Freedom of speech or Social responsibility

In the context of Singapore’s multi-racial society, where there is cultural and religious pluralism, which author’s view do you think should be adopted?

“Freedom of speech is essential to any democracy and therefore should not be limited”
or
“ More focus should e placed on social responsibility”?

Singapore is well known for a cosmopolitan city where people of different races fuse together to form a society. This is a stark contrast to the Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka today, as the conflict has yet to even cease-fire. The peace and harmony we enjoyed today should not be taken for granted, nor should we allow the notion of ‘freedom of speech’ to disrupt it. Therefore, I would take up a stand to say that Singaporeans should emphasize more on social responsibility than freedom of speech.

If everyone is to focus on their own human rights, and demands that their views are brought across to others in the world, even if it hurts the welfare of the innocent parties in the process, the world would be a chaotic one. Verbal abuses would be hurled all over the place, and there would be no consideration for the feelings of others. This is extremely lethal to a country like Singapore, where the slightest unfair treatment of any particular race might spark off a dispute, which will then snowball into a frightful nightmare for the nation. Thus, everyone should play a part in ensuring that their insensitivity or actions should not hurt the feelings of others.

Much focus has been on “freedom of speech” in the 20th and 21st century. But should humans really accept and pardon all “freedom of speech”, even if it comes across to us as vulgar, malicious, and comments that are not at all constructive? If we really do that, wouldn’t evil-doers take this golden opportunity to create havoc in this already perilous Earth? Indeed, teachers in schools are encouraging their students to participate actively in state-matters or other world affairs, to voice their opinions, and try to make a difference to the unjust in the world. However, individuals should note that they should practise responsibility and not hurt the feelings of any others in the process. Although this is sometimes inevitable, they have to make sure that they accusations and criticism can be supported and accounted for.

I believe most of us has know at least a little about the cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed, drawn by the Danish. Perhaps to the cartoonist, the cartoons might be what Prophet Mohammed appears to be to him. However, instead of keeping them to himself, he chose to publish them to the whole world, causing emotional grief and anger to the Muslims worldwide. If freedom of speech is all about inflicting harm of any kind on others, then it shouldn’t be allowed in the first place. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=YALBHOSGVSEHFQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/01/31/wdane31.xml

Therefore, in my opinion, instead of demanding for freedom of speech all the time, the masses should focus more on social responsibility so that everyone can live harmoniously with one another in this world that is already filled with many agonies.