Miss Chiam cites the 'proliferation of local plays and blogs' to demonstrate that Singaporeans possess the 'ability to be self-deprecating'.

However, she neglects one important difference between these and the Complaints Choir's performance. Local plays stay on the fringe of society; they are not mainstream like the plays at the West End or the musicals along Broadway. The Complaints Choir Project, however, claims a similar following like 'Phantom of the Opera' or 'Forbidden City'. Blogs likewise are still part of the fringe media and - at least in the government's eyes - are not regarded as credible competition to the broadsheets like The Straits Times or the tabloids like The New Paper. Placing them on the fringe already shows a low regard for them.

Even so, we tend to treat these harshly. Apart from the issue of the racist blogs, various local bloggers like Mr Brown and that A-Star Scholar have been taken to task for criticising state affairs. And they are locals, not foreigners. I am not too familiar with local plays, but I can't see that their treatment would differ much from movies like 'Fifteen' and 'Cut', which were censored for a long time here, although they were allowed to showcase their glory in international film festivals (that only serves to show how kiasu we are).

On her second point, I agree that that we should not be obsessed on foreigners' perceptions, but neither should we always reject them. This constant rejection of foreign - especially Western - criticism belies a form of nationalist arrogance which is hardly the attitude to adopt in a globalised world, where we should be learning from each other, to continually upgrade ourselves.

Values remain constant, but laws and policies have a shelf life because they are only contextually relevant to a particular stage of development. And I sincerely believe that this stage has long passed already.

Embracing an Arts Scene is not embracing the profits from concerts or movies, but embracing the complete diversity of creative perceptions that exist within society. And building something truly global means to accept influences from all over the world.

As an ending-note, the Complaint Choir performance sounds as harmless as humour poetry that exists on sites like talkingcock.com. So if we allow the latter, why can't we allow the former?

Wee Hong En Clement