Petitions rarely lead to policy change

Someone recently forwarded me a message and a link asking me to sign a petition calling for a ban on personal mobility devices, following a recent accident that caused the death of a 65-year-old woman.

Curious, I signed and forwarded it to my frequent contacts. A few of them did sign the petition but I was then pestered by Change.org with e-mails saying that I had inspired so and so to sign the petition. It continued to ask for my help to spread the petition.

When the petition reached the requested 50,000 signatures, the target was raised to 75,000 signatures and so on.

I now realise that such a petition is nothing but a "chain letter".

Are such online petitions really effective? Would the Government buckle under such pressure? Would endless petitions follow if the Government acceded to one petition? Who are these petitioners?

In Britain, if a petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

But even so, petitions in Britain rarely change policy.

Online petitions cannot really lead to social change although they may send a message about the will of the people. While petitions can raise awareness of an issue, they fail to go anywhere beyond building a long list of signatures.

The media may catch on and help spread awareness of the issue further. Also, it may allow someone backing the petition to raise funds, as in the case of the PMD petition, which had a line that said: "Can you chip in $4 to get this petition on the agenda?"

The problem with using petitions is that their set-up forces people to homogenise the message they want to send and one just needs to fill in a petition and click "done" with little effort.

If people want the Government to listen, they should go through proper channels like Reach and MPs' Meet-the-People Session.

Media straw polls offer a more accurate picture of sentiment because residents are interviewed in person (Many residents living near accident site want PMD use restricted or banned, Sept 28).

By all means, as consumers, you can petition a company to change its business practices, and you are likely to get its attention as bad publicity would dampen sales.

Unfortunately, with the Government, it is a different ball game.

Cheng Choon Fei

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 02, 2019, with the headline Petitions rarely lead to policy change. Subscribe