welcome to the fold: you are in hostile territory

recently, there has been some "spamming" going around the plogosphere on posts related to ministerial salaries (Dr Huang, Ben, Kitana, Lucky Tan, Ian, etc), and they all come in the form of two comments. the first is a cut and paste of this blog article, left by a pseudonym of "Young PAP". the second goes: "Ms Elaina Olivia Chong is the Vice Chairperson of Young PAP Women committee ok! U should show your respect." left by the pseudonym of "I love PAP".

because of the consistency of how the first comment never fails to be followed by the second comment, it is safe to assume that "Young PAP" and "I love PAP" are the same individual, or two individuals working together. i am of the impression that the original author, Ms Elaina Olivia Chong, is not the one behind this spamming of comments (although i could be wrong). it is quite possible that this "I love PAP" chap could be an over-enthusiastic pro-PAP netizen who wanted to use Ms Chong's article to rebut the views espoused in the aforementioned blog posts. it is also not an impossibility that this spamming was actually done by an anti-PAP netizen, to draw overwhelming attention to the Young PAP Blog (currently over 115 comments on their latest blog post) as well as to destroy street cred (the second comment by "I love PAP").

whatever the case, well or ill-intentioned, our attention has now been drawn to the Young PAP Blog, which i believe, had been escaping plogosphere attention since its inception in late February (interestingly, about 3 weeks after the announcement of PAPAnons). i recommend, for those who haven't, to go read the entire blog (only 16 posts so far). with one notable exception, i actually find the blog rather well-written. I may not agree with all the views, but i have to admit that it is, for the most part, intelligently and coherently articulated.

i am particularly impressed that there are actual written criticisms on the government on issues pertaining to the GST hike, anti-protectionism of SMEs and the current CPF schemes. and Ms Elaina Olivia Chong, regardless if you hold her vice-chairpersonship in high regard or not, seems to be a pretty good blogger. (she also responds to comments, and seems rather respectful). i think this helps to dispel previous fears that PAP-affiliated bloggers have no room for individual opinions and are forced to trumpet the official views of the ruling party, i.e. nothing but mouthpieces of propaganda. i think it may still be too early to judge, but the indications are healthy.

i for one, welcome the PAP into the blogosphere. even if they are nothing but propaganda, this is hostile territory, and to be anything but anti-establishment is to go against the grain. if they are still willing to wear their allegiance on their sleeves (unlike one other blog which has partisan roots but chooses not to disclose that fact), and yet manage to respectfully and sensibly engage the views of their detractors, they just might succeed in their agenda in convincing the blogosphere that the ruling party isn't that horrible after all. or they might not. but i applaud them for trying.

[a separate issue: go read the full transcript of Dr Vivian Balakrishnan's speech to the foreign correspondence association, also found on the Young PAP blog. i think the term "ceremonial censorship" may have been quoted out of context, leading to criticisms by several bloggers. the example used in the speech was of the censorship of 100 pornographic sites, even though thousands others are available, which is old news. he might not be talking about blog censorship. if so, perhaps it is the CNA article which is to blame for this, and earlier today i criticized CNA too.]