Govt could legislate against cancel culture if 'right solutions' can be found: Shanmugam
BY TAUFIQ ZALIZAN
Published September 15, 2022
Updated September 15, 2022
Raj Nadarajan/TODAY
Law Minister K Shamugam gave a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg Television on Sept 15, 2022, tackling questions about the repeal of Section 377A, drugs and the death penalty, the Foreign Interference Countermeasures Act, and the ruling People's Action Party's leadership transition.
- Singapore may put in place laws to prevent aggressive attacking of individuals for expressing their views, Mr K Shanmugam said
- This is provided the right solutions could be found to tackle the problem
- The Law and Home Minister was interviewed by Bloomberg Television, where he spoke about the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code, the death penalty and more
- He said the Government believes in encouraging people to express their views from all sides, as long as they are not offensive or descend to hate speech
- The authorities have also been studying this issue for some time
SINGAPORE — A law that prevents people from curtailing others' free speech through aggressive online attacks could be implemented should the "right solutions" be found, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said in an interview that aired on Thursday (Sept 15).
He was responding to a question by Ms Haslinda Amin, Bloomberg Television's chief international correspondent for Southeast Asia, on whether Singapore would consider legislation to combat "cancel culture", after religious groups voiced their concerns about being attacked for their views on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues last month.
Cancel culture is a movement that leads to the removal of a person's status or esteem after their offensive behaviour or transgressions are called out publicly.
Mr Shanmugam said that such a phenomenon involves a wide variety of issues, and not just those surrounding the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code that criminalises sex between men, or sexual mores.
"(When) the people’s freedom to express their views is curtailed in real life, in the physical world, we won’t allow five people to gang up and beat you up. That’s against the law," Mr Shanmugam said. But in the online space, such attacks do happen, he added.
People should be encouraged to express their viewpoints on all sides, as long as it is "not offensive and does not descend to hate speech", he stressed.
Repeating a point he made last month about how the Government is mulling ways to ensure that people will not be "cancelled" for stating their views, Mr Shanmugam said that the authorities need to find the right balance between a person's right to free speech and attacking another people's views by curtailing their free speech.
"These are not easy questions, but these are questions that we have been studying for some time. And if we find the right solutions, yes, that should be something that we could see in legislation," he said.
Stating that it is difficult to put a timeframe on when this could happen, he added that the Government has been gathering viewpoints, such as those from both religious and LGBT groups who feel attacked for expressing their views.
"Religious groups, in particular, feel very put upon, because they feel that whenever they express their views, they are attacked as homophobes," Mr Shanmugam said.
"So, there is a line between expressing your view on religion and becoming homophobic, or engaging in hate speech against LGBT groups. We've got to agree on, you know, these sorts of lines."
Link: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/legis...anmugam-1993676
