February 22, 2010
Despite the massive media hype surrounding the government-run REACH portal as a feedback channel for Singaporeans on current affairs and policies, its readership and traffic have continued to drop.
According to the latest statistics from web traffic company Alexa.com, REACH’s traffic has declined by about 40 per cent in the last one month with a concomitant drop in its traffic ranking to over 4,000.
During the same period of time, the monthly traffic of Temasek Review has increased by 14 per cent and its ranking has approached 200, making it the most visited alternative news sites in Singapore.
At the present moment, the readership of Temasek Review is almost 20 times that of REACH.
The state media has been busy promoting REACH to Singaporeans including a two-week long feedback exercise on the Budget to be delivered by Finance Minister Tharman today.
In a recently concluded “feedback”, REACH claimed that the “majority” of Singaporeans agree with the recommendations put forth by the Economic Strategies Committee.
However, with such a low readership, one cannot help but wonder if the polls conducted by REACH are really reflective of public sentiments on the ground.
REACH has come under increasing criticisms from the online community that it is nothing more than a “black hole” where feedback, criticisms and proposals frequently end up with no response from the relevant authorities.
Some are of the view that REACH is just a “PR exercise” to show that the government “cares” when its real purpose is to serve as an outlet for Singaporeans to vent their frustrations.
On average, the Temasek Review receives between 1,200 – 1,500 comments from its readers daily, many of which are dramatically opposite of the “feedback” posted on REACH.
Singaporeans who are dead serious on providing honest feedback to the government should make their voices heard at the next general election instead of wasting time lending credibility to REACH.