Democratically elected govts whether in S. Korea, Japan or Germany respect the rights of the people to express alternative views regardless of whether these views are in agreement to their own or not. This is a key and essential part of democratic process and over the years these countries have matured to evolved into societies that tolerate the views of others even though the views may occasionally be wrong or disputed in the facts.
The time when S. Korea sent people to jail for expressing different points of views was more than 20 years ago when it was under military rule. Their leaders would tell them that these other points of views were dangerous, defamatory and should be held in contempted..the people who expressed them thrown into jail for breaking the laws and crossing the line. At that time many were brainwashed by these leaders and believed them. However, after less the 20 yrs of democratisation, the society realised all those restrictions were not necessary and what their leaders told them were just lies to control the people and stay in power.
A S.Korean I met told me he was surprised Singapore had so ,many laws against free speech reminiscent of S. Korea 2 decades ago. He hoped Singaporeans would one day get their full rights to speak without fear. I told him I was not so hopeful as the country is run by leaders who care more about preserving their dominant power than improving the lives of the people. With so many challenges facing Singaporeans, they still waste precious resources to catch a cartoonist for expressing his view.
We all dream that one day our citizens will get the same rights as citizens of other developed countries and not live in constant fear of speaking our minds. Singaporeans have done nothing to deserve the denial of our rights....it is the failure of our leaders to reach maturity that cause us to be in this plight.
TopSage4
*Article first appeared on http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/showthread.php?1305419-PAP-intolerance-of-critics-show-lack-of-maturity-and-confidence...&s=98d0420daa0754e0c29d8462980cbb6e