SINGAPORE - A Yale-NUS College programme introducing students to various modes of dissent and resistance in Singapore has been cancelled about two weeks before it was slated to take place.
Titled Dissent And Resistance In Singapore, it was to be led by Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa'at in collaboration with programme manager Tan Yock Theng of the university.
Mr Alfian, resident playwright at local theatre company Wild Rice, is a prolific poet, playwright and short story writer who is known to tackle sensitive topics of race, sexuality and politics. He is also known to be outspoken on local current affairs.
Other activities, according to the line-up online previously, involved a workshop on designing protest signs, a "tour by urban theorist on topography of protest", as well as a panel discussion with freelance journalist Kirsten Han, veteran journalist P.N. Balji and historian Thum Ping Tjin.
Responding to queries, Yale-NUS College president Tan Tai Yong on Saturday (Sept 14) said the decision to withdraw the project was not taken lightly.
After reviewing the project's proposed itinerary, Yale-NUS found the proposed activities do not align with the learning objectives earlier approved by the Curriculum Committee, he added.
"The project in question does not critically engage with the range of perspectives required for a proper academic examination of the political, social and ethical issues that surround dissent," Professor Tan said.
"The activities proposed and the selection of some of the speakers for the project will infringe our commitment not to advance partisan political interests in our campus."
He added that the proposed activities also included "elements that may subject students to the risk of breaking the law, and incurring legal liabilities".
Ms Han is a known vocal critic of the Government and its policies. Dr Thum has accused the ruling People's Action Party of using fake news to detain political opponents, alleging in a research paper that there is no evidence that the more than 100 alleged leftist leaders and trade unionists arrested and detained in 1963 were involved in any violent communist conspiracy to overthrow the Singapore Government.
When contacted, Mr Alfian said the programme online was a tentative version, and he had shared a final version that he said Yale-NUS eventually rejected.
That programme had some changes from the online one. For instance, instead of the panel discussion, Ms Han would conduct a democracy classroom and this did not involve Mr Balji or Dr Thum. The workshop on designing protest signs was changed to a "sign-making workshop".
Said Prof Tan: "Although different iterations of the itinerary have been proposed, our assessment is that the planned activities still included elements which put our students at risk."
This is not acceptable to the College, he stressed, as it is committed to operating within Singapore laws – a position set out by its founding president, Pericles Lewis, back in 2012.
The project is one of 14 projects that came under the school's Learning Across Boundaries umbrella, which involves faculty-led programmes of short durations.
They allow students to explore themes of the curriculum in a broader context, according to the Yale-NUS College website.
A Yale-NUS spokesman said in response to queries that projects are proposed by faculty. Mr Alfian had a visiting appointment teaching playwriting last semester and had put up a proposal, she added.
In a Facebook post in May, Mr Alfian said he was designing a programme called Dissent and Resistance.
Apart from introducing students to various modes of dissent and resistance in the Republic, he said the programme will also "examine the political, social and ethical issues that surround democratic dissent in authoritarian societies".
The various modes range from citizen journalism to artistic works, and from "accommodationist" tactics such as pragmatic resistance to "radical" strategies of civil disobedience, he said.
The programme would also include interactions with migrant labour, heritage and feminist activists, among others.
"Participants will learn about the ways citizens negotiate with power in Singapore and how they manage to creatively carve out spaces of freedom and autonomy in a tightly-regulated city-state," he said.
A similar write-up was previously available on the Yale-NUS website, in which it listed partner organisations for the project.
They included gender equality advocacy group Aware, non-governmental group Community Action Network, as well as non-profit movement Pink Dot Singapore, which supports the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Singapore.
Aware, however, clarified that it was never involved in this project.
Prof Tan said Yale-NUS has assessed that there is insufficient time to arrange for a fresh set of activities that would meet the learning objectives earlier approved, as the projects are due to start on Sept 27.
The 16 first-year students affected will be reallocated to other projects, he said, adding that they were informed on Friday (Sept 13).
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...to-introduce-students-to-modes-of-dissent-and
