Arts groups critical of Govt still receiving State funding
Many arts groups that have put up productions which criticised the Government continue to be funded by the State, and they have had their funding increased over the years, Ms Grace Fu said in Parliament yesterday.
The Minister for Culture, Community and Youth said the authorities have gone “quite far already” in allowing dissenting voices in the arts sector, and added that there would always be differences as artists push boundaries and the regulator maintains space for the “middle”, that is, the majority.
The House debated on her ministry’s spending yesterday, and Ms Fu voiced her disagreement after Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leon Perera asked if her ministry would consider removing the restriction on National Arts Council funding to artists, which holds that the recipients should not be critical of national leaders and institutions. He said this restriction “is holding back all that Singapore art could be”.
Ms Fu — without naming The Necessary Stage — then mentioned that the theatre group behind the play Gemuk Girls, which was “critical of the political system”, receives government funding.
She added: “If we agree that there should be rules and regulations to protect and maintain social harmony, then I think we can talk about how this is calibrated and whether the calibration is the right one. There will always be differences at the boundary because I think it is in the nature of art to want to break away.”
A fresh public debate on censorship and arts funding has been ongoing in recent months, and Ms Fu’s comments mark the first time a Cabinet minister has weighed in.
In January, during the debate on the President’s Address, Mr Perera had touched on the same subject, and Mr Baey Yam Keng, Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth, had said then that among NAC’s funding principles is a requirement and understanding with the arts groups and the applicants that they “should not put any public institutions in a bad light or put them in a derogatory position”. NEO CHAI CHIN
