Speech by Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower, at the Opening Ceremony of the 17th Creative Arts Seminar on Monday 29 May 2006 at NUS Lecture Theatre 13 at 2.30 pm

SPEECH BY MR HAWAZI DAIPI, SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND MINISTRY OF MANPOWER, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 17TH CREATIVE ARTS SEMINAR ON MONDAY 29 MAY 2006 AT NUS LECTURE THEATRE 13 AT 2.30 P.M.

Associate Professor Rajeev Patke, Chairperson, Creative Arts Programme Organising Committee,

I am delighted to be in your company today. The Creative Arts Programme was started seventeen years ago as it was recognised that the innate artistic gifts of our young had to be developed systematically in order for them to achieve exceptional competence in the creative fields. For creative arts to thrive in any society, a community comprising supportive parents, educators and practitioners of the arts have to leverage on one another’s strengths to provide sustained nurturance to the young so that they can come into their own eventually. I am heartened to see that in CAP, structures are in place to ensure that the foundation laid by parents and school teachers will be consciously built upon by literary mentors and artistic practitioners to develop our budding writers. I thank you - parents, teachers, literary mentors and artistic practitioners who are present today - for your commitment in nurturing the gifts of our young and giving them the motivational wings to soar the creative skies.

2. While creativity is often acknowledged to be instrumental in developing a knowledge-based economy or creating a Renaissance society, it is not readily understood by most people. Talk about creativity with members of the public and you will find that creativity is often associated with the fluent generation of out-of-the-world ideas; in fact, to some people, the wilder the ideas, the better. Creativity is also thought to be divorced from critical thinking. There is a common misconception that people who engage in the creative arts are imaginative but irrational. Worst of all, people who are involved in creative work are sometimes even thought to be self-absorbed and indulgent. In fact, the creative artist is often made out in comics to be the bohemian who idles his time away and views the world through distorted lens. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth.

3. True creativity is certainly not about the ability to merely generate wild ideas. Rather, more importantly, it is about the ability to make connections between familiar ideas in ways that others have not thought. For that to be possible, the creative artist has to read widely and perceptively in as many disciplines as possible. He also has to gather much life experiences so that he can synthesise different frames of reference and draw sound connections between seemingly unrelated points of view to make a creative breakthrough.

4. Creativity is certainly not the antithesis of critical thinking. In artistic creation, the artist needs to exercise analytical thinking to appraise the quality of his ideas and refine or cull those which are inferior. The best of all creative people frequently think hard about the implications of their artistic choices and think through the possible responses, problems and outcomes of their works. Making rational judgment about how to shape one’s work is part and parcel of artistic creation. In a masterpiece, we see not just creative thinking but also critical thinking at its best.

5. Most of all, creativity is not about living a narcissistic existence in an ivory tower. The creative artists who are in our presence today will tell you that for any artistic work to survive, there is a need to communicate in a way that makes others believe that the ideas embodied in one’s works are worthy of consideration. The artist has to have the ability to translate abstract truths into concrete and palpable forms in his creative expression so that others can understand what is being conveyed, or even better, see or imagine for themselves the artistic vision. Take a minute to think of the creative works that have left a deep impression on you. Aren’t they the works of artists who have touched you emotionally and related to your own situation and experiences?

6. So, participants of the Creative Arts Seminar, I hope that at this Seminar, you will take the opportunity to unleash the creativity within you. This year’s Seminar theme of “Remaking Language” offers you a few challenges. The society we live in is besieged by commercialised culture which thrives on formulaic story lines and clichéd expressions. Often, commercialised culture strips language of connotative value and aesthetic beauty and reduces it to a mere mechanical tool for superficial communication purposes. As creative writers, you need to ask yourselves this question: how can language be remade in your works so that it can fulfil its aesthetic function and regain its evocative power without losing its clarity of purpose?

7. You writers in Singapore face a unique challenge: Given the different varieties of English and the mother tongue that are used in Singapore today, how can you optimise the potential of your rich linguistic heritage? How will you remake your languages in novel and meaningful ways to define your personal model of reality or even articulate our nation’s consciousness? Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.” I would be very interested to find out what kind of collective understanding you would acquire about your linguistic heritage and how you would tap on its richness to convey your artistic vision by the end of the Seminar. Even more importantly, I wonder what stone each of you, given your different linguistic, social and cultural background and life experiences, would bring to build this heritage of ours; and can the creative language you use in your works withstand the test of time and the scrutiny of our global community? At this one-week long Seminar, be bold and persevering in your attempt to remake your languages. But at the same time, learn to be patient with yourself. Remember: Rome was not built in a day. So it is with language. Take your time to explore your linguistic heritage and above all, have fun experimenting with it. You never know: The best of your creative ideas may just be born when you are pure in spirit and active in an intellectual play with words.

8. It remains for me now to wish all of you a very enriching time of learning and exploration at this year’s Creative Arts Seminar. Thank you very much.