In the earlier article, Sirenes who will turn you gay,
I contrasted the behaviour of the Media Development Authority (MDA), a
unit of the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Art (MICA),
with the Prime Minister's exhortations to improve the quality of the civil
service.
I didn't just bitch on Yawning Bread, I
also wrote a letter to PM Lee Hsien Loong. There was no reply, not even an
acknowledgement, within the stipulated 2 weeks (the civil service's own
quality standard) from the Prime Minister's Office, so I basically wrote
them off in my mind, confirming my suspicion that it's all for show.
Nothing is meant to change.
Six and a half weeks later, they
demonstrated their resolve to live up to their "quality
standard" of replying to all feedback from citizens. MICA sent me an
email in response to my letter. The PM's Office had obviously routed the
letter to MICA to deal with.
And what a letter! It's a breathtaking
reply. Stonewalling I can understand, even if I disagree with that
approach, but displaying one's stupidity for the world to see, takes a
stroke of genius which I didn't anticipate.
I accused MICA and the MDA of being
mindless and inconsistent when they banned a non-erotic fundraising
concert and publicity campaign in a magazine, while at the same time
giving approval to a movie with same-sex kissing and homosex scenes. I
said they were relying on the crutches of stock phrases and their
rulebook, and refusing to consider the larger picture.
Guess what? The reply that came back was
replete with stock phrases, reliance on the rule book (Censorship
Committee's guidelines).... and then to top it all, they went on to boast
that permitting the film proved what a wonderful job they were doing.
Didn't they even comprehend my words? I
said permitting the film while rejecting everything else was proof that
they were idiots.
The reply was signed by MICA's Quality
Service Manager. Good grief, is this quality service?
In our civil service, there is a lot of
substitution of form for content. Very often, as many letter-writers to
the Straits Times Forum have pointed out, just replying is not proof of
quality or responsiveness. It's the intelligibility and the helpfulness of
the reply that counts. Do they even know what those two words mean?
* * * * *
My letter to the Prime Minister, with
a cc to the Head of the Civil Service:
10 April 2005
Dear Mr Lee,
On 24 March 2005, you said to the
administrative service that "It is not good enough just to treat
rules as commandments and perpetuate time-tested precedent. Your job is
to see opportunities and solve problems, not to choose the easy solution
by just saying no and transferring the problem back to the member of the
public."
You also said, civil servants should
"work with other ministries and partners outside of
government."
I regret that this email will
demonstrate that nothing of the sort is happening at the Media
Development Authority and MICA.
As you may be aware, Dr Balaji
Sadasivan is trying to get people to take the threat of HIV and AIDS
seriously. He has pointed out that gay men are at disproportionate risk,
and to deal with the problem, there is a need for "gay
champions", either working on their own or in co-operation with the
government.
THE AFFECT05 CONCERT
Some members of Safehaven, a
gay-affirmative Christian support group, organised a fundraising concert
to benefit Action for Aids, originally scheduled for 3 April. The main
attraction would be a well-known singing duo, Jason and deMarco, who
were prepared to perform free for a good cause. They are an openly gay
couple, but a monogamous one.
One would have thought a monogamous
couple would be a good role model for the gay community in this age of
AIDS. The MDA clearly didn't think so. On the basis that they are openly
gay and that they sing at many gay- and AIDS-benefit concerts, the MDA
said they would "promote alternative lifestyles", which would
somehow be "against the public interest".
The MDA's narrow reading of their jobs
and reflexive use of stock phrases without critical reflection, has done
Singapore a disservice.
They have failed to support the Health
Ministry in a life-and-death issue, they took the easy solution by just
saying no, and threw the problem of fund-raising and community
leadership against AIDS back at the public.
Quite naturally, Jason and deMarco have
issued a press statement, saying "We are very concerned about the
intolerance against gay people that is expressed and enforced by the
government of Singapore, and we are asking people to speak
out."
This has been carried by news wires and
various media. This will undercut the goodwill Mr Goh Chok Tong earned
for Singapore when he said in 2003 that the civil service would no
longer discriminate, and perhaps even your calls for a cosmopolitan
city.
In your 24 March speech, you asked the
civil service to be "sensitive to the politics of the issues [they]
handle." This has not been a shining example.
THE I-S MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS
On 8 April, the MDA again rejected
another initiative by members of Safehaven. The group had arranged for a
series of advertisements affirming the importance of sexual
responsibility in gay relationships. The advertisements would feature
real people, gay and straight, standing up for that message, with
photographs that were far from risque.
I-S magazine too thought the series of
advertisements served a public good, and were very keen to run them, but
have now been deterred by the MDA.
Needless to say, this decision by the
MDA once more treated rules as commandments, threw the problem back at
the public, and did nothing to support the Health Ministry's
objective.
SUMMER STORM
What is truly ironic is that another
AIDS-benefit event is going ahead. It's a film called "Summer
Storm", and is being jointly organised by Fridae.com and
Cathay-Keris. The film has been rated R21 and will be shown uncut. From
what I've read of the reviews on the internet, it will have scenes of
nudity, same-sex kissing and more!
On the other hand, the concert and the
advertisements that were banned had nothing in the titillation
department. Summer Storm is permitted because our film-rating system
allowed for it. It was easy for bureaucrats to give approval. Affect05
and the I-S magazine advertisements were not permitted because it meant
having to think.
THE GAY COMMUNITY MUST HAVE LATTITUDE
TO DO THEIR PART
Educating people and reducing risky
behaviour cannot be achieved without a means of communication. And the
message must be one that gay men can identify with, otherwise it will be
rejected as irrelevant to their lives.
If your government's policies are to
treat any gay-affirmative message as automatically banned, on the
simplistic notion that since some people are prejudiced against gays,
therefore anything gay must be "against the public interest",
then Singapore will be fighting AIDS with our hands tied.
I hope you can intervene to instill
some sense in the MDA's and MICA's decisions.
Thank you.
* * * * *
Email reply from a party called
"MICA Connects", which I had never heard of. It's really too
trite a name, isn't it?
27 May 2005
Dear Mr Au
I refer to your email "Your speech
of 24 March 2005 and the MDA" addressed to the Prime Minister on 10
April 2005. We apologise for the late reply.
In relaxing our censorship policies,
the Government needs to take into account the concerns and values of the
majority of Singaporeans. Our people are still largely conservative.
Hence, the Government needs to balance between providing greater space
for free expression and the values upheld by the majority. However, we
are also mindful that as our society matures, our censorship guidelines
must also evolve in tandem.
That is why we have the Censorship
Review Committee (CRC) to review the censorship guidelines. Following
the recommendations of CRC 2003, the Media Development Authority (MDA)
has implemented many of the committee's recommendations. These include
the introduction of the NC16 and M18 film categories, as well as the
introduction of the Video Classification System which allows for NC16
and M18 videos to be sold at retail outlets. All these initiatives have
provided Singaporeans with greater choices.
Leeway is given to homosexuality
content in arts entertainment, films and publications so long as they do
not have the effect of promoting homosexual lifestyle. An example is
SommerStrom with a R21 rating. We would like to thank you for your
feedback.
Yours Sincerely
K BHAVANI (Ms)
Quality Service Manager 
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