In the context of Singapore’s multi-racial society, where there is cultural and religious pluralism, I think that both Szilagyi’s and Singer’s view can be adopted to a certain extent. With respect to Singer’s view, freedom of expression is indeed important to a democratic country, however, it should be limited to a certain extent. Consider this, a country whose government is open up for criticism from the public. Without the so –called freedom of expression, public will only praise the government even though in some parts of the organizations, improvements should be made. This is so because public feared that they will offend the government and thus face lawsuits which they could have avoided in the first place. And thus, the government might never improve and worse still, it might even deteriorate since the world is now constantly changing with every passing moment. However, with freedom of expression, a different scenario is reached. Public are able to express their view on the government way of ruling the country. May it be bad or good comment, the government are able to adjust its organizations which is best for both the public and government. As such, maximum satisfaction is attained. This wouldn’t come by without the existence of freedom of expression.
However, I do not deny that freedom of expression do comes with consequences. There will always be two sides to a coin. In this case, unrestricted and unlimited freedom of expression is the reverse side of the coin. Like what Szilagyi said, focus should also be on social responsibility. However, if everyone is too focusing on social responsibility, then freedom of expression has ceased to exist. Taking the example from Singer’s article, it’s a case of social irresponsibility. However, it’s hard to say whether or not the article should be published. If we restrict such articles, freedom of expression is removed. If we do publish it, we have forsaken social responsibility. The best solution I believed is that the author should weigh the consequences that such articles will lead to. But still, people who felt offended by the cartoonist actions should not act in such barbaric manners. It showed nothing but their uncultivated behavior. Therefore, when we encounter such events, we shouldn’t lose our patience and act like some kind of uncultivated human beings. Thus, social responsibility not only must be practiced by the giver of freedom of expression, but also the receiving end of freedom of expression.
With reference to Singapore with my above two explanation, I believe that not everything of one is good. Thus Singapore should not fully accept the opinion of either view. But take the gist of the views.
