Debated in Parliament on 11 Sep 2017.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth how do the contents in the book "State of Emergency" deviate from the original proposal of the author which allegedly led to the National Arts Council withdrawing its grant.
The final manuscript the National Arts Council (NAC) received bore little resemblance to the proposal that was originally submitted. The proposal which NAC agreed to fund was for a historical novel set mainly in 1965, to explore a period when Singapore was trying to find a new identity. The proposed title was "MacDonald House".
The final manuscript significantly deviated from the proposal in terms of the plotline and the bulk of the novel was not set in 1965 or the years surrounding Singapore’s Independence. It thus did not comply with the terms and conditions of the funding agreement, and the funding was discontinued the following year in 2011.
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