Tension boils over in lead up to this year's Festival of Arts

[SINGAPORE] The tension between the head honchos of the upcoming Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa) boiled over yesterday when festival director Ong Keng Sen sent a strongly-worded e-mail to the chief executive of Arts Festival Ltd Lee Chor Lin.

The e-mail was copied to the major media outlets as well as top arts officials such as National Arts Council (NAC) chief executive Kathy Lai, National Heritage Board chief executive Rosa Daniel and Acting Minister of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) Lawrence Wong.

Mr Ong accused Ms Lee of keeping him in the dark about the content and design of the festival brochures, which were supposed to have gone to the printers last night.