HEAD Q - MINISTRY OF INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS

Head Q – Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts

Arts and culture strategic review

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Madam, I beg to move,

That the total sum to be allocated for Head W of the Estimates be reduced by $100.

Madam, MICA has played an important role over the years in keeping people connected through technology and information while continuing to develop our heritage, arts and culture to keep pace with an increasingly progressive society. I look forward to MICA’s plans and strategies for its wide portfolio. Allow me to begin with the arts and culture.

MICA’s effort to make more performances accessible and free for some is commendable. We have been seeing increasing numbers of people participating in and paying for performances. More Singaporeans are willing to pay for good entertainment and if we also consider what people are paying for our pop concerts, for example, I think there is a lot of dollar potential that arts and culture performances can benefit from.

From a broader view, what MICA can do today to complement a world-class city that we have is to create a commercially sustainable arts scene and turn Singapore to an arts destination of the East. If one were in London, for example, one would be looking at the West End for musicals and theatre works. If one were in New York, it has a Broadway stretch that also completes a bustling city as a theatre destination.

In Singapore, with a world-class infrastructure, increasingly cultured Singaporeans and many expatriates and tourists on our shores, we have the potential to build a brand equity for our arts scene – supported by a collection of local and international arts groups – to collectively create the Broadway of the East. Basically, this also means commercialising some of our arts programmes and perhaps the Renaissance City Plan, to develop the next Met Museum or the Guggenheim of the East. We have a city buzz, robust economy and modern infrastructure. We just need to develop the software to create brand awareness, establish talents, create the eco-system to put this together and establish Singapore as an arts destination of the East.

Madam, there is a common perception of the arts and culture scene in Singapore – it is only for the elites. In this sense, I do not mean the well-heeled elites but many of our better local arts and culture groups tend to favour niche and avant-garde performances which regular audiences find hard to appreciate except for those who are very familiar with the arts scene. Many artists seek to push the boundaries in the name of arts creativity and passion, and I respect their artistic principles. But in reality, it is hard to find commercial sponsors and paying audiences on a sustainable basis and many rely on Government funding. If the content is too localised, it is also hard to tap on tourism in the international markets. So, to establish a top quality arts sector, we need people who are more involved in the sector backed by sufficient resources to make the arts sector more commercially sustainable.

We need to find arts and culture group champions who have the talent and are able to benefit from mentoring the world's best to create works that mass audiences are willing to pay for, meaning that some may have to balance paid commercial work against their creative interest. I am sure with MICA’s global connections, we can make this work – to expose our artistic talents and find experts who can help commercialise our works and promote them internationally. I do not mean to trivialise the efforts as there is certainly much to do. But Singapore has created many brand names – from Singapore Airlines to Hyflux, even our IRs today are renowned destinations internationally.

Moving on from the sector to the people behind it, our arts and culture scene cannot exist without the artistic and technical talents behind them, but these talents cannot live on passion and fresh air, at least not in Singapore. One area I am concerned with is the employability and development of our artists and others in the creative areas. I remember a visit to one of our arts centres, and I was told how much our dance performers earn. At some levels, they actually qualify for the MOM's definition of "low-wage earners". It got me thinking that this is not sustainable if we want to continue to develop our talents for the long term. Many need to find alternative jobs to supplement their income. I am aware of actors and playwrights who literally live on passion, little or no income as jobs do not easily come by sometimes, especially in the recent downturn.

How can MICA better help our artists with their employability and professional development? Today, we have a wider pool of arts and culture graduates coming through SOTA and NAFA. If Singapore becomes a commercially-viable branded arts destination, then more Singaporeans can consider pursuing the arts as a career with more opportunities and prospects on offer.

We used to call sports the sport sector. It is now known as the sports industry. This is because we have established Singapore as an international destination for the F1, the YOG and other international sports events. Perhaps some day we can have our own arts industry that we can put on the world stage.

I also hope that MICA will do more to take the arts into the heartlands; bring more art and cultural works that the community can appreciate and get involved in so that not only more can attend but participate and learn. In doing so, I hope that we create arts for the heartlands differently. Perhaps MICA can also do more to incorporate arts housing in the heartlands, so that artists can also tap on the heartland audiences and that our residents can be more exposed to the arts.

Madam, last year, MICA announced that it would be embarking on the Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR). Among its objectives is to double the percentage of Singaporeans attending arts and culture events, and raise arts participation. I understand that the ACSR has submitted an interim report. I would like to ask MICA if it can provide an update of the review and new strategies that the review is proposing. In addition, could MICA share how some of its proposed recommendations will impact and benefit artists and arts organisations?

We cannot talk about arts without talking about the Censorship Review Committee (CRC). With regard to the CRC's recommendations released late last year, can MICA also update us on how it is progressing and which recommendations have been adopted?

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Mr Arthur Fong: Madam, it has been said that, "The monies gained through economic activities may be used up in difficult times. But it is the capital gained through arts and culture that would stand us well in good and bad times."

Arts and culture play an important role in our economic development and also in rich and ancient countries like Athens and Rome, and in recent times, London, New York and Paris. The same may be said of the Golden Age of China. As the saying goes "300 years under the Tang Dynasty and 50,000 poems". This underscored the importance of arts and culture to a nation.

We are a small and young nation. We cannot underestimate the importance of developments in the arts and culture. The Arts and Culture Review Steering Committee has identified the importance of citizens' participation in the arts. The aim is to have eight in 10 Singaporeans to attend at least one art and culture event a year. The other goal is to have half of our citizens to be engaged in the arts and culture activities. I have had the privilege and pleasure to join our residents at many of these events at the Esplanade, and I wish that the Ministry can perhaps publicise more of such events.

These are reasonable goals and objectives to achieve a dynamic arts scene in Singapore aimed at introducing arts to cross sections of our society and to increase the appreciation of the arts. To reach these goals, however, we need to include more of the stakeholders' opinions.

Can the Minister share with the House the Arts and Culture Review Steering Committee's recommendations? And what is the progress towards the stated goals made earlier?

Arts and culture infrastructure

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang: Madam, over the last decades, we have made good progress in growing our arts and culture scene. More and more internationals are making their way to Singapore's shores to make us a regional hot spot for large-scale concerts, exhibitions, festivals or other cultural events. Increasingly, local productions too are becoming more ambitious, ground-breaking and well-received.

I think as we grow the arts and culture scene in Singapore with more funding, performance space and events, we can do more in our heartlands. Currently, our main arts and culture venues remain in the city centre which is the convention. We should help foster a deeper appreciation of arts and culture by also bringing such venues and platforms to the heartlands so that the arts become a part of life for everyone. By bringing the arts closer to the people, we can better engage the community, grow their appreciation and nurture a new generation of art lovers.

We should engage the grassroots organisations and schools more, and explore community and school facilities as an arts and culture space in the heartlands. Recently, I received a Performing Arts facility proposal by the Xinmin Secondary School. As a new indoor sports hall is being planned for them by the MOE, the school intends to convert their existing indoor sports hall into a Performing Arts Centre. This will create a mid-sized arts theatre in the HDB estate with seats of 500 for the residents in the North East District. I request MICA to give schools and the Grassroots Organisations (GROs) their support and encouragement.

Madam, more of such cultural infrastructures should be built in the heartlands. These multi-purpose spaces can be utilised for a range of community arts and culture events. MICA should provide support in establishing such localised platforms so as to encourage small and medium arts and cultural groups and organisations to flourish. This will also enrich and bring added quality of life to our HDB communities.

Madam, I will continue in Mandarin.

( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] I hope that MICA can consider providing more communal arts facilities and platform for the arts within the community, so that arts can be integrated into the daily lives of ordinary folk, help all artistes to bring the aesthetic aspect of the arts to every HDB heartlander, and touch them with their artwork. Let us work towards developing Singapore into a country where theatres can be seen anywhere – whether you are in the North, South, East or West, where music can be heard in every household, where cultural activities abound within the neighbourhood, and where you can enjoy the scent of the arts.

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*Cols. 4545-4546.

The Chairman: Ms Audrey Wong, you have four cuts, you may take them together.

Arts for all

Ms Audrey Wong Wai Yen (Nominated Member): Madam, according to statistics from the National Arts Council, a population survey on the arts conducted in 2005 found that 62% of the population felt that arts and cultural activities enriched their lives and 57% thought that arts allowed them to broaden their minds and encourage creativity. This is very encouraging.

In the Heritage Awareness Survey in 2006, more than 90% of respondents felt that it was vital to preserve Singapore’s heritage for current and future generations. Madam, these findings reveal that awareness of the value of culture, arts and heritage has increased substantially. But, despite these findings, talk to the average Singaporean and they will tell you that Singaporeans are not well-versed in arts and culture; they would rather watch a TV soap opera or movie blockbuster than go to the theatre, art gallery or museum. Yet, it is undeniable that arts and cultural activities have increased in our heartlands through grassroots organisations, CCs, the PA and through the schools as well – Mr Yeo has also mentioned this. In fact, I attended a performance at a community centre which attracted nearly 1,000 people and that was very heartwarming.

A laudable example of an initiative that involves the young and the community is the National Heritage Board's "Heritage Trails" project. This also included students designing learning trails through a heritage area. However, the perception is that the public are still largely unaware of these efforts.

The arts and cultural sector is not only the professionalised sector that we see at the Esplanade and the city-centre venues – it includes the community and localised events. So I have one main question with respect to "arts for all" – which is how can we better integrate and co-ordinate among all the different activities, organisations and agencies across the broad spectrum of arts, culture and heritage that take care of arts from city centre to the neighbourhoods? For instance, from the PA to National Heritage Board, National Arts Council, schools as well as individual arts groups. How can we do this so as to achieve greater appreciation and participation?

Encouraging private sponsorship

Next, encouraging private sponsorship. A thriving arts and culture scene depends on extensive support of the people, public and private sector. Private sponsorship, however, appears to be growing rather slowly. I mentioned in the debate on the Finance Minister’s Budget speech that the figures for arts sponsorship alone from 2000 to 2008 remained fairly consistent. But the figures for overall arts and cultural philanthropy actually increased to $47.7 million in 2007. This is overall philanthropy and not just for the arts. There was also a heartening increase in donations and loans of artefacts to the museums with the value of artefact donations hitting $2.36 million in 2006.

With the number of major companies, financial institutions and high net worth individuals in Singapore, and with Singapore's economy doing very well, sponsorship should logically be increasing. Indeed, private and corporate support can actually take many different forms and not just cash donations and sponsorships. Support could include provision of space and artist studios, commissioning artwork and incorporating arts and culture in the workplace. Would MICA consider doing more to encourage corporate philanthropy and more innovative forms of philanthropy for arts, culture and heritage?

Capacity-building for the arts sector

Next, I move on to capacity-building for the arts sector. Madam, as the arts and creative industries have grown in the past decade, contributing to GDP and employment, they have also developed a need for capacity-building in the sector. And Mr Zaqy has also spoken on this earlier. We need skilled workers, talents, and leaders to drive sustainability and excellence. There is growing demand for professional development for not just the creative talent but also the backroom staff, the administrators, the technical personnel. These personnel include a wide range of jobs from art conservators to specialist art movers, exhibition designers, stage managers and so on.

However, many organisations and companies in the creative sector are small scale and do not have the resources to plan proper professional development for their personnel. And we have just been talking in the MOM debate about productivity, training and so on. So how can we extend this to the creative and cultural sector? In addition, many artists and creatives actually work independently. For this group, the skills of self-managing careers, financial know-how and so on, are needed. Among this group, many do not receive regular CPF contributions or have a regular income, and this affects how far they can go.

I have met many people who have given up trying to be an artist or even pursuing a "backroom" career in the sector even though they received formal training and many worked full-time for a few years. Some I know have become teachers – which is a good thing as they pass on their knowledge and passion to the younger generation – but others leave the sector altogether, and so I believe there is certain degree "talent drain" and "brain drain". How do we build up our sector’s capabilities so that talents are not just retained but actually can flourish?

In the area of leadership development, I am sure that we will find visionaries and talents in our midst and we should aim to have our local institutions staffed and led by local talents who could walk into leadership positions anywhere in the world. I think this is something we should aim for. So how can MICA work together with the arts and culture sector, leveraging on existing know-how of private or public organisations, to build up our human resource capabilities, groom leadership and build capacity? It is clearly a task that MICA cannot do alone, it involves many stakeholders and I would suggest close partnerships with the private and people sector to drive this.

Research and development for arts, heritage and culture

Finally, my fourth cut on research and development for arts, heritage and culture. I would like to start here by quoting from Mr Lee Boon Yang, former Minister for MICA, as cited in the Renaissance City Plan III in 2008:

"the nurturing of more artistic talents will take time. Perhaps even more time than it takes to build museums and concert halls. But this is an endeavour that we are committed to in order to ensure that the arts and culture in Singapore will always be able to stimulate, educate and anchor our people in this fast-changing world."

Creativity thrives on innovation, and innovation comes from knowledge, research and experimentation. This is as true for the creation of new artistic and design works as it is in science and technology. And for Singapore to be a true global art city, we need good quality local content that is on par with international standards. In recent years, MICA has recognised the importance of nurturing new original content – the National Arts Council’s Arts Creation Fund is one example, which seed-funds the creation of new literary, visual art and performing artworks.

I speak for many in the arts who hope that the increased funding for arts and culture will include resources for content creation by local artists. This includes, better resourcing of existing programmes and venues in Singapore, which are dedicated to new content creation and nurturing artists in their knowledge and their craft. For instance, these might include programmes at The Arts House, The Substation, the Esplanade, just to name a few organisations. We could also resource programmes that run over the medium or long term to allow artists to mature and develop major projects, such as longer-term residency programmes where artists have access to studio or rehearsal space, training opportunities, matching with collaborators and additional investors and access to technology. For Members of the House who are not familiar with how the artistic process works through a residency programme, please allow me to explain what a residency is. Artist residency programmes are not uncommon around the world and these are programmes that could be hosted by a museum, even by a library, an arts centre or by an arts organisation. They host artists, writers and performers for a period of time and it gives the creatives the time to reflect and exchange ideas with their peers and time to incubate new works – that is to perform R&D.

Here is an example of how an artist does research – Monday’s Straits Times featured an interview with Ho Tzu Nyen [ shows hon. Members a news article ] who will represent Singapore in this year's Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest art international biennale art show. Tzu Nyen has become an internationally respected young contemporary artist. The article describes the process of research and development that Tzu Nyen undertakes for his artworks. Currently, he is working with collaborators on how to create clouds indoors for the Venice Biennale art piece. In this photograph, Members can see that he is trying out something to do with clouds, I believe. The article continues, "each new project typically plunges him into a monkish existence that lasts for weeks, marked by long hours of study into the topic’s facets in the areas of literature, history, science, and his pet subject, philosophy." To some extent, this artist has made adjustments in his lifestyle in order to devote his time and resources to his R&D. He and his wife live with his wife’s mother in a Tampines flat rather than buying their own flat. It is not just the artist’s own R&D that takes resources. The artist also requires critical feedback, and as Tzu Nyen’s example shows, he actually relies on other scholars and writers in the humanities, arts and social sciences for stimulation and working materials.

Therefore, I hope MICA will allocate funds for more research and scholarship on arts, culture and heritage, including resourcing critical writing platforms in Singapore, whether print or online, and tapping into the expertise and experience of writers, curators and critics living and working in Singapore.

Encouraging more scholarships and academic research in our museums is also important as that will enhance the quality, sustainability and vibrancy of the arts and heritage sector in the long term.

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Finally, artists need audiences, and arts awareness is best developed from a young age. Thus, it is also crucial to set aside resources for the long-term development of arts-in-education practices and arts in school and for the continuing professionalisation of the arts education in Arts-in-Education sector. We also need to devote resources to develop expertise in creating, organising and presenting community arts and outreach projects. And in this way, we can then have arts and culture permeating more of our society.

Short film grant

Mr Seng Han Thong: ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Madam, the annual River Hongbao is into its 25th year this year. It was held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform for 13 days and attracted 1.3 million visitors. The Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Mr Lui Tuck Yew, was there to witness the festivities. The highlight of this year's activities was the short film "Home for the New Year". It was a trip down memory lane, showing how the Chinese in Singapore spent the Chinese New Year at home in the past 40 years, and it reflected the changes in our society. It conveyed strong family values and portrayed the deep feelings between father and son, and was full of local flavour.

Another highlight is the production of an updated version of the xinyao song "Singapore Pie". The video of this song reflected changes in the Singapore society in the past 40 years. We saw Chinatown, Queenstown and many old flats, which brought us back to the old days.

Madam, whether it is the short film about coming home for the New Year or the snippet about Singapore, many people suggested that we upload it onto YouTube. As we all know, YouTube is the best market for short films. If you go to its website, you can have access to numerous short films. The short film grant under the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has been in existence for many years. I would like to suggest that the Minister look into this new media, the increasing popularity of new short films and its impact, and to review the application procedures for the short film grant and, as far as possible, streamline these procedures so as to encourage more Singaporeans to apply for this grant to make short films. More short films with local flavour can be produced, including those about Singapore's changing landscape and people. I would also like to suggest that Minister Mah apply for the grant and produce a 10-minute short film, so that everyone will know how the Government ensures every citizen has a home.

Madam, in recent years, Government Ministries have used short films to promote some of their messages. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports commissioned a short film featuring a storyline about a father and daughter buying shoes: the daughter grew up and saw the pair of shoes bought by her father, and the loneliness of her father when she returned home one day. The strong relationship between father and daughter was portrayed in the short film. We can have more short films of various types or nature so as to strengthen relationships and the cohesiveness of the community. In this aspect, there is no limit to the kind of impact that a short film can make. The MDA short film grant can encourage more people to produce short films, so that we can achieve the Ministry's objective of "Arts for everyone, everyone for the Arts

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*Cols. 4547-4548.

More opportunities for School of the Arts

Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Nominated Member): Madam, the School of the Arts is an excellent initiative of MICA. It has created the opportunity for our young to discover their talent in the arts, deepen their interest and hone their skills. More importantly, SOTA stands as a solid symbol of how far we have come as a society – ready to proactively invest in nurturing confident, well-rounded young people better prepared for the challenges ahead. It sends the right signal that we are serious about creating alternate pathways to success and accomplishment. I applaud the Government for this.

Last month, when I attended SOTA's annual open house, I was highly impressed by the commitment and professionalism of the faculty and staff clearly inspired by the principal, Mrs Rebecca Chew, whose passion and energy is infectious. The students displayed an exceptional level of inner confidence.

The SOTA students typically go through a six-year academic programme leading to an IB Diploma. Through the six years, students get specialised training in a chosen field of the arts – be it dance, music, theatre or the visual arts – and also gain exposure in the other arts discipline.

What many parents like about SOTA is that it is not a preparatory school for a professional career in the arts. Although a number of students in each cohort choose to become professionals in the arts sector, the bulk of the students move on to the university to pursue degrees in conventional disciplines, such as law, humanities, architecture or even medicine.

Year after year, SOTA will be producing energetic, inspired young people highly trained in the arts. To talk in terms of returns-on-investment would be in poor taste. But is not society the loser if we are not able to adequately tap on these highly trained and, I believe, willing arts talents to give back at least part of what they have gained in their six years in SOTA? It would amount, if you do not, to talent drain, as suggested by NMP Audrey Wong.

SOTA's Vision statement captures this: "Shaping and Impacting society through education in the arts". Individually and collectively, the SOTA graduates can, indeed, shape and impact society. But this may not happen naturally. We would need to find ways to help harvest this value. From experience, we know that we need to do this soon after they graduate, before they get steeped in their academic or professional pursuits. I have two suggestions.

First, building an engaged alumni early. In no time, the SOTA alumni will grow into the thousands. It would be useful for SOTA to commit resources now to build alumni commitment through creative and emotive engagement of graduates. Setting up a dedicated alumni affairs office today and rolling out schemes to entice the alumni to stay connected and give back to their alma mater are possible first steps. The universities will tell you that the sooner you do this the easier it is to achieve desired outcomes.

Second, MICA or NAC could create a programme to encourage and incentivise SOTA alumni to stay active in the local arts scene. This could be in the form of a dedicated NAC programme that seed-funds highly innovative and specialised arts projects initiated and led by SOTA graduates. Due consideration ought to be given to how the projects enrich the arts scene in Singapore and foster participation, especially from students and the general populace. Having met some of the faculty and students of SOTA, I am confident the ideas that are likely to be catalysed will be fresh, bold and surprising! The NAC programme could have SOTA alumni coming together to apply for funding directly from NAC, or it could be more structured such that applications would be processed through SOTA.

Madam, my suggestions are prompted by the powerful impression I got after visiting SOTA. I am confident that the school will succeed in producing highly talented and motivated Singaporeans, in fact, leaders who can make a difference in our desire for Singapore to become a "Renaissance City" in the true sense of the word.

Supporting local writers

Dr Ong Seh Hong: ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Singapore's modern Chinese literature started from 1919, under the influence of China's May Fourth Movement. From 1919 to the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965, Chinese literature gradually developed into two branches – Singapore Chinese literature and Malaysia Chinese literature. Within 100 years, Singapore Chinese literature gained a strong footing in the international Chinese literature scene. However, Singapore Chinese literature started to decline from the 1980s. Sin Min Daily published an article on 3rd February this year, titled "Local Writers Struggle to Survive". The article talked about the difficulties our writers are facing. All of them are part-time writers and it is hard to make a living as a writer. No wonder these days, young Chinese writers are few. Some lament that there would not be any successors to Singapore Chinese literature anymore!

Our writers need a place to publish their works. Some said that, without the newspaper literary supplements, there would be no Singapore Chinese writers. In the old days, the Chinese literature scene remained lively because we had the literary supplement section from two major newspapers and some other newspapers. In 1983, the two newspapers merged and the literary section became smaller. Zaobao only carries two "Literary City" in one week. The literary sections in the other newspapers have all disappeared. Publications from grassroots appear only in two to three issues a year, and they cannot afford to pay for the articles.

As for publication, not every writer has the money to publish his own works. Sponsorship from the Arts Council and companies is rare. Hence, even for a very good piece of work, the writer would have difficulty publishing it. And if the book is published, the writer still has to go through book dealers who will take a 50% cut and the books will be put under consignment, ie, payment once every three to five months. The sale of Chinese books has dropped from more than 10,000 to a few thousand, and now to around 1,000. These days, if the sale is more than 100, the book is considered a best seller. Some writers have no choice but to give up writing, and sometimes put their works away, never to be published.

We used to see many writing competitions to encourage people of different writing abilities to participate. Now, these competitions are getting fewer and their scale is becoming smaller. We cannot develop good writers in such an environment.

Literary work is an important link of our cultural heritage. Hence, I urge the Government to give more support to writers, create more avenues for them to publish their works and hold more writing competitions. This will inspire the writers and develop a group of heavy-weight writers.

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*Cols. 4549-4550.

Promoting reading and writing

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong: Madam, if we go up the bus or the train in Europe, very often we see people reading either books or newspapers. When we go up our MRT or buses in Singapore, it is more likely that we see them playing computer games, catching 40 winks or texting SMS on their handphones.

I think we need to inculcate a greater reading culture in Singapore starting from a young age. I think that the National Library Board (NLB) is best placed for this and I would ask the Minister whether more resources can be given to NLB to inculcate a reading habit among our population, especially in the community, in neighbourhoods, and to reach out to the younger children especially in the lower-income group, so that they have an opportunity to learn how to read and enjoy reading.

The other point I would like to make is about bookshops. There has been a cloud over Borders and some discussion about whether bookshops are languishing in Singapore. I, for one, love bookshops and find it a real treasure trove, just leafing through books, browsing and looking at the photos and covers. The sensory experience is itself a joy. So, I would like to ask the Minister for an assessment of the future of bookshops in Singapore, especially given the new media platforms, like Kindle and iPads.

My last point is on the Writers Festival. Given the injection of resources and the appointment of a new director, can I ask the Minister for an update of the Writers Festival? And how is that going to figure in the way we are going to promote a reading and writing culture in Singapore, and whether we will get to see our great Singapore novel not too long from now? What efforts are we taking to make sure that our writers get the support that they need, not only to write but also to reach a wider audience? To reach a wider audience, it comes back to square one – we need to have a reading culture in Singapore.

If I may just use the rest of the time to read a quote from Mr Rajaratnam about reading. He was our first Culture Minister. He said he valued books most for transporting him to new worlds and acquainting him with the great minds of generations past, and he called the experience "the miracle of books", "the moment a person reads a book by Plato, Tolstoy, Tagore, or Shaw, then Plato, Shaw and all the other great minds of the past come to life". He added, "They talk to a living person across the centuries and decades intimately and directly to stimulate and inspire the living reader into thinking new thoughts".

Free admission to museums

Mr Baey Yam Keng (Tanjong Pagar): Madam, to fulfil our public museums’ mission as cultural and educational institutions, they must be opened and accessible to Singaporeans from all backgrounds and income levels. Admission fees may be the single biggest obstacle in preventing our public museums from fulfilling this mission.

Currently, senior citizens, full-time National Servicemen, children and students up to tertiary level enjoy free admission to the permanent galleries of the seven museums under the National Heritage Board (NHB). I would like to request that the Minister consider extending the free admission policy to all Singaporeans. This will encourage more Singaporeans to visit our museums and deepen their understanding of Singapore’s and South-east Asia’s history, culture and art. It is only through a more intimate understanding of our multicultural roots and history that we can build national resilience and reinforce our national identity.

Most visitors would want to maximise the value of their entry fee by spending at least half a day in a museum but they may not find time. And, hence, they do not even venture into the museum. With free admission, Singaporeans would feel free to pop in and out as and when they have time, allowing more people to include visits to museums in their busy lifestyles. Since our museums are located in the business and civic areas, many working adults would probably drop by during lunch time or after work. They would definitely not be able to take in all the interesting exhibits in that one visit but want to go back on another occasion with friends and family. They would also help to promote it by word of mouth.

I would also like to request that the Minister consider including blockbuster and special exhibitions under the free admission policy. Through special exhibitions, we would bring world culture and history to Singaporeans, enabling us to understand ourselves and our place in the world. This is particularly beneficial to those Singaporeans who do not have the opportunity to travel and for lower-income groups who may find the entrance fee for a family outing to a museum daunting. The high number of visitors our museums attract during Open House Days proves that Singaporeans are interested but admission fees may be a deterrent.

Madam, NHB has stated that profit-making is never the priority. In addition, the 2008 Heritage Development Plan, "Renaissance City Plan III", listed "museum visits" as one of the KPIs for Singapore to be "a distinctive global city for the arts". Nowhere on the list of KPIs was "ticket revenue". Nonetheless, I am sure if we allow free admission for Singaporeans, our museums can still have decent revenue from ticket sales to tourists, rental of museum spaces, gift shop sales, parking, special programmes and donations. The increased visitorship will certainly bring value to these ancillary facilities and tenants, and possibly higher than the foregone ticket revenue from Singaporeans.

Many museums in the other cosmopolitan cities offer free admission. In the United States, museums such as the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, are free. In the United Kingdom, visitors to London enjoy free admission to over 200 galleries and museums. When I was living in London, my family spent many wonderful hours in the National History Museum, Science Museum, Tate Modern, all for free, even though we were not British citizens.

In China, thousands of museums will provide free access to the public by the end of this year under a government proposal. Its Ministry of Culture aims to enrich people's intellectual and cultural standards as well as "to promote social harmony and stability".

Madam, it is obvious from the above examples that governments from the East and West perceive free access to museums very beneficial to their populations, fulfilling educational, cultural and social objectives. Hence, I hope that the Minister would consider allowing this in Singapore as well for the same reasons.

The Chairman: Order. It is 7.00 pm.

Thereupon Mdm Deputy Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.