志异 Draft by Drama box December 2014 (english) | Page 15

Living in Singapore, I have yet to have the opportunity to watch
the ‘banned film’. But I think that the planning behind each
and every documentary piece on human rights is intended
to communicate the director’s thoughts and concern about
the issue within a given framework and motive. Hence, it is
impossible to take all perspectives into account or satisfy the
expectations of every viewer. As director Tan Pin Pin put it
herself, To Singapore, with Love was made to better understand

Phoon Yuen Ming

with the director, a young human rights worker had suggested
that the term ‘political exile’ had diverse meanings, while To
Singapore, with Love had confined itself to singular narratives.
He suggested that the director could have looked at the issue of
‘displacement’ from a wider perspective as it took many forms.
Those displaced may not have had the opportunity to tell their
own stories, he said, and not every instance of displacement
had a cross-border dimension. An example of the former could
be refugees who were lost at sea, while the indigenous people
and those who lived in the New Villages during the Malayan
Emergency constituted examples of the latter. These people who
were being ‘displaced’ within their own country were not seen as
‘political exiles’.

15
The Issue of Displacement

In early September, a friend shared on Facebook her
experience of watching in Kuala Lumpur To Singapore, with
Love, a film that was banned by the Media Development
Authority of Singapore. She mentioned that during a dialogue