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Singer believes that freedom of expression is essential to any democracy and therefore should not be limited . On the other hand , Szilagyi believes that more fcus should be placed on 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 ?I believe that Szilagyi's view should be adopted , in a Singapore context where there is cultural and religious pluralism.
We now live in a society that values freedom of speech and dialogue even if it conflicts with our personal beliefs. Indeed , freedom of speech is important to a country's growth in which each and everyone of the people in the nation are given rights to say what they want to. This helps to ensure democracy and thus should not be limited. With freedom of speech , i believe it will lead to more productive growth in a nation . Lets take for example , with freedom of speech ,people would be able to voice out what they feel about government policies implemented in Singapore . This way , when their voices are heard , even if they consist of bad and harsh opinions regarding the policies - This is where the government will then take in what they deem as constructive comments before further working and improving on them . This way , i believe Singapore would certainly be a better place to live in .
However, just freedom of speech alone will not be enough to substain Singapore . We must all realise that freedom of speech is a privellege and that all of us should exercise responsiblity . These responsiblity requires us to be able to engage in disagreements without disparaging individuals, particularly before that disparagement arises in a violent rhetoric. People should understand free speech should be used wisely so as not to provoke senstivities particularly in a muti-cultural society - Singapore.
Freedom of speech without social responsibility can lead to disastrous effects. When people are not responsible for what they say and do not take into account beforehand the implications that it may have , it will lead to further complications. This can be illustrated by the following example. Yes , a person may believe that one possesses all the freedom in the world to be able to say what he/she wants. This person may then go ahead to post or pass hurting remarks on another individual of a different race or on another race as a whole . When that happen , a possible racial riot might happen. Further complications like death may even arise. Therefore , i believe freedom of speech with responsibility is especially important and should be applied in a Singapore context precisely because we are a multi-racial society. It would be very easy to offend or thread over the limits set by the other races or religions if any citizens decide to talk without a sense of social responsiblity.
Another example would be the one posed by Slizagyi . As a result of freedom of speech without responsiblity by the media , it has provoked the rage of man in the Muslim World. It was totally unwise of them to publish those cartoons because it is a wrong way to start a debate about integration. Such a move inflames emotions and does not court reasons. It is a useless provocation. From these , we can clearly see that it is not only the individuals that should practise freedom of speech with responsiblity but the media too. As quoted from the text " when making a point about self- censorship , newspapers should have considered the effects ' We are what we read and the media plays an important role in influencing minds of the nation and thus should even practise freedom of speech with more responsiblity.
At the end of the day , all these will boil down to the acceptance of responsiblity. We were taught from young that everyone should be held accountable for the actions that they have done and thus it should practised.
Singapore , a multi-racial society should practise freedom of speech with responsiblity even more because just a person that does not take responsiblity of what he speaks of the other race may spark a racial riot . Lets move towards a more gracious society , with everyone placing mre focus on responsiblity like what Slizagyi said .