Known for its efficiency, affluence and puritan-like orderliness, Singapore is in many ways a model state.
But not everyone is embracing its fast-paced development.
The recent legal trials of urban artist Samantha Lo and cartoonist Leslie Chew, point to an increasingly emboldened artistic community.
Online and on the street, some citizens saying the city-state is at a crucial turning point.
Dubbed Singapore’s answer to Banksy, Samatha Lo is best known for her satirical street stickers.
Last year her signature black dots with messages such as: “Press to time travel,” “Press harder” and “Stop looking at your phone,” appeared on traffic lights buttons across the city.
She also spray painted the words, “My Grandfather Road” what some say was an offensive reference to Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew.
Lo says her only intention was to inspire Singaporeans to see their world in a new light.
“I just really wanted to connect with people. I really wanted to connect with Singaporeans and show them I have a message for you, that is all I’m saying. I want to talk to you from different angles and ask you things, make you question your surroundings and look around. Because everyone is always walking around looking at the floor at their phones so that’s pretty much what I wanted to do.”
But in a state obsessed with order – where even the sale of chewing gum is banned – the 27-year-old was arrested for vandalism and public nuisance.
Facing a three-year jail term, Lo was finally sentenced to 240 hours of community service and a daily curfew this May.
Reflecting on her sentence, Lo admits that while that many Singaporeans artists feel stifled, she is not necessarily one of them…
“I know my freedom is only restricted because I definitely can’t touch the streets now (laughs), but really the amount of freedom is really determinant on how free you feel that you are.
Q: How free do you feel?
“I still feel free. I mean the only reason why I really feel free now is because I feel that a year’s weight has been lifted off my shoulders and even though I’m still not free because I have a curfew, but in terms of expression I don’t think I am that stifled…Back then even when I first started doing the stickers I knew that it was illegal but I didn’t let that limit my freedom in that sense. I still wanted to do it and I still did it. That is freedom, the freedom to express. That is what art should be, isn’t it?”
Lo’s arrest was widely condemned online, with more than 14,000 people signing an online petition calling for leniency.
The case has triggered a heated debate about artistic and political expression in Singapore.
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And, it has only intensified following the recent arrest of cartoonist Leslie Chew.
Chew, who publishes a comic strip on Facebook, is being investigated for alleged sedition after he uploaded a racially provocative cartoon.
If convicted, he could face three years in jail.
Human rights lawyer M. Ravi, who is defending Chew, says that because much of Singapore’s press is run by the state, criticism and satire are proliferating online.
Ravi says it's a trend that some politicians are attempting to suppress.
“In recent months, the last year or so, there have been threats of defamation suits when political figures are involved, and there have been threats of contempt of court suggestions and there have been sub judice being issued by the attorney general to limit public conversations in the public domain because certain cases are before the court and so on. So there is a various range of reactions from the state and in particular, bloggers being taken to task on account of defamation and contempt of court, especially an increasing number of bloggers are being taken to task for civil defamation. So that is a worrying trend.”
Terence Chong is a sociologist at the Institute for South East Asian Studies in Singapore.
He was recently involved in drafting an ‘Arts Manifesto,’ a document calling for more artistic freedom, that has been presented to the government.
“I think many people say it was long overdue and it did strike a cord with many arts practitioners, people who actually make art and people who write about the arts as well. So it struck a chord with people but we have not heard from the government yet.”
Chong says that Singapore is at a crucial moment in its development but faces a dilemma.
On the one hand it wants to market itself as a global city for the arts, but on the other there are certain issues like race, religion and homosexuality that remain off-limits.
“How do we tell the world we are culturally vibrant, creative, willing to break boundaries and yet at the same time designating certain areas as no-go areas. I think that is the crux of policies issues right now. I mean where do we go from here? And I think no one really has the answer. I think the government is feeling its way along, and the artists are as well.”
Still, Chong says there has been a marked progress.
Ten years ago, he says, Samantha Lo would surely have been jailed and Leslie’s Chew’s comic strips would not have been possible…
