The need for a SUPP News Portal

suppadmin | December 3, 2013

Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Publicity Chief Dato’ Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew wants something different for his party and through grit; as directed by the Party, he decided to go into the unknown – starting a news portal for the party.

Despite the Party’s poor performance in the last general election of which Ting himself was one of the casualties, he refused to let the losses get him down.

With his mild character and always looking on the positive side of things, Ting who was elected as Miri (Piasau) branch Chairman in 2011 and has come a long way.

Facing so much challenges in his political career, it was without surprise that Ting could now tread in the unknown.

Starting a news portal is one of the things Ting had in mind when he took over the Publicity Chief post.

During the last general election, Ting realized that the Party did not do enough to reach out to the people as what should have been done, not only in term of their services or what the Party is all about and the worst was not able to counter the lies and half truth put up by the Opposition.

“The most important thing is for our own members to know what is happening within the party, the tasks Party’s members were set up to do.”

In the current development of online exposure, news portal is the way forward to publicise the Party . The Party does have a website, but the news portal will be more than that – it will be current, vibrant, and more interactive with the participation of all of us.

We should follow current developments in the media world today – all mainstream news papers have moved online, and their readership is expanding. The Party should also move forward.

In the last election, we have not done enough publicity in both printed and alternative media .We should reach out to the members as well as to the people to tell them what our party stands for, that we are there for them. In order to do this, we need the support of the Youth and Woman wings in particular, to play an important role in all these.

We have the resources to do it – the party’s IT unit will set the necessary infrastructure and we will get the relevant assistance in running and managing the editorial side of the project.

But we will need the assistance of all – party branches, members, potential writers. A news portal, like its newspaper equivalent, will only be good if it has the input (news). That’s where your help is needed.”

Ting would like all party branches to forward to HQ all its activities – let it be meetings, walkabout, meeting the public, organised functions, assistance given to public and members – and these will be included into the news portal.

He also called upon budding and passionate writers to contribute articles and captioned pictorials to the portals.

The battle of the hearts and minds of voters and supporters today, and in the future, are highly dependent online.

Online exposure is very much needed, particularly for the young and vibrant members who would be future leaders of the party. A vibrant news portal will also attract young readership who are potential voters and this will weed them away from the negative publicity which they have so far been exposed through reading of opposition websites.

The Publicity & Information Secretary believes the party needs a boost to revamp its past poor performance – and online exposure is relevant, current and interactive.