SINGAPORE: Minister blogger

Foreign Minister George Yeo says he was persuaded by young party members to contribute to their blogs

Straits Times
Sunday, September 3, 2006

By Zakir Hussain

Foreign Minister George Yeo has taken to blogging. Last week, he wrote on a blog -- not once, but twice.

But Mr Yeo, 51, does not have a blog, or online diary, of his own just yet.

What he has done is write for the blog of a member of the Young PAP in his ward, undergraduate Ephraim Loy, 24. Mr Loy, who has been blogging since 2002, said: "I believe he's the first minister here to blog."

Mr Yeo's debut blog comes two weeks after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day Rally speech that the Government would make use of new media to get its message out and connect with a younger, more digital-savvy, generation.

Asked about his blogging experience, all Mr Yeo would say was that he was persuaded by young party members in his ward to contribute occasionally to their blogs. He would not have time to maintain his own blogsite otherwise, he added.

It all began with a dinner he had on Tuesday with nine young party members from his Bedok Reservoir-Punggol branch at Bliss Restaurant in Punggol Park.

They discussed ways to engage young Singaporeans and suggested that Mr Yeo start blogging.

After the dinner, Mr Yeo e-mailed his thoughts to Mr Loy, a first-year student at the Singapore Management University, who then published them on his blog the next morning.

In his post, Mr Yeo wrote about the dinner and an idea that was raised, for him to have informal chats with youth to engage them.

He wrote: "Ephraim asked if any issue could be raised. I replied, most definitely, but I don't promise to have answers to all questions."

Mr Yeo's initial post has attracted replies from readers who urged him to continue blogging and engage in debates about national issues online.

His People's Action Party branch secretary Tan Bee Lan, 38, said: "Mr Yeo's blogging was unexpected, and impromptu. Very rarely do you read comments about a minister's thoughts on a social get-together."

Barely three days after the first blog, Mr Yeo posted his second on the blog -- ephraim.blogspot.com. This time, it was about the visit of a friend, former economic minister of Qatar Sheikh Mohamad, to Singapore. Mr Yeo recounted the places they visited, including their ride on the MRT to visit watercolour artist Ong Kim Seng.

Mr Loy said: "We hope he can blog on a regular basis."

Date Posted: 9/3/2006