The Spectre of the National that Haunts Singapore (Cinema) or You Can Only See Ghosts if You are Blind Jeremy Fernando European Graduate School The great stars or seductresses never dazzle because of their talent or intelligence, but because of their absence. They are dazzling in their nullity, and in their coldness - the coldness of make up and ritual hieraticism … The cinema has never shone except by pure seduction, by the pure vibrancy of non-sense - a hot shimmering that is all the more beautiful for having come from the cold. (Baudrillard, 1990: 96) Abstract A phenomenological meditation on cinema - this article attempts to look at how the state relies on the metaphysical concepts of cinema in order to continue its own existence. The state relies on the concept of ‘identity’ or to be more precise ‘national identity’ in order to legitimize its existence. Film is one such medium in which this concept is played out: in many ways, the film industry (infrastructurally and content-wise) is reflective of the state of Singapore. In its essentially one- party hegemony, film works as a simulated critique of the state in the absence of any (credible) opposition. In fact, I posit that the simulated critique (in film and symbolic opposition) acts as the auto-immunity to the fantasy of the ruling party (which is that of a one-party rule). Film festivals - where ‘transnational films are celebrated - are co-opted by states in this function: the concept of trans-national rest on the hinge of the national. And in this performance, it is the state-funded Raintree Pictures that is the radical figure. The film-makers that continue with the traditional critique of the state’s lack of identity are only contributing to the myth that the identity exists in the first place. Raintree’s abandoning of this idea in the claim that as long as there is Singapore(an) involvement in a film (through the brand of Raintree), it is a Singaporean film, exposes the “perverse core” [Zizek] of identity (and film) - both are empty and this is precisely the manner in which they seduce us. [Jeremy Fernando. (2006). ‘The Spectre of the National that Haunts Singapore (Cinema) or You Can Only See Ghosts if You are Blind’ in borderlands e-journal (vol5:3).] Jeremy Fernando.‘The Spectre of the National that Haunts Singapore (Cinema) or You Can Only See Ghosts if You are Blind’ in borderlands e-journal (vol5:3), 2006.