I should have blogged about last week, but I was out of town.

Finally, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has launched an herstoric political podcast. For those who are still in the dark about what a podcast is, read what does the Wikipedia have for you please.

Hmm… I am not sure if it can be categorised as a podcast. There’s no RSS feed for us to subscribe to. Lacking this very crucial automated delivery system, it’s just simply an mp3 file sitting in their website waiting for people to come and download.

But it doesn’t matter for SDP Sec-Gen Dr. Chee Soon Juan, who spoke passionately in his American accent. I wouldn’t term it funny but it’s just very alient for us. If it’s in The Apprentice or Survivor, it wouldn’t be as hillarious. After all, he’s a product of Republican’s National Endowment for Democracy isn’t he ?

Hmm, I still missed my sweet Jojo Struys, her voice, her accent and her landmark show, Pillow Talk, used to be on ntv7 every Monday night at a quite flexible time (meaning it’s 12:10 am on TV listings but might appear as early as 11:45 pm the previous night…)

Anyway, back to Radio SDP. In his inaugural address, Dr. Chee comments on the current issues, stipulates SDP’s aims and platforms, the need to have a genuine democracy, the importance of freedoms of information and expression and the consequences of lacking it, as well as why the people shouldn’t be apathetic anymore, among others.

Radio SDP has received mixed but encouraging response from the blogging world. There are those who criticized it for still knowing nothing except attacking PAP, for example, Justina :

I really wish for once, that SDP will just concentrate in running a good campaign, and having interesting solutions, and stop attacking PAP. You don’t have to attack PAP to run a good campaign. Neither will attacking PAP make your agenda good. It’s useless statements like that that really puts me off.

There are also the others, for example Merv, who feared that SDP’s proclamation that podcasting is the only way for oppositions to voice out in a country where press are controlled, TV are censored, cables are dictated and satellite dishes completely banned, will only result in PAP enacting new legislation or amending existing ones to “regulate” political podcasts by outlawing them.

Will the government move to stop it? I hope not. Think about it, podcasting is blogging, with sound.

Yes, I totally agree with you Merv, that podcasting is just blogging with sound. However, it’s not as if the PAP have never move moved on a blogger previously. Look at what happened to chemical physics PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Chen Jiahao.

For more negative commentaries on Radio SDP, visit e pur si muove or Wannabe Lawyer. Don’t you think it’s exactly these dudes who don’t give a chance to opposition that are helping PAP to stay in throne ?

For neutral commentaries, go to Omeka Na Huria, Singaporeist or Mr. Brown…

The democracy is earned and not given. Power concedes nothing without a demand. Despite its shortcomings and weaknesses, I still applaud SDP’s effort in trying to reach out. It’s time for Parti Keadilan to set up our own podcast too, one with RSS feed :-)

For the time being, Shin’s sonique will be dominated by Jessica Simpson and Natalie Imbruglia.