All hail new media! Without it, we wouldn’t have four different ways of saying: “Yes, the ministerial forum was awesome.”

An online poll with the question, “How do you find the ministerial forum?” offered “inspiring”, “refreshing”, “fantastic” or “innovative” as answers.

Still, about 3000 people actually bothered to take part and more than 50 had decided what they felt about the forum even before it took place.

No surprise that “innovative” was the most popular choice at press time, since the other choices were even greater declarations of the forum’s brilliance.

But perhaps it was the Internet’s fault that attendance was less than stellar since students could pose questions to the PM on twitter instead of turning up in person.

There were unoccupied seats scattered around the bottom level and the upstairs area was found almost empty.

The last ministerial forum had Lee Kuan Yew gracing the event and the response was so overwhelming a video feed had to be set up, beaming the Minister Mentor live onto another large lecture theatre.

At least this time the question and answer session was more candid and certainly laced with less decorum.

Two years ago, people were breathlessly declaring their honour to be in the same room breathing the same air as the big man himself.

This time around, at least the people who came up to the microphone remembered to ask questions.

At the post-forum reception, the organisers of the forum got really organised.

Arranging themselves and student leaders in three groups, they patiently waited for the Prime Minister to work the room and make his way to them. Lest any of the students strayed from their herd, their group numbers were written on their name tags.

And only those who had a circle round their name tag number could speak to PM Lee – the others, merely formed the backdrop. The consequence of opening your mouth in his presence without the circle of approval was anyone’s guess.

Finally, don’t forget the inaugural twitter dialogue for any ministerial forum. Students were invited to tweet questions to the PM and one of them (not the best, in my opinion) was picked to be answered.

The ironic tweeted question on how new media affects personal interaction should have made way for “How long will you stay in the hot seat before you pass on the baton?” or “do you think Singaporean women should do National Service for at least one year?”

Even acknowledging the electronic showers of adoration (“pm lee u rock…” and “sir, impressive!”) would have been nice.

Oh wait, the PM did wave to the crowd when the moderator drew his attention to “I love u pm lee!”

Wonder if Ho Ching was smiling at that point of time.

• Share

If you like this story, please consider making a donation to help further the Enquirer's cause.

• Council alone not a holistic solution to integration

  —Sep 17th, 2009, 8.44pm

• Foreign workers act as buffer during economic slump

  —Sep 17th, 2009, 1.23am

• Singapore Citizenship: A National Credit Card?

  —Sep 16th, 2009, 1.07pm

Disclaimer: Comments left on articles in The Enquirer are contributions from readers and do not reflect the views of the editorial team. The Enquirer is not responsible for the comments and reserves the right to remove any comments deemed inflammatory or in bad taste.