An academic who has had a short stint in the Singapore Parliament as a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP), Thio Li-ann drew on her experiences in the ivory tower and the “gladiatorial arena of politics” for her recent talk at SMU, organised by the Wee Kim Wee Centre.
Entitled 'Free Speech, Sustainable Democracy and Academic Freedom: Moving beyond Lip Service', Thio, a law professor at the National University of Singapore, noted that free speech is something that everyone should be "profoundly concerned" about.
"What happens if there is a cost to free speech? And if there's a cost, why bother to speak?" she asked. Can speech kill speech? Thio admitted that these are questions she thinks about frequently – and it is easy to understand why, especially in light of the events that compelled her to cancel her teaching appointment at NYU earlier this year.
See full Article.
Posts
