Singapore Parliament launches its own Instagram page

The Parliament of Singapore has launched its own Instagram page on Monday (23 April) and has already garnered over 400 followers as of Tuesday noon.

It has so far uploaded photographs of the Parliament House and the Parliament’s signature prism-shaped top.

The Parliament’s Instagram page also shared a photograph of Parley, the Parliament’s new mascot.

In a post on the Parliament’s Facebook page written in Parley’s voice, the mascot said: “I’ll be sharing snapshots and nuggets of information on our Parliament’s history and what goes on behind these walls. So do keep a lookout for my posts!”.

Parley stands for Proactive, Adventurous, Resourceful, Learned, Eloquent and Youthful, according to the profile of Parley shared in the post.

Parley is said to be “obsessed with photography” and enjoys “indexing and reading the Hansard reports”, referring to the hardcopy transcripts of Parliamentary sittings.

The profile also listed Parley’s favourite songs – Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You and Camila Cabello’s Never Be The Same – and his favourite books, such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin also introduced Parley on Facebook in a tongue-in-cheek and emoji-laden post, saying on Facebook that Parley thinks Tan “was too old-school” with his Facebook page and blog and that “Instagram was the way to go to engage the young”.

This is not the first time that the government has attempted to engage young people through mascots.

Last year, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) introduced its mascot Kopi Lim, who pledged to “work hard with the rest of the CPIB officers to battle corruption swiftly and surely, without fear or favour!”.

There is also Water Wally, the official Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB) mascot who shares messages on water conservation and usage to the public.

And of course, not forgetting Singa the Courtesy Lion.

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