I think that Szilagyi's view should be adopted. As said by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew that Singapore is a more conservative society and it is better for Singapore to keep its social norms. As of today in Singapore, or freedom of speech is quite limited to the extent that words that could cause religious tension would bring imprisonment. However, I am quite pleased with that because it seems effective in the way that little or no racial conflicts occurred in Singapore. Citing from David's Irving's imprisonment for denying Holocaust and conflicts arising from cartoons that humiliated Muhammad, the root of the problem is clearly freedom of speech. From the rising tension over these issues, we can conclude that people are not yet prepared to accept the idea of freedom of speech. I feel that unless everyone in the world is able to accept any forms of criticism, be it religious or personal, then we could truly exercise freedom of speech. Nonetheless, it is infeasible.
In a multi-racial society like Singapore, we should be grateful that people of different races could live in harmony here. One of the reason, I believed, would be because we learnt from each other's culture, therefore, we are aware of what are the sensitive areas of each ethnic group and know not to overstep the boundaries, harming the delicate trust and respect among us. According to Singer, freedom of speech is the freedom to say what everyone else believes to be false and even what many people find it offensive. In my opinion, there is only one type of people who could do that without a pang of guilt and would not cause any uproars. That would be the children, toddlers, because they are unaware of the consequences. Adults should understand the vulnerabilities of others and at the least, respect them. This is why we often say "Think before you act.", isn't it? We ought to take into account other people's feelings because we are no longer kids. In general, I would say freedom of speech, though, as Singer had said, may lead to human progress, it is nevertheless an irresponsible act.
