Danger of thoughtless ‘free’ speech

TWO recent examples of the concept of “freedom of speech” prompted this week’s column.

The first is a Member of Parliament’s use of parliamentary immunity to unfairly and consciously smear the good name of another MP by insinuating without any proof that he was offered bribes. When questioned by the Speaker, he retracted his statement. When there were calls for his suspension, the MP meekly and unashamedly “apologised”.

Personally, I feel that this display of conscious abuse of the right of an MP to speak is worse than the four letter words and sexual innuendo that have been uttered in the (sometimes not so) august House.

The second example is when the Umno Youth chief, on his Facebook page, asked “Kamu mabuk kah?” (Are you drunk) in response to an opinion expressed by former Penang deputy chief minister II P. Ramasamy on the vernacular school issue. The question obviously refers to the hugely insulting stereotype that Indians are drunkards.

When the government suggested drawing up guidelines for the media, there were cries of “killing democracy”, and of not supporting freedom of speech as in the days when calls of Reformasi echoed.

In today’s column, I wish to explain my personal stand on the concept of freedom of speech. I firmly believe that it must be tempered with wisdom, responsibility, and a conscience. Without these three values, freedom of speech in the digital age will destroy this nation socially, economically and politically.

Freedom of speech is a product of many revolutions past, when people fought, and even died, to make their voices heard long before the advent of digital communication. Freedom of speech was also the product of an education that centred on the humanities rather than the sciences and industries bent on creating technical, factory and office workers.

In the days before the Internet, those in the public eye usually came from a background where respect was habitual and words full of meaning were used to put forward arguments, not slurs and insults.

If there was an outburst of impropriety, media exposure was comparatively limited. And most importantly, in a time without smart phones and social media platforms offering practically instantaneous reactions, time would temper the situation and allow for rational thought rather than a knee-jerk retaliation.

The situation is very different in the digital age of industry- based education.

I firmly believe that in the last four decades, more and more of the curriculum has been isolating us.

I’ve gone through the Pengajian Islam textbooks from Year One to Form Five and was shocked to find not a single picture of churches, temples, heritage artefacts of different cultures, women without a tudung – basically, nothing of any other religion or culture. Can you imagine how isolating it is for this one race and one faith?

My personal unfunded research reading thousands of Khutbah, or Friday sermons, by Jakim (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) revealed no discussions of shared values across faiths and cultures. Again, that isolation.

Now, I have not read the sermons of other religions nor have I gone to other schools besides public schools, so I have no idea what is spoken in sermons and taught in other textbooks there. For Malays, anyway, I feel like our curriculum has prepared us to be like that Umno Youth guy and that MP who exhibited no conscience in destroying the good name of a person.

Put all that together with the digital communication age and what we get is social media users simply blasting an opinion in unkind language without waiting for clarification and analysis, or even bothering to find out if the news is fake or incomplete.

We also have some media catering to short attention spans by focusing on trivial things – remember former education minister Maszlee Malik’s suggestion about changing to black shoes that everyone focused on? The noise drowned out many other excellent ideas.

The popular line is that this country is rosak (not working) because of politicians and civil servants, and I have to agree to some degree. But I am also of the opinion nowadays that we, the people, are playing an increasing role in tearing at the nation’s fabric.

I feel that the fault of not fixing what’s broken now lies with all of us, Malay and non-Malay citizens. In other words, it is our fault altogether.

And one big problem is that we don’t know how to speak to each other – especially online.

Vlogs, podcasts, social media and messaging platforms all bring out the very worst in us. We believe all too hastily in information or statements that strengthen our preconceived mistrust of the other (what’s called the echo chamber effect).

We are too lazy to check sources or find out what the whole story is (multiple studies show people only read headlines). And we don’t even seem to know enough to wonder if the source has a vested interest in spreading a particular piece of news or information.

For us to perform our duty as citizens as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, just like MPs, we too must speak responsibly, we too must speak with wisdom, and we too must be guided by conscience when we speak, ie with decorum and adab (etiquette). If we can’t do a simple thing like that then it’s better to keep silent.

In Islam, mere words can destroy all the good we have done and place us on the list of those destined for neraka, or hell.

It seems to me that, sadly, so many Muslims nowadays are too busy shouting about their holiness to know their own religion thoroughly. But non-Muslims aren’t much different. They too speak without wisdom and patience, and without seeking clarification or checking for bias; and when proven wrong, I don’t remember anyone offering apologies for rudeness to ministers or even the Prime Minister.

This is why I support the government’s proposal to come up with guidelines for the media and new laws to manage social media. I don’t believe this is about killing freedom of speech. Instead, I believe this is about preventing senseless and conscienceless speech killing any attempts at unity.

To have freedom of speech, we must “imprison” ourselves first with wisdom, compassion, and respect for all people. That’s the only way a democracy will work.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.