J. B. Jeyaretnam - Documentary Film

Documentary Film

In 2002, a documentary film on Jeyaretnam entitled A Vision of Persistence was withdrawn from the Singapore International Film Festival for fear that it violated a law banning political films. The makers of the 15-minute documentary submitted written apologies and withdrew it from being screened after they were told that they could be charged in court. The film-makers, all lecturers at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic, had claimed that they had just chanced upon Jeyaretnam selling his books on a street and decided to make a documentary on him, unaware at first that he was a major opposition figure. A little-known law called the Films Act bans the making, distribution and showing of films containing "wholly or partly, either partisan or biased references to, or comments on any political matter" in Singapore. An unnamed source said a government official went to Ngee Ann Polytechnic and asked: "How can your staff do this sort of thing?" A person familiar with the case stated: "It's a sort of paranoia on the part of the authorities." Philip Cheah, the director of the film festival, said that he saw the documentary, but declined to comment on its contents. "It should have been shown at the festival. Then people can decide", he said, adding that, as far as he knew, this was the first film that was considered political under the Films Act.