racial harmony

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

Although Singapore is a democratic country which respect freedom of expression, there is a greater need for emphasis on social responsibility due to out multi-racialism society. 4 main different racial groups resides in Singapore, namely the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian. Any racial insensitivity or use of inappropraite language can easily lead to a racial riot. On top of that, one of the reason why Singapore is able to remained as the top of the world is because of the racial harmony present, attracting talents from all around the globe to come to Singapore. Therefore, I feel that Szilagyi's view should be adopted due to the important yet vulnerable racial harmony Singapore enjoyed. People need to be responsible for what they do or say while enjoying freedom of speech.

Whether we like it or not, we have to accept the fact that we all effectively live next door to each other. Everyone is linked by just a click away. Therefore, we now have to spare a thought and be responsible to the larger community whenever we say something sensitive.

The consequence of racial insensitivity is humongous. Just a controversial picture, a reckless comment or a wrong choice of words could result in a large impact on the minority group. Just a few decades ago, in 1950, the Maria Hertogh Riot sparked by the granting of her to her biological parents after she had been raised as a Muslim by Aminah binte Mohamed, whom she regarded as her mother. It resulted in 15 killed, 173 injured and many properties damaged. This riot is the worst incident of its kind in Singapore. From this, I can see that we have to continuously be aware of the impact of putting up reckless remarks on the internet. Freedom of speech can sometimes lead to dire consequence.