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Dino Eli Gallery, 81 Hester Street,June 8-14, 2012 Marcy Brafman Carrie Elston-Tunick Lindsay Packer These days there are no more secrets. Everyone announces everything that’s on their mind, whether on a Facebook status, a Tweet, or an IM. The very texture of our lives has become the basis for both communication and entertainment, and art is left waiting its turn in line. Any form of organized artifice is immediately suspect, like TV shows, media coverage of political and social events, and even the humble novel. Yet even as we seek to expose ourselves, we do so in a fashion that is revelatory of only the most accessible and mainstream aspects of human character; like the bawdy shows of the Victorian Era that became Vaudeville—overacting and slapstick—the everyday can only show what wants to be shown. Every one of us contains secrets that can never be public, and it takes an artifice born in secret to express this. The artist traffics in versions of truth, such as an image that is ...

What did Shimun Lai say that has gotten so many people riled up? Indians upset over her remark; non-Indian netizens upset over it in a show of solidarity; other netizens upset that people are upset with Shimun.... Something is not right with this picture. Let's just face it. Racial stereotyping is a common feature in every society. In just about every country I've been to, racial comments, racial jokes, insensitive racial stereotyping is part of the ordinary social landscape. Singapore is no different. From the time that I was in Primary school, I can remember comments and jokes about my dark skin. Sometimes kids would shun me because the darkness of the skin equates with being dirty and I used to get those comments thrown straight at my face. I have heard people characterise Indians as slimy, fork-tongued, liars. Even as a practising lawyer, I used to get back-handed compliments about why so many Indians make good lawyers (because we are good at twisting things aroun...

The following notice has been issued in the Government Gazette at 5pm yesterday (26 March 2012). As the updating of the Register would take place on 13th April, there is a realistic possibility that the announcement of the by-election date for Hougang would be made sometime at the beginning of May 2011. (Just speculating) "In accordance with section 13(5) of the Parliamentary Elections Act, notice is hereby given that the Registration Officer intends to do the following on 13th April 2012 pursuant to section 13(4) and (4A), respectively of the Act: (a) to remove from any register of elector the name of any person where the Registration Officer has reason to believe that the address of that person as shown in the register has on or before 19th March 2012 ceased to exist or to be used as his place of residence or his contact address; and (b) to transfer the name of any person to the appropriate register of electors where the person has on or before 19th March 2012 notified the Com...

As reported in the media, Mr George Yeo has pretty much acknowleged that last year's poor showing (relatively speaking) in the general elections, indicates that many people had lost faith in the government. It is good to see that with the burden of the Ministerial post off his shoulders and the lack of a Parlimanetary seat, George Yeo is able to speak his mind and admit the reality on the ground. I wonder if the extent of the populuation's loss of faith has filtered through to the leadership. I believe that the only reason why PAP did not suffer further losses in the last GE was because there were still a sizeable number that believed that change was possible from within the Party. It was clear from the Presidential Elections that many PAP voters had voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock instead of Dr Tony Tan (the preferred PAP candidate). This was undeniably the soft option for voters wishing to express their discontent. They got their PAP government at the General Elections but ...

The following speech made by MR Lee Kuan Yew on 21st September 1955 as an opposition member of Parliament was part of the Second Reading of the Preservation of Public Security Bill. The then Chief Minister, Mr David Marshall, had explained his reasons for supporting the new legislation permitting arbitrary arrest and detention when he had, not too long before, called for the repeal of the previous Emergency Regulations providing for arbitrary arrest and detention. After several short speeches by other MPs and also a passionate speech by PAP's Lim Chin Siong, Mr Lee Kuan Yew rose to speak on this issue. One has to admire the skill and dexterity of this young opposition MP. Amongst the justifications put forward by Mr David Marshall for the repressive legislation was the Hock Lee Bus riots. It is interesting that the post-independance PAP government has employed the Hock Lee bus riots as part of the national narrative justifying the uniquely repressive approach of our democracy....

What a priceless picture! I can't get over the depth of irony that hangs in air. At the height of repression by the Burmese military junta and throughout the period that Aung San Suu Kyi was subject to house arrest, the Singapore government, together with ASEAN, has taken a concilliatory stance towards the Burmese government. The officially stated position has always been that engagement with the regime would be more likely to bear fruit and that isolation through boycotts and trade embargoes would not be of any real benefit to the Burmese people. Whilst one can argue endlessly about the merits of such a foreign policy approach, it is nevertheless true that Singapore maintain trade links with the Burmese government. Our government has never denied trading with Burma. But, there have been other allegations that have been made in the past pertaining to the export of arms from Singapore to Burma and the rather controversial allegation that we turn a blind eye to the drug related...

The official position in Singapore has always been that we respect the Rule of Law. When attempts by human rights organisations or foreign governments were made to run us down, our government has stood firm and insisted that we do respect the Rule of Law. But, what does the Rule of Law entail? A basic premise is the view that all exercise of power is subject to the law. I, as an individual, have no right to exert power over you in such a way that I might harm your property, your person or your life. Where I may attempt to do so, laws may legitimately be in place to prevent me from so harming you. This is reflected in a variety of criminal offences and civil liability. Equally, the state has no right to exert power over any of us except as it might have been lawfully authorised to do so. At this juncture, we can take this in two directions. Firstly, the state is justfied in punishing us by depriving us of our life, liberty or property if we have breached a law that has been clear...

I did a double take when I read the rebuttal letter written by Mr Peer M Akbar to the Wall Street Journal. Firstly, a little bit of context: On 7th March 2012, a letter written by Kenneth Jeyaretnam to the Wall Street Journal was published. "Challenging Singapore’s Defamation Laws" In that letter, Mr Jeyaretnam made reference to his father's bankruptcy. The relevant part of the letter is as follows: "As The Wall Street Journal is aware, my father, Reform Party founder Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, was sued numerous times for defamation, culminating in being bankrupted over a few words in an article published in the Workers’ Party newspaper that he did not write and in a language (Tamil) whose written form he did not understand. This resulted in him losing his seat in Parliament and not being able to stand again before he died..." My observation: KJ makes no reference to the timing of the defamation suit involving that article in the "Hammer" wh...

The PM has given his official response to the Hougang by-election issue. The following is the relevant part of his statement in Parliament: "The Hougang Single Member Constituency (SMC) seat is vacant after the Workers’ Party expelled Mr Yaw Shin Leong, following several weeks of media reports on Mr Yaw’s personal indiscretions. I intend to call a by-election in Hougang to fill this vacancy. However, I have not yet decided on the timing of the by-election. In deciding on the timing, I will take into account all relevant factors, including the well being of Hougang residents, issues on the national agenda, as well as the international backdrop which affects our prosperity and security." This is the proper response that we expect from our Prime Minister. I believe that if this was the first reponse from him when the news of the vacancy in Hougang broke, there would have been very little noise from the public. For sure, there would have been pressure for the by-election to be...

The report on a Written Answer provided by DPM Teo in response to a question tabled by WP MP Pritam Singh nearly made me fall off my chair.. A sum of 860,000 dollars was paid to a human resource company (Mercer) for its work in assisting the Ministerial Salaries Review Committee by providing its technical expertise on human resource and remuneration issues. Immediately, questions started racing through my head.... Here they are in random order.... Why was there a need to get an external consultancy to provide assistance? Wasn't the Salaries Review Committee itself possessed with sufficient skills for the job? If they were not sufficiently skilled, why not appoint persons to the committee that had the necessary skills? Was the Committee specifically authorised by subsidiary legislation to call for consultancies from the private sector to bid for the project? The Committee itself performed delegated functions and accordingly could not have delegated this function to 3rd parties...

Michelene Wandor's "The Author is Not Dead, Merely Somewhere Else" is about Creative Writing courses. She thinks that the traditional workshop must go, because it emphasises re-writing rather than writing. Nancy Rawlinson thinks of re-writing rather differently - first Write it out in order to know it, to understand it (whatever "it" is here: story, idea, feeling). Then write it again, with this new knowledge having been dredged up and placed, to some degree, at the front of the mind. These two documents might have very little in common. The first enables the second, and the second isn't so much a rewrite as a re-imagining. Even fine writers have second thoughts, sometimes years after publication - a belated "director's cut". In The Paris Review Alice Munro said " The story 'Carried Away' was included in Best American Short Stories 1991. I read it again in the anthology, because I wanted to see what it was like and I found a parag...

There is general consensus that Singapore citizens have evolved. The old unquestioning attitude is still there in many quarters. But, a significant part of the population is questioning, demanding answers (often vociferously) and refusing to back down. Given the fact that the opposition vote in the 2011 Genereal Elections was slightly over 800,000 and that even amongst many PAP supporters there is a certain amount of disillusionment (that was partly reflected in the significantly small percentage of votes received by the "endorsed" candidate for the Presidential Elections), many commentators have boldly painted the picture of Singapore walking into a new era of politics. There is no doubt that many citizens today have little tolerance for the politics of yesterday. 'More of the same' is no longer an option for the PAP. For a time after the General Elections last year, I started believing in the serious possibility that there might be a change of style in the way...

Pita and Ms Heath beside our School Treaty Tree checking out his enrolment. Pita the penguin has enrolled at Addington school! Pita joined the other new children at a special welcome ceremony recently. Pita, who had travelled all the way from Antarctica and appeared a little jet lagged, was very excited to be here, and was looking forward to learning all about the Addington Attitude and what makes an Addington Student so special! All the new children were given a welcome certificate, and the rest of the school sang the Welcome song. So far Pita has enjoyed visiting several of the classrooms and was hoping to go on either the Senior camp or the Year 4 camp later in the Term.