We are in the cusp of change when it comes to the manner in which politics is conducted
We are in the cusp of change in the manner in which
politics is conducted. Tweets from a twelve year old girl had galvanized the
population of Seoul to converge at the Town Hall to protest against beef
imports from US. A few years later, similar mobilization over the Internet had
started toppling governments, starting with the Government of Egypt. Nearer
home, civil society has effectively used the Internet to create one of the
largest people’s movement since independence where people notwithstanding their
geographical location joined the fight against corruption through the Internet.
We have also seen how Internet is being used to run political campaigns and to
also reduce the cost of campaigning. The presidential campaign run by Barack
Obama in US was highly dependent on the Internet. Digital media gives any
politician the "baseline" pulse thus knowing when people favor or
disfavor the candidate and his/her policies. Thus, the internet allows trends
of people’s expectations to be mined that would help politicians and
policymakers to target people’s need more effectively.
Most
importantly, we are witnessing the metamorphosis of democracy itself. Democracy
is slowly morphing from being an Indirect Democracy to a Direct Democracy with
people’s views being factored in for most policies that are being adopted by
the government and for each legislation that is passed by the parliament. No
longer do the elected representatives have the sole prerogative to unilaterally
decide on what is the appropriate legislation and appropriate policies for the
entire nation without any further consultation with the citizens. Thus politics
is moving towards a more collaborative leadership model. Waves
of ICT applications in politics have empowered groups of political neophytes
(‘netizens’, ‘cyber-libertarians’), extending the power of people who are from
the disadvantaged layers of society to shape and transform conventional politics
into a stage of ‘virtual democracy’. This
transformation is being expedited with the advents of Internet access over
mobile phone which gives citizens new opportunities to mobilize and be heard.
Increasingly netsavy citizens share political content in
real time. This can lead to phenomena such as the ability of the new-found tools for mass political mobilization. Internet
was used as a tool in the Egyptian anti-government protests which further
provoked a series of uprisings. In the case of Myanmar, where there
are limited avenues to express dissent, the recent protests and their global
impact were only possible through extensive use of mobile phones and the
internet.
However, the disconcerting aspect
of ePolitics is that in a
society with an urban-rural digital divide, how do we ensure that we also do
not have a divide over which sections of the population can express their
opinion? What level of political dissent will be tolerated? In a world of
government censorship crackdown, will citizens and smaller political parties succeed
in finding alternative routes to safeguard their cherished freedom of
expression? Such questions and the value of the internet to Politics will shape
how politics will evolve with the power of Internet.
