The Internet as a Platform for Civic Engagement in Singapore

Abstract

Singaporea??s focus on Internet Technology led knowledge-hub has revealed many issues of contention between active citizenry and technology adoption within the nation-state. This thesis attempts to locate the evolution of the internet as a platform for civil society within the overall evolution of the state mechanism. Surveys conducted among Singaporeans revealed skepticism in the viability of the internet as an alternate civil society sphere in Singapore among respondents.Yet an examination of the Governmenta??s approach to the internet reveals an expansion of the acceptable limits of self expression over the years. This apparent dichotomy in perspectives vis-? -vis the state and a??peoplea?? is laced with a sense of inevitability, given the long accepted socio-political climate in Singapore. Yet, there appears a substantial degree of homogeneity in core ideals of the state and a majority of the adult internet users in Singapore that demonstrates a shared sense of a??nation buildinga??, in turn indicative of a co-evolution (rather than contention) of the medium conducive to civil society and the state.