Singapore bans execution references in play: paper

Lets see, now that the government of Singapore (i.e. the People's Action Party) has grabbed the international headlines what image was beamed into my living room yesterday while I was eating my lunch in the UK?

So how is the Rebranding of Singapore going? Education Hub - Don't mention Warwick University, Arts Hub...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore has ordered a theater director to remove all references to the death penalty in a play to be staged on Saturday, a day after the city-state executed an Australian drug smuggler, a Singapore newspaper said.

The government's Media Development Authority (MDA) demanded that "Human Lefts," a play about the hanging of Singaporean drug courier Shanmugam Murugesu in May, make no mention of the death penalty and no reference to any political leader, the play's director was quoted as saying.

Benny Lim, artistic director of The Fun Stage, told Today that all reference to the death penalty had been omitted in a new script that won MDA approval.

"The plot is still the same, about a son and father, but it's so general I've applied a different story to it," Lim was quoted as saying in the pro-government Today on Saturday.

Lim declined to comment to Reuters.

"The MDA did not issue a permit to The Fun Stage for the performance earlier as there were insufficient details in their original script to enable us to make an assessment," the paper quoted the Authority as saying.

On Friday, Singapore executed Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, despite repeated pleas for clemency from Australia's government.