed, it is passed with such a marinade of viewpoints.

'I don't think it is a one-size-fits-all, repetitive type of politics that we see in the PAP and in the YP.'

Mr Teo acknowledges that younger MPs who entered politics have won voter support in part because they were able to ride on the party's goodwill and the brand and foundation which the PAP has built.

'But at the end of the day, you have to convince people that you are there to serve them, that your heart is in the right place,' he adds.

'The residents are not stupid. They can easily tell whether you are the showbiz kind of politician or you're the kind of leader that really works the ground and delivers the goods.'

But he also acknowledges that younger voters - and YP members - want to see some form of change in politics here as society opens up.

'The YP must be a group that is seen to be leading change, which means we must be a leading agent of change, at the forefront, daring to experiment,' he says.

'I want to be able to establish the YP by itself, as a YP of substance that does not just ride on the party's brand equity.

'We want to be the party of choice for this younger generation.'

To do this, Mr Teo explains, the YP has to be able to accommodate a diversity of views and members - from blue-collar folk to intellectuals - and engage a broad spectrum of people. It is already doing this.

The YP's challenge is to help attract the right candidates to join it and contribute to making life better for the people around them, he says.

Another challenge is in retaining members and raising their level of involvement.

'But the basics must still be there,' he says, citing values like honesty, integrity and competence - traits that have kept the party going all these years.

'That will not change for many, many years. What we need on top of that is a layer of form to tip the balance,' he adds.

And this is where the MPs hope going into new media and political education in a big way will help their party continue to woo the hearts and minds of a new generation of voters in the coming years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 12, 2008.