In Continuum.

At the root of it all, the Media Development Authority is in charge of everything. The MDA takes charge of what films and music comes into the country, what gets published in the newspapers and basically anything to do with the control of mass communication. The media is a powerful tool, and it has been aptly used by every powerful dictator in the history of mankind to spread their beliefs and philosophies, which is what the Singapore government doesn't want. It is fair enough in the context of this country, since the current government is doing a fairly good job at keeping everything in order, and thus the people are not complaining about the greener grass on the other side - because this is the side of the fence with the greener grass and the better view. This control is necessary and crucial to what Singapore is today, this is why it has changed from a developing country into a very developed one in less than half a century. Still, if you take a look deeper into some of these controls the government has implemented, this country is actually moving backward instead of forward. 

Recently, the MDA decided to hold its own film festival, much like the other countries around the world with their major film festivals as well. Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and whatnot, people take these film festivals as yardsticks for films everywhere. If you see the names of these film festival on a movie's poster, then you know that this movie is of some standard at the very least. Singapore has been aiming at being the cultural 'hub' of the region, one of the many 'hubs' it has been trying to become over the years, and the Singapore Film festival is merely part of the effort in achieving that goal and turning it into a reality. Naturally, if you are organizing a film festival, films that do not usually make it into mainstream cinema gets screened here, and more often than not you are going to find a few controversial films here and there that are going to trigger a debate or two amongst members of the audience. Just recently, four documentaries were banned from the film festival because of their contents, an act of the MDA which I find to be contradictory to their aim at being the so-called "cultural hub of Asia". 

The films that "exceeded the Film Classification Guidelines" were provocative in the mildest sense, I feel. Arabs and Terrorism and David and Tolhildan, two of the films that were banned, were banned because of their "sympathetic portrayal of organizations deemed as terrorist organizations". Because of such a content, these documentaries were barred from the shores of Singapore and thrown back to the countries where they came from. This is the part which I do not get, since I am not quite sure of what's wrong with seeing things from another person's perspective. I am sure the viewers of these documentaries are not going to be gullible ten year olds from grade school, but film lovers and critics from all around the world. I am sure they already have their own perspectives regarding terrorism, so what is wrong with seeing things from their side of the world? In this age and time, terrorism isn't all about the flag you stand under, but rather the kind of things you do in the name of the country or religion you come from. It's just rather confusing and amusing at the same time, to see how the government tends to treat its citizens like children, children who cannot think for themselves. "What we think is right for you, is right for you" they seem to be saying. 

Another two films called A Jihad for Love and Bakushi were also banned. Of course, for the previous two films, you can always argue that there are stupid and exploitable people out there who are going to swallow the messages of the film like shots at a bar. But A Jihad for Love is really about the life of homosexuals living in a Muslim community, and I seriously don't see what the problem is at all. I don't see why a film that portrays the difficulties of homosexuals living in a strictly Muslim country can have the capacity to tip the cultural balance in this multi-racial society. I think that it, in contrary, promotes a better understanding to these minorities in a very conservative society, and should be shown to the public - at least at a film festival, right? Bakushi is a film about Japanese sexual culture of bondage, which I find to be strange as well. I mean, why keep a hush-hush about things that we already know very well about. I mean, fetishes are merely part of who we are as humans, and I'm not sure why a documentaries about one of them is going to make any difference at all. Sure, tying your partner up during sex and then pour hot wax over them is very unnatural. But if it is voluntary, if it is consented, if it happens within the confines of a bedroom, then why should it matter to anybody else? 

Films get banned in Singapore for the strangest reasons, even if they have the best of all intentions. American History X, despite the moral of the story being against racism, is banned in Singapore because of how the character made racist remarks about the black community in America. Requiem for a Dream, despite the fact that it actually scared many drug addicts in America out of taking drugs, is banned in Singapore because of the amount of drugs used in the film. Other films like Pulp Fiction and Brokeback Mountain are banned in Singapore as well because of scenes that involve anal sex scenes, which are really just scenes with men banging their butts together for the most part, you don't even see a hint of genitals. It's strange how imageries such as two men having anal sex cannot be shown in Singapore, although we all know what they are doing in the first place. It's like censoring a word in a song you hear on the radio, which I find to be completely pointless since we all know what the word is. It defeats the purpose of censorship altogether, I feel. Films like Requiem for a Dream are shown in schools across America as a cautionary tale against drugs, and there has been a lot of people have been affected by the film so much so that they have stayed off drugs for life. I don't understand why such a beneficial film should be disallowed to the general public in Singapore.

Try to picture the boardroom meeting at MDA, with a whole room of people going through new films and trying to decide if they are going to be allowed in Singapore. I bet they are all really old people who cannot accept or allow films that have a hint of controversy, or if the film strays too far away from the norm. They want normal films, films that people usually like to watch on Friday evenings, not experimental ones and the ones that attempt to break the third, or even the fourth wall. They are scared, afraid that the public are going to be put off, or affected by potentially detrimental messages in the films. But seriously, haven't our parents told us to go out and play in the yard in the past? Go catch shrimps at the river, go roll about in the mud, go kick a soccer ball in the fields, get beat up and bruised. Our parents have told us to do such things while we were young for a reason, because children need to get out of the house every once in a while. Putting them in the house in front of a book is not going to do them any good in the long run, and the same can be said about controlling how these media are flowing into the country. These films do not promote racism, these films do not promote drugs. These are cautionary films that preaches anything but racism and drugs. When are these old men in the boardroom going to realize that fact?

Just last week, Starhub - the cable network television provider in Singapore - was sued for showing two girls kissing on television in a music video. $10000 was slapped into their faces for showing that clip that lasted for seconds, on a channel that not a lot of people watch in the first place. Bare in mind that the two girls were fully clothed, and it was just a harmless kiss on the lips. I'm not sure what is wrong with something like that, especially when we are living in an age whereby such things are already regarded as being normal, and a part of our lives. Pick a dark and shady stairwell in an all-girls school and you are going to find two schoolgirls making out anyway, so why should we not allow imageries of two girls kissing harmlessly on television? They are like over protective parents, too afraid to expose their children to the world. If there is something that is not "normal", we don't talk about it. If it is a voice louder than usual, then we don't want to hear it. That is the mentality of the government here in Singapore, all the while trying to promote itself as the cultural center of Asia. It's like a vegan who owns a butcher's shop, it doesn't make any sense.