Racial harmony assignment

Social responsibility Vs Freedom of speech

Singapore is a multi-racial country where democracy is practiced. A democratic nation is built on the foundation of freedom of speech. Quoting from singer’s write up, freedom of expression is defined as the basic right to “hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” This means that individuals irregardless of race and religious are permitted to post any comments base on their will and perspective. However, in my opinion, social responsibility should never be denied as the obstacle that hinders the aim of progressing towards freedom of speech for a democratic country. This is especially true for a multi-racial country like Singapore. Hence, I agree with Szilagyi that social responsibility should be considered before carrying out the freedom of expression.


Citing from one example which happened sometimes ago a teenager was arrested for posting undesirable and insulting comments on his blog against another race. This had again open up the long existing issue of whether Singaporeans accept one another as one family or we are Singaporeans of difference race living under one roof and we are only concern about our pride and right? As for the teenager, he could have claimed that he was exercising freedom of speech where the government seems to promote in our society. Nevertheless, he has neglected the most important integrity which is sensitivity. As there is a Chinese saying “In order to receive respect form others, one has to show respect towards others first.” Hence, overlooking at his insensitive behaviour, his offensive remarks had land himself to re-consider practicing freedom of speech at his own risk. Luckily, his action did not evoke a serious unhappiness of the other party and Singaporeans are matured enough to handle such situations, or else, we have to prepare for racial riots again. From this, we have learnt that social responsibility does play an essential role in marking out a limit to freedom of speech.


On the contrary, what singer had expressed in his article was also reasonable to some extent that “freedom of speech is essential to democratic regimes, and it must include the freedom to say what everyone else believes to be false, and even what many people find offensive. Without that freedom, human progress will always run up against a basic roadblock.” Singapore government encourages freedom of speech as it allows the exchanging of new ideas between its people and the government bodies so that the government may better understand the thinking and need of its people. Also, practicing freedom of speech allows the authorities to receive diverse views and look at problems with a different perspective.


Only in this way, a country can then upgrade itself to be a so called a “balanced” democratic nation where both social responsibility and freedom of speech is carefully taken care of.