Our new Arts NMP, actress Janice Koh, made her maiden speech this morning at the Budget Debate 2012. Curious to find out what she said? Read on!

*** Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for allowing me to join in this debate and to support the budget. I would like to begin by quoting the late Senior Minister S. Rajaratnam, who was very prescient in assessing the challenges of developing a global city. He said: “Laying the economic infrastructure of a Global City may turn out to be the easiest of the many tasks involved in creating such a city…the political, social and cultural adjustments such a city would require to enable men to live happy and useful lives in them may demand a measure of courage, imagination and intelligence which may or may not be beyond the capacity of its citizens.” That was in 1972. Yet, there may be no more timely opportunity than this Budget debate to recognize the continuing relevance of his words. As a Nominated Member of Parliament with a special interest in the arts and culture, my question is this: Have we adequately made the cultural adjustments in tandem with our fast-changing economic situation? Are we capable of the courage, imagination and intelligence required for men and women to live happy and useful lives here? My answer to both questions is “Yes, but.” Yes, because Singapore’s greatest asset is its people, who continue to participate daily in a bewildering array of cultural practices from religious worship to community arts to cooking up a storm. In so doing, they make life meaningful – and Singapore a place of constant discovery and excitement for visitors and locals alike. But people are also increasingly anxious about the distribution of resources, and frustrated at limited opportunities to participate in public debates that need to happen if difficult issues are to be properly addressed. Yes, because Singapore boasts a growing population of artists who are passionately committed to their public, their craft, and the place they live, and who work day and night to honour and provoke, stimulate and delight. One of them stands before you now. But our artists also labour against a host of bureaucratic and financial constraints to realize the full scope of their talents, and to meet the very human desire for free expression. Yes, because Singapore is a vibrant, eye-catching cosmopolitan city with beautiful heritage buildings, state-of-the-art facilities for arts education and practice, and plans for further cultural development. But our cultural infrastructure has developed much faster – and sometimes at the expense of – the ability of Singaporeans of all tastes and ages to participate in the arts. The Arts and Culture Strategic Review Committee recently released its report recognizing this situation. It proposes ways of bringing the arts and culture to everyone and involving as many people as possible in arts participation, with a view to developing “an inclusive society and a stronger Singapore”, as the theme of this year’s Budget puts it. The arts alone are no panacea, any more than economic policies are. However, I would like to elaborate on three cultural strategies which I think are key to achieving this vision: 1.         Including Many Stories What do the arts teach us about inclusion? That it must be qualitative, and not just quantitative. The beauty of art is that it does not limit itself to addressing us as Singaporeans. It addresses us as human beings – one of whose characteristics is a powerful desire to belong, with the capacity to achieve more together than we can alone. How important this becomes in a place like multicultural Singapore, where we continue to welcome and live alongside new immigrants and foreigners, jostling along together on our densely populated island. An inclusive society is one where the arts and culture belong to everyone and Singaporeans should be encouraged to embrace those connections that identify them as a people, whether it is our food, architecture, traditional customs, religious practices or language. But as we increase and extend the scale of inclusion, we also need to look at deepening the nature of our participation. This means giving Singaporeans a greater say in what our cultural heritage is. This should include involvement in debates over the conservation and preservation of our natural and historic spaces, as well as a greater recognition of the languages we use to express our points of view. Our various dialects, as well as Singlish, are also part of our unique cultural identity, because culture is the way we live - it resides in our bodies, it is in the way we communicate. Our heritage is made up of many different stories. The works of visual artists like Han Sai Por and Donna Ong, the songs of local bands like Electrico and The Great Spy Experiment, the writings of Isa Kamari, Alfian Sa’at and Alvin Pang, the stories portrayed in the films of Royston Tan and Boo Junfeng: all these not only give voice to the diverse experiences of Singaporeans, they allow us to make connections with other people, places and ideas. If we want to build a people who are connected to Singapore and to each other, we must expect our artists to claim the space and the license to express those varied, multiple and complex layers of the Singapore experience. Only then can we pick up a book, listen to a song on the radio, or catch a performance at the theatre, and say: “Yes, I feel that way too. That’s about us.” But Singaporeans are not a homogenous bunch. Sometimes, we might say instead:  “I never knew you felt that way”, or “I hadn’t thought of it like that”, or even: “I’m confused!” or “I disagree.” But none of these responses stop you from feeling: “That’s about us.” On the contrary, it deepens our understanding of the often exhilarating and sometimes maddening complexity of all human beings, including ourselves, and it reminds us what an incredible opportunity our multicultural society offers for appreciating that complexity in all its variety. And may I add, Mr Speaker Sir, that for these reasons, the government should not shy away from supporting creative expression that may challenge its views. To be truly inclusive, the Singapore Story must be the sum of stories and experiences of all Singaporeans, and even non-Singaporeans who have been touched by Singapore. 2.         Arts for Life The second cultural strategy towards building an inclusive society and a stronger Singapore is developing Arts for Life. Oftentimes, we think of the arts as a product. After all, that’s how most people encounter them – a concert planned for, a book read on the MRT, an exhibition visited on impulse. So, when we talk about “Arts for all”, we typically see it in terms of putting a cultural product into the hands of consumers. But artworks are the result of a long and often painstaking process. The process of art making challenges us to question, to share perspectives and allow for different points of view. It encourages us to take risks and be accepting of failure. It serves as an excellent platform to raise difficult issues for discussion, and through the process of engagement, builds understanding and empathy. To say these processes take time is an understatement. In fact, one of the best ways of looking at the arts is as something we make or encounter throughout our lives. That’s why the benefits of arts participation for all, including children, young people, the elderly and vulnerable segments of our society, cannot always be calculated in terms of audience attendance or number of activities. I have a story from Ms Noorlinah Mohammed, who is an experienced arts educator currently pursuing her PhD in the UK. She told me about teaching drama to a group of Secondary Two students in Singapore. There were several cliques amongst the students in the class, and they were split along language lines - Hokkien, Mandarin, Malay. Six weeks into the weekly workshops, Noorlinah asked the students to create a 10-minute performance. It was challenging. One boy in particular could barely communicate in English. His life was tough. He was angry, and had problems at home. He hated school, and he thought drama was just silly. But he wrote an honest scene about a boy talking to his mum, expressing the hurt caused by her neglect. It lasted thirty seconds. For a boy who seldom expressed himself at all, a half-minute monologue is a major feat. Later, the boy decided he would perform his script in English. He attended school every week just to work on his scene. His teachers were impressed that drama was pulling him back to school. He worked hard at memorizing his script, and one day, he finally did. Despite the inadequacy he felt speaking English, he found the courage to stand in front of others, and tell a story that was deeply personal. The triumph he must have felt in defeating the English language, for 30 whole seconds! It was enough to give him a sense of achievement, beyond school grades and exams. The following year, he went on to do digital art, and his teacher says he is now doing quite well in that. I salute arts educators like Ms Noorlinah Mohammed, and the teachers who were instrumental in sustaining arts education in Ang Mo Kio Secondary School, where this boy studies. They recognize that the arts can make a ground-level difference, especially to students who have difficulty with the life skills many of us take for granted.  It doesn’t stop there. Theatre for Seniors is a new group given a head start by theatre company The Necessary Stage. In the last three years, this wonderful bunch of more than 40 active seniors have been trained in theatre-making, and they have brought their Mandarin, dialect and Malay skits to over 1,000 elderly audiences in community centres and eldercare homes across Singapore. Mrs Gladys Tan, who heads this group, tells me that she is surprised that at her age, she has managed to find this new lease of life. She has made new friends and it takes her back to her pre-university days. Seen in this light, the arts have the power to become catalysts of lifelong change. It has a role to play in building community, in shifting attitudes and instigating positive change. It empowers the individual, and makes them feel included and relevant in our society. I would like to urge government agencies like MCYS, MOE and HDB to support and work closely with our Singapore artists and arts groups to make positive changes in our communities through the arts. 3.         Promoting Local Work The third cultural strategy towards building an inclusive society and a stronger Singapore is the promotion of our local art. Ever since the release of the Renaissance City Report in 2000, Singapore has been positioning itself as a global arts hub. Culture had to be harnessed to make Singapore the choice destination to visit, work and live. We have done well in this area. The Esplanade, the Singapore Arts Festival and the Writer’s Festival, our museums consistently showcase the work of major talents from around the world. But being a world-class cultural capital is not just about hosting other people’s art or realizing their visions. We are not a satellite of London or New York. Sure, we should enjoy great art from elsewhere – we just can’t adopt it as our own. For my money, a hundred eye-popping Broadway plays cannot compare to a single poignant local production in terms of what it means to belong in and to Singapore today. In fact, it is because there are powerful local works in Singapore, and a discerning audience for them, that attract international artists to present their work here. In his Budget Speech, DPM Tharman spoke about the need to preserve the “Singaporean character of our society”. Our arts and culture play an integral role in helping us address this question of who we are and what we stand for. How then can we better promote our art and culture? Not just to the world, but, more importantly, to Singaporeans. How do we break away from the age-old mentality that our artists need to be proven internationally, before they are recognized back home? How many Singaporeans, in fact how many of us here in this House, are able to name more than a handful of local writers, visual artists, musicians or choreographers? I recently spoke to several local musicians who lamented to me about the lack of opportunities for home-grown bands to be seen and heard.  One of them, Daniel Sassoon, was so incensed by how indie bands have been sidelined from the local scene that he approached his MP, Ms Indranee Rajah, about the pressing need to develop more platforms to showcase local music. As a result of that discussion, a free, outdoor gig featuring six local indie bands called Lepa(r)k! was born. The name Lepa(r)k is a pun on the Malay word lepak, which is a colloquial for “chill out” or “relax”. Organized in conjunction with Tanglin-Cairnhill CC, it was held last November in Tiong Bahru Park, and played to over 500 audiences. It was a small start, but it is an excellent example of a ground-up initiative to promote the arts and widen audience access to the works of local artists. To make our arts, culture and heritage a source of civic pride, we need to make them easily accessible to Singaporeans from all walks of life. And we need to take collective ownership of this process – it’s not just MICA’s job. Anyone of us can here do it – especially as an MP in your own constituency. Let’s not be lepak about this! We need to hear more local music on radio, we need to see more local films on the big screen, we need to see the works of our pioneering artists in our museums, and promote local literature in schools and libraries. We need to make ticket prices affordable to all. Not all the work may be good – but some will be world-class. That’s not the point.  If we take pride in our own cultural treasures, we will encourage the production of more high quality work, and the world will take notice. Since I’m on the topic of local music, I also want to applaud the commitment by Changi Airport to fill at least 25% of its playlist in its terminals with local music.  Not only does this help Singaporean music to reach out to the millions of passengers at Changi, it also provides a stream of royalty income that supports local musicians. Mr Speaker Sir, the Finance Minister identified opportunity, improving ourselves, and compassion as attributes that define the character of the society we are building.  He also says that an inclusive society will only blossom if we grow this spirit of responsibility and community. I agree with this, and I would like to add the arts, our culture and our heritage are among the key building blocks that will help shape and strengthen the Singaporean character of our society. When we include and embrace the many stories that make up Singapore, when we give Singaporeans a say in their cultural heritage, when we recognize that participating in the arts is also a lifelong process, when we develop a sense of civic pride in our cultural icons, we must inevitably strengthen our sense of community and our sense of place. This is not just any society in the world.  This is our society. For this Budget Debate, I would like to ask the Finance Minister if he would agree with me that our culture and the arts have a critical role to play in the strategy to build a more inclusive society and a stronger Singapore. And if so, I urge the government to wholeheartedly support the arts community in working towards this goal. Sir, with that, I support the Budget