putting the forbidden fruit theory to the test

sept 2014

On Friday afternoon several busloads of Singaporeans are expected to make the short journey across the Straits of Johor to Malaysia to watch a documentary they are unable to see in their own country.

The film, To Singapore, with Love, deals, indirectly, with one of the most controversial elements of the island nation’s history - the detention without trial of hundreds of people accused of being Communists and being part of a conspiracy. Lots of people fled to places such as Britain and Thailand to avoid arrest. Some returned, many did not.

The Singaporean filmmaker, Tan Pin Pin, profiles nine people of different political views, aged between 60 to 80, who escaped in the 1960s and 1970s. She talks about their lives, their memories, their hopes for the future. She hears about their food, their families, their habit of keeping up with the news back home by reading Singaporean newspapers online, even though they left up to 50 years ago.

“This film is shot entirely outside the country, in the belief that we can learn something about ourselves by adopting an external view,” wrote the 45-year-old Ms Tan.

Though the film deals with events that happened decades ago, even today they remain hugely controversial. Last week, the government’s Media Development Authority (MDA) refused to grant the film a licence on the grounds that it undermined national security. That means it cannot be shown in Singapore.

“The individuals in the film have given distorted and untruthful accounts of how they came to leave Singapore and remain outside Singapore,” said the MDA.

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he National Library Board (NLB) had withdrawn three children’s book titles – And Tango Makes Three, The White Swan Express and Who’s In My Family?: All About Our Families – as they did not promote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

I grew up on archie comics....

SINGAPORE: The Media Development Authority (MDA) confirms that a comic "Archie: The Married Life" Book Three was pulled from bookstore shelves because its content breached guidelines by depicting same-sex marriage of two characters.

Comic artist Sonny Liew had flagged the withdrawal in a blog post dated July 11, saying he could not find it in a Kinokuniya catalog. The bookstore had told him it was removed from sale by notice of MDA.

In response to queries from Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday (July 16), a spokesperson said MDA had assessed the comic in March, upon receiving a complaint. Thereafter, the authority informed the local distributor of the comic, not to import or distribute it in retail outlets.

MDA says the Publications Consultative Panel, "which comprises a cross-section of Singapore society" was consulted before its decision, and its members advised them that the theme of the comic was "not in line with social norms" and in breach of existing content guidelines.

book bans and the consequences

HUMOUR CANCELLED: A panel discussion at the National Library has been cancelled after a group of writers decided to boycott it over the NLB’s decision to remove two children's titles. http://cna.asia/1jDUEaV