Subpolitics and Democracy: The Role of New Media in the 2011 General Elections in Singapore

Abstract

Making use of the recent STS focus on the idea of subpolitics, the study seeks to understand the limited yet important implications of the rise of the political twitterati1for liberal democracy in Singapore. The phenomenon marks a significant development not in terms of facilitating mass upheavals or radical reforms as elsewhere in the world, but in terms of contributing towards the construction of counter narratives to the historically articulated and previously uncontested discourses of progress, efficiency, productivity and success that in part have legitimated the political establishment in Singapore. By critiquing the regime’s myriad narratives of accomplishments and constructing subversive counter narratives through ‘series tweets’ that were infused with wit, sarcasm, parody and satire, the political twitterati in Singapore has expanded the vistas of democratic participation while remaining loyal to the country’s non-Western liberal democratic framework.