national library under fire

The National Library Saga

he National Library Board (NLB) had withdrawn three children’s book titles – And Tango Makes Three, The White Swan Express and Who’s In My Family?: All About Our Families – as they did not promote pro-family values.

The National Library Board’s (NLB) decision to remove and pulp the three children’s books deemed to offend Singapore’s “pro-family” norms has reignited the age-old contest between Church and State, and more specifically in Singapore’s context, the role of private morality in public policy and how the state should adjudicate between competing conceptions of morality in society.

One response:

I read with disappointment the decision of several members of the literary community here to boycott any activity linked to the National Library Board (NLB) in protest against its decision to remove and dispose of three controversial children’s book titles (“S’pore writers not happy over NLB controversy”, online, July 11).

Are the writers simply disagreeing with the NLB’s disposal process for books taken out of circulation, or do they feel that unsupervised children should be exposed to controversial topics and left to develop their own conclusions on such matters?

Netizens have pushed back, after the National Library Board (NLB) pulled two children's titles off the shelves on Monday, following email complaints that they were not “pro-family”.

At least two petitions calling on the NLB to reinstate the titles have been making their rounds online. 

One of the titles is about two male penguins who become a couple and raise an egg together, while the other features a female couple trying to adopt a child.

The content of the books has raised the ire of some.

One Facebook user who lodged a complaint about them urged others in a post to not let similar children's books in the library "go under the radar".

But NLB's decision to remove the books has led some to question the kind of message being sent out.

Assoc Prof Paulin Straughan, sociologist at National University of Singapore, said: "I think we have to be very cautious how we address this issue because the important message we have to uphold always is regardless of your sexual orientation, you are an important member of our community. And you don't want to demonise or cast a deviant label on somebody who has an alternative sexual orientation.

“Of course from a parent's perspective, it's a very difficult stance to take. When we are socialising our children, we would want them to stay within the norms and values the family prescribes to… So that's where we have to be mindful, that primarily, that is the responsibility of the family."