/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-SINGAPORE: City State Covets Elusive Cultural Trophy

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Ivan Gan

SINGAPORE, Jan 20 2004 (IPS) - Nearly four years after the government set out to establish Singapore as a global arts centre, this prosperous island state of more than four million people is struggling to attain exalted cultural status.

The government’s vision was articulated in a ‘Renaissance City Report’ released by the Ministry of Information and the Arts in February 2000.

Singapore "should aim to achieve a level of cultural vibrancy that would be comparable to the cities of Hong Kong, Glasgow and Melbourne in five years," the report said. "Our longer term objective would be to join New York and London in the top rung of cultural cities."

The government has invested heavily in this dream.

In October 2002, it opened with much pomp The Esplanade – a state-of-the-art performing arts centre built at a cost of SGD$600 million. The complex boasts a 2,000-seat theatre and a concert hall that can accommodate up to 1, 600 people.

Another performance venue – The Arts House – is scheduled to open in April 2004. Formerly Singapore’s parliament house, and was refurbished at a cost of SGD$15 million.

Besides developing such infrastructure, the government also is increasing funding for the arts.

In 2000, it launched a SGD$50 million scheme to raise money for the arts over five years. As a result, the National Arts Council (NAC), a statutory board under the arts ministry, currently offers 27 financial assistance schemes to subsidize the production and operational expenses of local arts organizations.

Late last year, the NAC announced that it would resume funding for performance art – an art form rooted in the visual arts – after a 10-year hiatus.

However, in what many critics see as a case of two steps forward and one step back, the NAC reduced funding for local arts groups by 10.5 percent last year.

This compounded the financial woes of performance groups in 2003, as they often performed in half-full theatres as tourists shunned the city and the economy tumbled because of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

In another move that annoyed the local arts community last year, the NAC withdrew funding for Focas, or Forum on Contemporary Art and Society, a local journal of art criticism.

"Arts criticism is an essential part of the development of the arts in Singapore," Focas said in a letter to a local newspaper this month. "What makes it even more significant is that there are few such platforms in Singapore and the region."

Amid controversy over its funding policy, the NAC nevertheless has enjoyed some success in drawing international arts events to Singapore.

It succeeded, with the Singapore Tourism Board, in adding Singapore to the itinerary of World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD), an annual traveling festival featuring performers from all over the world.

And between January 15 and 18, about 30 homegrown and international writers participated in Wordfeast 2004, Singapore’s inaugural international poetry festival.

"We want to see Wordfeast succeed, so that we can move from strength to strength in subsequent years," said Toh Hsien Min, a poet and founder of The Literary Centre, the group that organized Wordfeast 2004.

Despite the progress, local arts figures warn that prospects of winning recognition as a global arts hub could yet be hampered by Singapore’s reputation for draconian media and censorship rules.

Jason Lai, a partner in local production company, said that foreigners still have the perception that Singapore is over-regulated.

"We must be allowed to loosen up because you cannot create in an environment where there are set boundaries," he said.

The tendency to over-regulate was manifested when the authorities banned the performance of a play by Singaporean playwright P. Elangovan several years ago. The play depicts rape within an Indian-Muslim marriage.

"It makes a mockery of Singapore’s aim to be a renaissance city," Elangovan commented at the time.

Criticizing government media policy remains a tough order. When Australian journalist Michael Backman assailed the rules in a local newspaper article late last year, information minister Lee Boon Yang issued a strong statement asking journalists not to "use the local media as a platform to influence Singaporeans with their ideas of governance or policies of government, including policies on the media."

Even so, there might be light at the end of the tunnel.

Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong promised a more open society during a speech at the Harvard Club’s 35th anniversary dinner earlier this month. The club is the local alumni association of US-based Harvard University.

"The government has no monopoly of knowledge and ideas," said Lee, who also is the prime minister-designate.

"The younger generation would like more ‘space’ and a culture which encourages them to express themselves freely," he added. "We have to open up more choices for citizens."

Until those words are translated into action, Singapore’s vision of a global cultural hub remains a dream built on glitzy monuments such as The Esplanade.