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When Khaw Boon Wan blogs, it's official

MarrickG

Alfrescian
Loyal
20100122.110530_khawoff.jpg


SOMEWHERE in Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's home lies a precious keepsake - a bundle of 1,000 letters, each one written over three decades ago.

The letters were all written by Mr Khaw in the 1970s, when he was studying engineering and commerce at the University of Newcastle in Australia. Each night for almost four years, he would sit down and write a letter to the woman who would become his wife.

'We were separated, I studied in Australia, she studied in Singapore, so I wrote to her every night,' he says, smiling.

'It's like a reflection of the day. It's very much like diary-writing and I expressed it very personally to my girlfriend.'

Little did he realise that all that scribbling and stocktaking would put him in good stead for his current project: to get the Ministry of Health message out online.

He started a blog entitled 'Health Minister Says' last September and has been updating it regularly ever since.

And he says he has been able to keep it up because his writing habit inculcated by the voluminous letter-writing of those days has left him with just the skills he needs for blogging.

In fact, he says it takes no more than 15 minutes to knock out a blog post.

'Formulating the thoughts will take a little bit longer but it's part and parcel of my life,' he adds.

The writing typically takes place at lunchtime, just after his daily gym session. His time on the treadmill is often spent thinking about what he wants to put down.

What started as a blog though has now expanded to encompass nearly all the main tools known as Web 2.0. There are the Health Ministry Facebook page, a YouTube channel for its videos, a Flickr photo stream for its pictures and even a Twitter feed for SMS-length updates.

This immersion in new media, the blog in particular, has led to a flurry of headline-making news. In the four months since the first blog post went up at mohsingapore.blogspot.com, various newspapers have been running stories on his statements, comments and thoughts.

Politicians using new media are no longer rare - more than 20 MPs here, including Foreign Minister George Yeo, have active Facebook accounts. But Mr Khaw is the first here to put it to official use.

Many announcements that might have been made through press conferences or press statements from the ministry are now entering the public domain via the blog.

For instance, his first online post was written to explain why pneumococcal vaccination was included in the National Child Immunisation Programme.

Only recently, he concluded a five-week public consultation on the upcoming Health budget. Some 200 responses were gathered through Facebook and the website of Reach, the feedback unit of the Government.

In four months, the blog has drawn more than 20,000 visitors. The Facebook page, in turn, picked up 1,900 fans. A Facebook user becomes a fan by clicking on a button on the page.

Yet when talking about his hit count, Mr Khaw is careful to note that statistics form but a small part of what he is trying to do.

'It's not a numbers game,' he says. 'I'm more interested in having meaningful interaction. There's no point having half a million followers and have it very frivolous, like I'm eating char kway teow tonight or I'm watching Avatar tomorrow.

'I think Jackie Chan's followers would be interested, I don't think Khaw Boon Wan's followers would be interested in whether I've watched Avatar or not,' he says, laughing.
 

po2wq

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
... 'I'm more interested in having meaningful interaction. There's no point having half a million followers and have it very frivolous, like I'm eating char kway teow tonight or I'm watching Avatar tomorrow.

'I think Jackie Chan's followers would be interested, I don't think Khaw Boon Wan's followers would be interested in whether I've watched Avatar or not,' he says, laughing.
ya, man! ...

ur followers n u r world class, world bestest, world lumpar 1 ... others r not ... :rolleyes:


chipo! ... hv 2 insult jackie chan or his followers so dat u can look gd ... :mad:
 

cooleo

Alfrescian
Loyal
>>Each night for almost four years, he would sit down and write a letter to the woman who would become his wife.<<

Sure or not?! 4 years = 4 x 365 = 1460 letters
 

jw5

Moderator
Moderator
Loyal
He said that it's frivilous to say that he just had char kway teow.
In another report, GY said that he received many queries after saying that he just had good char kway tiao.
??? Hahahahaha.
 

po2wq

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
lidat ...

ah wan really got goot masterstrokes ... even noe how 2 指桑駡槐 ... :eek:

but ah jackie n his followers were made ze scapegoats ... :(
 
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