This Singaporean General Election is a test case for electoral campaign’s in the virtual world, as Singapore is one of the most wired to the global information grid. Over the last month, the internet has been the playing ground for potential candidates for the May 7th General Elections. The Social Media platforms like Twitter and Facebook has been the pseudo rally sites for political parties for canvassing 2.2 million voters for 87 seats. Individual candidates have put up their campaign websites and a dedicated social media strategy has been implemented for a nation with more web enabled phones and devices than actual residents.  One of the opposition candidates Dr. James Gomez of the Singapore Democratic Party commented –  “The fact that people are reaching out directly to us online – now, this is the reality of electoral politics. This time round, Mr Khaw and his team are living in the relic – they’re relics of the past.” (http://blogs.todayonline.com/singaporevotes/2011/04/29/health-minister-a-relic-sdps-james-gomez/)

There are dedicated Facebook fan pages and twitter accounts of political parities and candidates disseminating data on the 24/7 cycle. The National Solidarity Candidate Nicole Seah at the Marine Parade GRC has got 22,000 plus likes on her Facebook Page. Foreign Minister and Al Juneid GRC PAP Candidate has a very effective online campaign going.  Along with traditional campaigning tactics like house and food court visits and rally speeches, Web 2.0 is a force multiplier is terms of canvassing in this polls. This General Election demonstrates the power of the internet in force for digitalized democracy after the 2008 presidential campaign of Barrack Obama.  You Tube videos are making a splash for good and bad reasons as informed followers of this election are aware.

In India, in the recently conducted state polls in West Bengal, Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia helped design the digital campaign on behalf on the Trinamool Congress along with two IIM Calcutta MBA Interns.  The traditional media is also following the New Media trail. Straits Times and The Today Newspapers have dedicated platforms for the General Elections, which trigger sales of their hard copy editions the next day. Purely web based news outlets such as the Temasek Review and the Online Citizen are the main sources of opposition related news. Opinionated blog writers make up the holistic news scape online.

The personal touch in an election campaign with face to face interaction, campaigning from loud speakers and posters strung from light poles and outside MRT’s and Bus Terminals are what make elections colorfully vibrant, this color is now taking on an online avatar now!

In the run up to the General Elections out here in ‘Tiny Red Dot’ Singapore, there has been a voracious dialogue over everything from Public Housing to Defence Budget cuts. The question also raised in this election also addresses a fundamental issue- what makes the idea of a Singapore and the conceptual fabric of a Singaporean as a nationality and an identity. Being a proverbial ‘Global Nomad’ with my upbringing in the Middle East and India, my mental geographies are quite diverse, and I am a self confessed Singapuraphile… Multi cultural societies will be the norm in the future, with White Europe and America aging and with burgeoning populations  in Africa, Middle East and South and South East Asia, a new social contract needs to be designed for social capital generation and stability… Society is about people, its about you and me!

Every Multi cultural society has a period of churning and volatility, India is the most ethnically diverse region in the world, yet India’s diversity is both its strength and weakness, and the country is a model to its own… Singapore has unique challenges which are dealt in unique Singaporean ways. The Idea of Singapore is special, its unique and has worked successfully to be a case study in Urban Asian Governance in Public Policy Schools the world over. Multiculturalism is about respecting each others cultures and work towards a common objective.

Malaysia has recently tried to enact a multi racial perspective through its 1Malaysia campaign, but with the Sarawak elections and the Ruling Alliance losing Chinese support, there have been cries for the Alliance to backtrack on its Satu Malaysia slogan to Satu Bumi or Malays for Malaysia only campaign. Democracies are not the best instruments to maintain social stability especially when there are fractured mandates. The riots of 1969 are still fresh in the psyche of the previous generation.  The rise of the far right in European elections is a sign of discontentment over multiracial integration. Dave Cameron has commented that Britain has had a failed multi racial  experiment.  Pragmatism and the larger societal framework has to be merged in policy design… Affirmative action is effective, but it also creates social fissures, meritocratic policies are always the best way forward…

A question of ideology is always a work in progress, a fluid mosaic which has to be crafted carefully, otherwise the good work can be dismantled in no time.

This is a concept, which has spurned on an industry…The Motivational Speaker one- Anthony Robbins, Robin Sharma, Steven Covey and its tribe drive the notion into our sub consciousness that talks about ‘peak performance’ and realizing our potential… All this talk makes it evident that we judge success as a material value and not one of fulfilling our dreams.  Material success is important but this paradigm does not account for outliers in the system and the black swan which beats the architecture of conventionalist thought…  The Human element is the most vital one…aligning our potential with the current market need or foreseeable demand supply curves will lead to blockbuster product- well, thats YOU

I believe that ” Success is about ‘cracking’ the system, excellence is about breaking and remaking it ” and to create value Blue Ocean Strategy style… All this academic stress and the race to nomenclaturize us into  work place genera and family kills creativity, passion and true blue innovation. It has been seen and observed in the annals of history that it is the Innovator that has been called crazy everytime he has tried to create real value….HISTORY has INTERTIA and loves the STATUS QUO… We should all carve our own niche, contribute to society and live HAPPY lives…this may sound naive…but an iota of altruism and hope brings change albeit foolish and unrealistic on the surface, drives revolutions such as the one in the arab world and the civic movement helmed by Anna Hazare against graft….. Let it create a mental revolution for creating tangible value and a better society, one mind at a time…which is the motto of the ideation venture…. Lets create an ‘I’ Revelucion!

This is the second article in the series on Social Innovation which I had recently commenced recently with a post on the next level of CSR.  The concept will be elaborated and expatiated in this article and forthcoming posts. Recently we have come across natural disasters of unprecedented magnitude occurring in Japan  firstly the earthquakes and the the corresponding Fukoshima nuclear mess. A proud race has been brought to its knees, forced to take in assistance from overseas where as until very recently Japan was a major international aid donor to the third world. There was a major earthquake in Burma and a series of natural disasters globally have exposed the fissures in the global governance architecture , and the inability of major powers and UN affiliated organizations (which are under funded and under staffed) to deal with the aftermath of these catastrophe’s .

Haiti is still, unbuilt and has faded into the back burners of media coverage as it lives on feeding the 24 hour beast with ‘breaking news’ and the battle for TRP’s. This calls to the big question of how in the very near future we will deal with such major incidents when western powers themselves are in the midst of post recession restructuring and President Obama is sweating out to get his Budget passed by Congress.  The ‘money bags’ of the persian gulf are too busy quelling internal rebellions and ‘Middle Kingdom’ is busy building the ‘The Great Firewall’  and gobbling up resources in Sub Saharan Africa. China has to act like a Global Power if it believes it is. Well India is currently too busy basking in the glory of post World Cup Cricket victory and in enacting an anti-corruption legislation to worry about global issues although currently it is a member of the UN Security Council.

The response to disasters has to be local and at the maximum at a regional scale. Regional bodies like the ASEAN and the African Union have more to do with rebuilding communities than the UNFP and the UNHCR. A new International Body for Disaster Response and Prevention can be of massive use, if it has the financial teeth. International Civil Society Organizations are the backbone of global efforts for relief  such as the Medicines Sans Frontieres, Christian Aid and the Red Cross along with local groups who are the eyes on the ground. Religious charities have played a major role in post disaster responses such as in post war Lebanon and Kashmir as in post Katrina New Orleans. Technology assists in Disaster Management in a big manner as as Ushahidi- a not for profit tech company which used its  real time mapping capabilities in South Sudan during its referendum (http://www.ushahidi.com/) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative along with George Clooney played a huge role in averting another genocide in Juba between the Dinka and the Nuer tribes as well as by the North Sudanese Army + Janjaweed. Crimes against humanity are a man made catastrophe and hence falls in to the scope of disaster relief.

Local level resilience is the key to disaster response..this takes time as knowledge is stored in institutions and mechanisms for response are built. This needs to account the local social dynamics and the history and culture of the area. Technology plays a catalytic role but the society is the substrate for building perpetual resilience in response to load factors. Private Sector has a major role to play in disaster relief as a part of new paradigm of creating shared value and extended CSR. The first agency to respond after the Aceh Earthquake and Tsunami was the logistics firm TNT. Private Sector has their supply chains in place which can be leveraged for disaster response as Coca Cola has access to the smallest hamlets in sub saharan africa which the government even does not possess!

I have been following the run up to Singaporean General Elections very keenly online and on the print media (read Straits Times) as this is the first time I am following democratic elections being in the place in a very long time as I spent a very long time in Oman which is a Monarchy in its purest form. Singapore is small by global standards, but its strategic geo-political coordinates and its unique demographic make up makes it a case study for meritocratic governance and how a place sans any resources made it from Third World to the First World. I grew up in Mumbai, India in the steaming cauldron of democracy in India…India has the most vibrant chaotic democracy which is very feudal in nature with the fuel driving being money and muscle power. It is almost impossible for a middle class chap who is interested to participate in the electoral process to contest elections and to win unless he is having money and muscle backing him. A Shashi Tharoor is an exception, a global personality in his own right- an asset to any administration with his acumen. More educated technocrats like him should enter politics to bring in a sense of competence in the system. Although a Jairam Ramesh or a Kapil Sibal are doing a great job, they are very few and far in between. Institutional mechanisms are not there tap the best of talent in the system to contest elections.

The People’s Action Party in Singapore- the ruling party since independence; selects its candidates for the elections with a very scientific recruitment process, head hunting for the best talent to fight the polls and eventually taking up public office. The Singaporean Cabinet is filled with ‘A’ Players with degrees from Ivy League and Oxbridge, who were at the top of their respective professions. A Singaporean MP earns 13000 SGD per month and a cabinet minister earns a salary equal to the top management in corporations as the pay is linked to the private sector. This attracts the best of talent. The PAP uses the same methodology Shell uses to hire its top management. The candidates this time contesting the elections includes a former army chief, top civil servants and professors.

Its technocratic culture is spreading to the opposition too, a harvard educated lawyer and civil servants are contesting on opposition tickets. Being a very urban society, social media is having a big role in the electoral dialogue in Singapore. Websites like the Online Citizen and Temasek Review are devoting a lot of pixel space to the elections. Straits Times Online has a separate micro-site for the elections. I do agree that the talent of the leadership plays a game changing role in the governance of a nation. Asian nations who suffer a ‘governance deficit’ have to learn something from ‘the tiny red dot’ on the map on how to build up institutional capital. As there has been democratic single party rule here, long term planning has been possible although the same cannot be said of West Bengal. As the former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani says – ‘ the difference between rich and poor countries is not money but mechanisms’… Singapore has not only the mechanisms but also the political will to drive pro active policies which is being demonstrated in the election run up here… Politics & Public Service is about making a difference

I was not really surprised by the vibrancy of the agitation led by 73 year old career activist and Gandhian Anna Hazare for the implementation of the ‘Lokpal Bill‘ which is an anti corruption legislation try to deter top officials from engaging in graft- which is is the second nature of public life in India, where election tickets are auctioned off to the highest bidder irrespective of the candidates credentials. With the spree of cases of graft in India exposed in the media from the CWG fiasco to the 2G scam; the youth in the country has been disgruntled with the ‘governance deficit‘ in the country.

The global scenario is quite receptive towards social and political upheaval from Tunisia to Yemen, not to forget Tahrir Square in Cairo to Globe round about in Sohar, Oman to Pearl Square in Manama. This churning has been catalyzed and facilitated by the trans formative power of Social Media, the Google Executive in Cairo to facebookers across the Middle East; Web 2.0 is playing a role which defies conventional political authority. The power of civil society to create content for their cause is a game changer. The role social media is playing to mobilize people at a spot, impacting collective consciousness of the public to drive change has been demonstrated in revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and recently in the Arab World. The revolts we are talking about here is something which I would term as ‘First Order Transformations’ ; its a fight to ensure basic. democratic civic liberties in oppressive and archaic regimes. Its important to bring in people’s voices in to the policy making platforms even if it means voting in Muslim Brotherhood in power or the Shia Nationalist parties as Walid in Bahrain. This scenario is not ideal for the western powers as these are anti American in ideological posturing like Hamas in Palestine.

The policy reform which Social Crusader Anna Hazare has been trying to bring in since the last four decades is not really new, and every time its been stalled under some pre text as no corrupt politician or civil servant, would like to have an anti graft legislation hovering around his neck. The major difference is this time around is that civil society and youth in particular are fed up of the system and they want to make a difference. They see a Gandhi like figure in Mr. Hazare to spearhead the movement for change, the Lokpal Bill is just a contextual weapon; a metaphor. The NGO movement Web-site Avaaz is getting thousands of hits every hour on its Anna Hazare struggle webpage. The English electronic media is supporting this initiative as well as cable TV eye balls are in their millions. The NRI community is contributing via the web, voicing its support. Similar copy cat demonstrations are growing across the country in support of Anna Hazare and the Government is responding to the protests by taking pro-active changes.

The question is whether this movement can garner traction to scale up in to a meaningful civil society drive to force crucial institutional reform beyond the single topic of anti graft legislation. I am happy to see the educated middle class finally wake up out of its slumber and join the agitation for change. We are viewing a Second Order Transformation to make democracy to what democracy should be- by the people and for the people. This vital so that we keep this system as a system of checks and balances and not a monarchy and oligarchy in the clothing of ‘one man, one vote’ paradigm. Thats a system we need, and I hope thats a system we work towards from now on…..

This article is the first in the line of the social innovation conversation that I had initiated in the morning today by a short post. Corporate Social Responsibility is the new business buzzword in corporate circles  regarding sustainability reporting  and with the advent of ISO 26000- a voluntary standard concerning compliance to social norms and sustainable development. Shell was one of the first companies to adopt a triple bottom line approach towards reporting after the Southern Nigeria delta fiasco in the 1990’s when a civic movement towards emancipation of the oil rich but development poor was quelled by the military regime of Gen. Abacha and Shell got a bad name as these were their development block leases. There were allegations regarding poor environmental pollution control practices and corresponding health impacts found in the Delta by Harvard Medical School Researchers.

Initiatives such as the Global Reporting Initiative are compelling MNC’s to go green via regular sustainability reporting which covers Social aspects as well as Environmental parameters. The current CSR paradigm is towards compliance and getting branding brownie points; its essentially green washing, where the Sustainability Managers are marketing men and orient every dollar spent on social projects into an ROI metric based on eye balls garnered! The trans formative social enterprise/community development movement in the Philippines is called Gawad Kalinga founded by Bro. Tony Meloto. GK in Filipino language means to “give care” or “to award care”.  GK partners corporates such as Shell and paint manufacturers/construction material providers on a co-branding model to catalyze social impact beyond tokenism and green washing. GK builds sustainable communities and provide sustainable livelihoods which the Filipino Governments in succession have not able to render in the grossly biased remittance based economy. Bro. Tony features in Shell advertisements and enables a win-win model for both.

In the Singaporean Context, corporates can tie up with Aidha or the World Toilet Organization to gain visibility as well as  implement wide scale social impact in communities in South East Asia. Work Integration Social Enterprises can tie up with MNC’s to enable inclusive job creation (The Singaporean Government has a ComCare Fund to seed fund SE’s).

Grameen Movement in Bangladesh has opened Social Businesses with Danone to sell nutrion food to the BoP market at an affordable rate and has transformed communities with Grameen Phone. Corporates should use CSR as an instrument to create social capital in the communities that they operate, moving beyond the odd campaign here and there.

This next level of CSR and Business- Community Engagement is vital to providing services that are non existent in many third world nations. Governance in Singapore is the envy of many countries globally as it is the biggest Social Enterprise itself!

 

Today I am getting back to one the  core ideological pillars of this ideation platform- Social Innovation and International Development. Yesterday I was a Facilitator and Speaker at Symposium Neue Thinken II- A Social Innovation Event of the AIESEC NUS Projects Team of which I was the research director and one of the co-founders of the project itself. It was an amazing event bringing together change agents and social entrepreneurs like Bernise of SYNC, Aseem of Give,sg and Cindy of Eco Travel Services on a single page.  It was a treat interacting with speakers, the organizing team and the enthusiastic participants spending a valuable Saturday prior to the NUS Exam Season with us.

Technology is the leveler to catalyze systemic services to the bottom billion. But its Sociology that shapes society and its nature of use. We have to use the Design Thinking approach to create products and services that are user centric for the people at the resource poor social strata. This article is the beginning of a conversation in this area of thought intersecting-leveraging technology, entrepreneurial spirit and global  issues like access to water and low cost health care to create systemic change one community at a time.