Young Singaporeans will know who Baey Yam Keng is.

He is one of the more active local politicians on social media. He has more than 7,000 followers on Instagram, 10,000 fans on Facebook, and nearly 5,000 fans on Twitter. Before "selfies" became an in thing with celebrities and politicians here, Baey was already turning on his charm on Instagram.

Maybe it is his former job as the local Managing Director at one of the largest public relations firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Or perhaps it was his work experiences at the Commmunications Ministry previously.

But Baey stands out because he knows how to communicate. He is perceived as a different "man in white". In fact, when he was unveiled as the new candidate in 2006, he wore his party whites differently, with a belt and shoes from Zara, the Spanish high-street label.

At the height of the online frustration with MDA's announcement on the licensing of online news sites, Baey was the only MP who attempted to engage angry netizens in the contentious topic.

Source: Baey Yam Keng Facebook

Last week in Parliament, Baey gave a most interesting speech about better government communications to the public, even providing examples on how the government could improve.

Here are five points from his speech that make so much sense. Civil servants and policy-makers, take heed.

1. Provide content that is easily understood.

Baey: "[T]he government can definitely do better in its policy making. In communications, we need content that is developed to be easily understood and consumed. There is so much messaging can do".

Source: Baey Yam Keng Facebook

Example: "The Pioneer Generation Package has been well-received by all, yet most do not fully understand the Package. I have organised a few briefing sessions, and have personally experienced how difficult it is to clearly explain the Package [...]

In the end, we decided to simplify everything, and just tell everyone that the Government will give the Pioneer Generation more help in terms of health insurance and subsidies, that their Medisave accounts will be automatically topped up every year."

2. Do not create policies with onerous requirements that will affect the vast majority.

Baey: "Many of our policies are water tight so that we prevent people from taking advantage of the system. And the fact is that these people who abuse the system are usually in the minority. However, by doing so, we are also passing on the onerous requirements to the vast majority."

Source: Baey Yam Keng Facebook

Example: "When the PAP Tampines North branch started a monthly free haircut service in January, people asked how we ensure that the beneficiaries are the needy. I deliberately do not want to check income slips, ask to see Public Assistance, CHAS cards or even ICs.

Yes, I cannot guarantee that they are all low-income, but the fact that it is held at the void deck of the largest rental block in my constituency, I am making it most convenient to the needy and therefore I am confident that I am reaching the target audience. If someone else makes the effort to be there to get a basic trim in the open with no washing, perming or colouring services, I am happy to offer it. I do not want to be so calculative because I know that the truly needy also want to have some dignity. Insisting on evidence to prove their status means that I doubt people’s integrity".

3. “Precision engineering” of policies is so well crafted to maximise benefits and minimise costs,  they lose some of the intended effectiveness.

Baey: "This is because all the different tiers and categories, terms and conditions, to deal with various permutations do not take into account the limited time and processing bandwidths most people have at their disposal. As a result, the targeted population sometimes does not behave or respond as expected."

Example: "Our ERP system... the ERP charges alone would probably span over several spreadsheets, in fact, 16 in total over four vehicle categories. I just checked it out on onemotoring.com.sg.

Compare this to the London Congestion Charge, a £10 daily charge for driving a vehicle within the Congestion Charge zone from 7am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. That’s it, simple and easy to remember.

From the behavioural perspective, the London Congestion Charge is more effective. Our ERP is so precisely calculated, and definitely more equitable, based on the amount of road space usage and the number of entries. However, the frequent and incremental charges are no longer effective in controlling road usage. Instead, disproportionate unhappiness builds up."

4. Recognise the power of social norms - attaching monetary values to activities is not the only option. 

Baey: "Over the years, as a society, we have become more inclined to attaching monetary values to activities [...] We automatically perform cost and benefit analyses for any course of action. This is not only ineffective (because we are missing out on other perspectives) but such an approach also contributes to moral deterioration."

Source: Iras

Example: "The UK tax department did an experiment involving two groups of taxpayers. One group received the usual notice while the second group’s include the information that 9 out of 10 taxpayers in UK file their taxes on time. As a result, the second group had a higher percentage of compliance. It is clear that “nudging” people towards decisions is far better than imposing fines."

5. Apply psychology features in the practice of policy formulation

Baey: "We have good policies with good intentions. With greater attention paid to psychology, how people and society think, perceive and behave, we can achieve far greater mileage that the government duly deserves."

Source: Wikipedia

Example: "[I]n the UK, the government has a specialist unit. The Behavioural Insights Team, also known as the ‘Nudge Unit’, applies “insights from academic research in behavioural economics and psychology to public policy and services”.

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Top photo from here.

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