Comments on the freedom of speech

I feel that the concept of freedom of speech is rather subjective and to some extent distorted. To some people, freedom of speech means that one can express his or her views on anything in the world freely, without any strings attached or anything to hold them back. This is depicted in the first article, by Peter Singer, a professor at Princeton University. He stands firm on his belief that one’s freedom of speech should never be compromised even if it involves criticizing the sacred teachings of the different religious groups. However, there are some others who feel that one should observe basic social responsibility when airing one’s views or opinions because one have to be sensitive enough to pay some basic respect to people in the other religious groups. This is exactly the view of Szilagyi. He feels that one should adhere to the public’s interest and focus on social responsibility rather than solely focusing on the freedom of speech.

To me, I feel that in a multi-racial country like Singapore; where there is cultural and religious pluralism, there is a need for one to observe some basic respect to each other’s religion and culture so as to maintain the harmonious environment we are currently living in. We should also be sensitive to one another’s beliefs in order to continue living together peacefully. Overall, living in a multi-racial country puts us in a vulnerable position because any minor disputes between the different racial groups may trigger racial riots. For example, in the 1940s, racial riots were rampant in Singapore and it caused much chaos and disruption to the lives as well as the economic progress of the country. In order to prevent the history from repeating itself, we should exercise basic discretion when we are expressing our views.

However, I also feel that we need not necessary sacrifice our freedom of speech. What we need to do is to exercise some basic responsibility and discretion in whatever we want to express for the sake of the country’s stability and economic progress in the long run. This is what is more important to us and our future generations to come.