Dear Friends and colleagues
At the start of the day I either read the Guardian News or BBC news on the internet – or sometimes both. Last Thursday I was reading a very interesting BBC report (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/dec/02/louvre-abu-dhabi-guggenheim-art) about the growth of art museums in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha and how this runs parallel to the way these countries also spend a lot of money on arms, have become increasingly involved in regional conflicts (Libya and Syria) and crack down viciously on internal dissent. Then I came across these two sentences:
“It is therefore a mistake to imagine the Gulf cities as versions of Singapore or Hong Kong, placid islands of global capital. The countries of the Gulf are not simply commercial and financial hubs, but nation-states – with all the bristling accoutrements that implies.”
Is Singapore an “island of global capital”? Well, I am not going to contest that! But just as in the gulf cities, dissent is a problem in Hong Kong and Singapore – in Hong Kong it is being “discouraged” with some degree of force by the Chinese and HK government – though they seem like pussycats compared to the people running the Arab states. Dissent is sometimes vocal in Singapore and increasingly (I hope) allowed.
But placid? Bear this in mind: Singapore has a population of about 5.6 million, Malaysia of 30.8 million, Indonesia of 258.2 million yet Singapore has a larger and more up-to-date air force than both Malaysia and put Indonesia together. Regularly in Singapore you hear the roar of the F15 and F16 jets overhead skirting the boundaries with Malaysia and Indonesia.
It has by far the best navy in South-East Asia: submarines, destroyers, helicopters. It’s even building an aircraft carrier.
They call it a Joint Multi-Mission Ship (JMMS), I call it an aircraft carrier.
And the army? This is the only country in South-east Asia capable of building its own armoured vehicles.
Why?
When Singapore became independent, Indonesia under Sukarno was a hostile state – even to the point of invading the island state – well, with a few saboteurs and rumour has it a small band of commandoes that got lost in a shopping centre. The relationship with Malaysia has always been a fraught, often hostile one. It is a small island of mainly ethnic Chinese surrounded by very large Malay countries. A Buddhist-Christian state surrounded by Muslim states. It is the little red dot as Singaporeans call it.
Tellingly, it used to have good relationships with those other beleaguered states Israel and apartheid era South Africa. Now it concentrates more on working with its neighbours. Its biggest problem is staying good friends simultaneously with both China and the USA.
That is why the decision last week to allow American spy planes to use its airfields to survey the military bases China is illegally building in the territorial waters of the Philippines and other ASEAN states is extraordinary. An acknowledgement that neighbours (and the US) come first. No wonder China is so pissed.
This sense of threat is consistently and deliberately built up and played on by the government.
Well, I can hear you muttering, “what has this got to do with artists?” Singapore is one of the very few states that has conscription now. Every artist and every other person in the art world – male ones that is – has served two or two and a half years in the army, navy or air force. They have all trained in the jungle; they have all marched in formation.
They tell good stories about their time there.
One video artist spent his time working on the army magazine. Oddballs are often given oddball jobs after basic training.
Some artists joke that one particularly suave curator spent his two years showing diplomat’s wives round museums. I am sure that is not quite true.
Another curator was called up every year as a reserve because he was a tank commander. When I asked him how long it would take him to drive in his new Leopard tank to KL his answer was “six hours, but we would have to stop for petrol half way.”
One painter doing his NS (National service) was in a boat that went off course and ended up mistakenly in Malaysian waters. The Malaysian government claimed they were spying and should be handed over. Lee Kuan Yew, using some brilliant lateral logic, claimed that on the contrary he thought they had probably been spying for Malaysia. Therefore, my friend spent a month in military prison. It was tough – but preferable to a much longer term in a Malaysian gaol.
What does this do to them as artists? My father’s generation (my uncles fought at Alamein, Normandy, Arnhem and against Zionist terrorists in Palestine) would have said it would give them patriotism, the ability to work in teams and a strong work ethic.
I don’t want to make sweeping generalisations but maybe (maybe) it has made them more controlled, more thoughtful… One thing is for sure: the young artists all look pretty fit!
But it is a subject worth pursuing. I’d like to know more. I have always wanted to curate an exhibition in Singapore about this, maybe calling it “the best years of my life” or “defending the nation; making art”. If a venue is interested, please let me know.
Best wishes
Tony