A symptom of daylight

Up to the last minute, IndigNation was held together by thread and hope. As a completely bottom-up collection of independently-organised events, those of us in charge of overall branding and media publicity had little idea whether any of the promised events would actually happen or fall flat. We had no control over the events we were about to publicise.

More than that, we had no way of knowing whether the local media would even carry news of the pride month. 

Last year, when the Nation Party '04 was gearing up to be an event that even the Singapore Tourism Board and the foreign media were interested in, the local press said not a word about it. My guess was that there was an instruction from political leaders to the editors not to give any space or airtime to that gay party.

Worse yet, the government later banned the Snowball party in December 2004 and the Jason and deMarco concert in March 2005. Would the government come down hard on the IndigNation events once announced? The omens weren't good.

Both 'Today' newspaper and the Straits Times called us the very next day, though the foreign news agencies beat them to it, calling us in the morning for more details and sending out their stories about IndigNation on the wires. Even Radio Australia moved faster than our local press. By midday on Thursday, 28 July, they were doing a phone interview with Russell Heng.

No matter, a few hours didn't make much difference. On Friday, 29 July, both newspapers carried the news. See IndigNation in the news

* * * * *

First thing on Monday morning, 1 August 2005, the Media Development Authority (MDA) sent an email to Dominic Chua, the organiser of Contra/Diction - a night with gay poets, one of the IndigNation events, telling him that a poetry recital session required an Arts Entertainment Licence.

Veronica Looi of the MDA had noticed the proposed event from the news reports and had found Dominic Chua's email by referring to the web-based calendar of events. 

There followed some further exchanges of emails, until I advised Dominic that the MDA was probably right. Poetry reading was not covered by the exemptions for indoor public talks (as discussed in the article Indoor public talks: before and after)

On trawling through the MDA's website, I had found that poetry reading was not considered a talk, but an arts event. Now, many arts events, like indoor talks, are exempted from licensing requirements under an Arts Entertainment Exemption Order, except that poetry reading was not listed under that Exemption Order. Hence it remained licensable. Why that should be, of course is another matter.

At about the same time, Russell Heng noticed that the most recent email from the MDA to Dominic contained some unusual language. It said, 

We would appreciate if you could fax us your application together with the poems asap. As the event is drawing near, we will expedite the application for you. 

Russell wondered,

Is this a nuanced way of saying "yes"? They do not have to say please send in, we will expedite. They can be terse and intimidating by just saying: "We are warning you that it is an offence to...(blah, blah, blah)

Anyway, there was no choice, so Dominic emailed in his application for a permit, I think, on Tuesday night (2 August 2005).

After one working day, the approval came in, on the morning of 4 August..

Contra/Diction was held as planned that same night, at Utterly Art, an art gallery, that at the same time was holding an exhibition of works by Martin Loh, an out and proud gay artist. This event was also part of IndigNation.

Seven poets read their works, plus two works by an eighth poet whose work was read by one of the seven.. They were powerful, moving poems, and Alfian Sa'at's were humourous too. Seventy people came to hear them, including Dominic Chua's mother, who, I'm told, was almost moved to tears when she learnt only at the event itself that it was her son who had organised it.

In broad daylight two men holding hands
Will mean nothing, but a symptom of daylight.

* * * * *

The morning and afternoon of 4 August, I was at the International Students' Symposium organised by the Singapore International Foundation. I heard about the permit approval through sms.

Later in the afternoon, during the Question and Answer part of the talk I was giving (see Fencing out, fixing in), someone from the audience asked for my views as to whether the government was really being open and inclusive.

I replied that while the government's rhetoric has been encouraging, there has been little follow-up in substantive action. One day, they seem to go this way, the next day, it's the other way.

I cited the case of the Jason and deMarco concert that was banned (see Sirenes who will turn you gay) and how I thought it represented everything the Prime Minister himself said shouldn't happen. I told my audience, mostly students aged 18 - 24,  that I wrote a "stinking letter" to the Prime Minister following the rejection of the concert, (see Talking to the doorpost), and I mused aloud, in the hope of encouraging a less fearful, more engaged future generation from among them, that maybe it made a difference.

"Maybe it contributed to a re-look at how the MDA operated," I said, "for there will be a recital by gay poets this evening, as part of IndigNation -- and we got a permit."

"The MDA seemed to have gone out of their way to facilitate it."

The young audience broke into an applause.

© Yawning Bread 

Footnotes

1. See also the write-up by 'Today' newspaper, Poetry in pink

Addenda

None