The M1 annual Fringe Festival has seen it bring various international acts to Singapore, one of which was the almost-canned 'The Complaints Choir Project' where the ultimate aim, as its official website professes, was to transform uniquely Singaporean grouses 'into a cheerful choir song within a workshop process, which unites participants coming from different backgrounds'.

It is a shame that the scheduled public performances were cancelled because of a ruling by the Media Development Authority (MDA), which disallows foreigners from participating because 'the content touched on domestic affairs'.

If one were to juxtapose the highly-publicised lawsuit between the Government and the Far Eastern Economic Review, one is able to put things in perspective: the project that has foreigners commenting on 'domestic affairs' that includes among its lyrics, 'queue up three hours for donuts', 'ERP gantries are everywhere' and 'wedding dinners never start on time' seems to have been penalised undeservedly, especially if one analyses its benign artistic intent, which is to highlight the unique complaints of contemporary Singaporeans through satire and parody.

Involving foreigners in the performance not only works towards being an inclusive society in which foreigners now make a large part of, but it would also highlight our ability to be self-deprecating among foreigners without losing our self-respect.

The fact that the performance has made its way, perhaps 'illicitly', onto the Internet not only portrays the image that we are uncomfortable with our national quirks, but it also brings unnecessary if not unwanted attention to our budding 'Global Arts City'.

That the originators were from Finland and have taken the project to cities such as Helsinki, Birmingham, Hamburg and St Petersburg without a hitch proves that Singapore, in its endeavour to be a 'Global Arts City', has lost itself to rigidities in legislation.

The last thing we would want in our attempts to be a 'Global Arts City' or 'Uniquely Singapore' is to be seen as an ethnocentric people, taking offence at everything that involves a foreigner commenting on 'domestic issues'.

The authorities should be discerning in their decisions.

Lau Ai Lin (Ms)