The appointment ceremony for the new Nominated Members of Parliament (NMP) was held on September 26.

The event was officiated by President Halimah Yacob.

The other NMPs include a labour unionist (Arasu Duraisamy), a businessman (Sakae Holdings chairman Douglas Foo), two academics (Lim Sun Sun, Walter Theseira), three representatives from the social services, civic and people sector (Anthea Ong, Abbas Ali Mohamed Irshad, Irene Quay Siew Ching) and a representative from the arts community.

It is the last appointment that might be a bit trickier than the others.

New Arts NMP

The representative from the arts community is Ho Wee San, the Managing Director of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

Ho comes with impressive credentials.

He was the first local arts company manager to be awarded the Singapore Tote Board Scholarship to attend “Strategic Management for Non-profit Leaders” in Harvard Business School.

Ho also served in various committees at the National Arts Council, NAFA, and the Singapore Chin Kang Huay Kuan Youth Division.

Ho told the media that he "hopes to be a voice for the traditional arts, as well as [being] a resource and advocate", adding that he believes "more support is needed for the traditional art forms".

Ho is also an active participant in marathons and triathlons.

The only "wrinkle" for Ho is that he wasn't elected or nominated by the arts community.

The question some might ask: Will Ho be representing strictly traditional arts or will he be voicing the concerns of the entire arts community?

Arts community NMP elections

Since 2009, the arts community has been holding open elections to pick the candidates.

In 2009, the arts community chose Audrey Wong and Loretta Chen, and submitted their names to the authorities. Wong subsequently became the first "Arts" NMP.

In 2011, the arts community elected Janice Koh as its candidate.

Kok Heng Leun was the arts community's candidate after Koh in 2016.

According to The Straits Times, two artists -- an arts lecturer and an artistic director for a not-for-profit group --  sought to represent the arts community and submitted their applications.

They also announced their intentions to about 90 people from the arts community.

However, they were not chosen by the 8-member Special Select Committee for NMPs.

Which is cool, because there is no actual requirement for an arts NMP to be elected by his/her community though.

In fact, what is more important was the Speaker's meeting with the coordinators of seven Functional Groups, namely (i) business and industry; (ii) the professions; (iii) labour movement; (iv) social service organisations; (v) civic and people sector; (vi) tertiary education institutions; and (vii) media, arts and sports organisations.

The meeting is to inform the coordinators of the procedure in submitting nominations to the Special Select Committee.

But since Ho was not elected by the arts community, we provide some reference points for Ho to the arts community's previous picks over the years.

Audrey Wong (2009-2011)

In her time as arts NMP from 2009-2011, Wong was highly cognisant of the issues facing the arts community, as well as the sensitivities of her own position.

Speaking to TODAY in 2013, Wong stated that her maiden speech in Parliament focused on the "climate of fear" in Singapore, noting that there were some Cabinet members who visibly disagreed with her.

Her reason for doing stemmed from her years of experience working at The Substation where Wong saw:

"...friends who, at that time, had lost their credit with the powers-that-be because of views that they had expressed; how could that not make people worry, and lead to self-censorship?"

What's more, there was a sense of dissonance amongst the arts community when it came to engaging policy-makers. This was due to the difference between the rhetoric of the policy-makers and the reality of what happened when the arts community actually met them:

"As I had more encounters with policy-makers, I saw that they were also in a conundrum of sorts. They wanted to hear views from and include more people working ‘on the ground’, yet they could not or would not listen to those who were too obviously vocal and critical."

Even so, Wong was also aware of how far she could possibly push for contrary voices to be heard as an NMP, noting that, "The question was, how far could I be an activist as an NMP?"

She was also aware that her "background of English-language contemporary arts" meant that she might be seen as representing only segment of the arts community -- namely, the ones who were featured in the news -- and that there was a need to ensure that she truly represented all segments of the arts community, such as traditional arts and art teachers.

Such considerations led Wong to strategically pick various areas to focus on during her time as an NMP for maximum impact in her position.

As such, this was why Wong focused on "the improvement of conditions for freelancers in the arts and creative sector" as well as cultivating an awareness among policy-makers of artistic processes and understanding the day-to-day concerns of the arts sector in Singapore.

Janice Koh (2011 to 2014)

In the case of Janice Koh, it was no longer just about the concerns of the arts community, but the wider Singaporean society at large that she felt she had to speak up for as well.

In an interview with High Net Worth in 2016, Koh states that "As an NMP, I had to be concerned about issues people cared about and have opinions on them. I was looking at policy-making and how society responds to change."

Accordingly, this was why Koh's tenure saw her speak extensively on issues such as the Population White Paper in 2013 as well as 377A in 2014.

Of course, Koh also continued pushing on issues that affected the arts as well.

On this front, she raised concerns over the study of literature in schools at the secondary level.

And in another speech, she combined both arts and social concerns in a speech that urged the Government to "unlearn its instincts of wanting to draw more boundaries for civic discourse."

Here, Koh tied the issue of censorship directly to civic discourse, articulating that censorship prevented constructive discussion over difficult issues:

"In fact, censoring or restricting films, plays or online sites that seek to examine a complex issue in our society simply because some might find the framing of the issue objectionable is tantamount to cutting off the space for constructive civic discourse to take place".

Kok Heng Leun (2016 to 2018)

Kok became the next NMP, after his unsuccessful bid in 2014.

In fact, there was no NMP representing the arts community during the short one-year NMP term (August 2014 – August 2015) before the 2015 General Election.

Before the start of his term, Kok told The Straits Times that he thinks the relationship between both sides has become more problematic in the 1.5 years since the last Arts NMP, Janice Koh, completed her term in August 2014.

Although Kok was chosen to represent the arts, he also spoke about issues such as social inequality, education and meritocracy.

Quite a number of his non-arts speeches have made an impact beyond the arts community.

Kok, an artistic director of theatre company Drama Box, has also conducted his own unique "Meet-the-People Sessions" (MPS), inviting artists to talk about how various government policies have impacted them.

Two years ago, Kok told ST that the top of his NMP agenda was to act as "a mediator between artists and the authorities".

So, what will the role of the Arts NMP be this term?

Will Ho focus more on social issues, like his two immediate predecessors, or return to a more arts-centric approach that Wong took?

Only time will tell.

Top photo from Halimah Yacob Facebook page.