MP Chen Show Mao of the Worker’s Party shared a photo of a hand out that was distributed in Parliament on 1 April to accompany Minister K Shanmugam’s ministerial statement on restricting hate speech to maintain racial and religious harmony in Singapore.
The hand out was a list of so-called ‘offensive’ lyrics that Mr Shanmugam used to illustrate what offensive lyrics look and sound like.
Examples include:
Nine Inch Nails – Heresy: He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see/ He tries to tell me what to put inside of me/ He got the answers to ease my curiosity/ He dreamed up a god and called it Christianity/ God is dead and no one cares/ If there is a hell, I’ll see you there.
Ariana Grande – God is a Woman: You, you love it when I move you/ You love it how I touch you/ My own, when all is said and done/ You’ll believe God is a woman.
Hozier – Take me to Church: Take me to church/ I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies/ I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Lady Gaga – Judas: When he calles to me, I’m ready/ I’ll wash his feet with my hair if he needs/ Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain/ Even after three times he betrays me/ I’ll bring him down/ Bring him down, down/ A kind with no crown/ King with no crown…I’m just a Holy Fool, oh baby/ It’s so cruel, but I’m still in love with Judas, baby…I wanna love you/ But something’s pulling me away from you/ Jesus is my virtue and/ Judas is the demon I cling to/ I cling to
Now, these artists are all mainstream musical performers, with the exception of perhaps Nine Inch Nails which were really popular in the mainstream music scene in the late 90s and early 2000s. These songs have been repeated on the radio countless of times – clearly indicating that people enjoy them and have no problems with these lyrics being blasted on mainstream radio for entertainment purposes.
In his ministerial statement, Mr Shanmugam was making a point that hate speech and offensive speech should be an issue of concern to Singapore. He said, “I hope that we can reach some level of clarity and agreement on how we should frame and apply our rules on speech so as to maintain racial and religious harmony.”
Among other things, he talked about examples of hate speech made by political leaders within and outside of Singapore that were directed at specific racial and religious groups, how other countries have dealt with the issue, and the fine line between offensive speech and hate speech.
On the issue of lyrics specifically, Mr Shanmugam said that ‘Song have been a very powerful medium for spreading hate speech’, adding that hate music has been used to label, devalue, persecute, and scapegoat particular groups of people, often minorities.”
He pointed out that these lyrics mentioned above are considered offensive because they are derogatory and insulting to a particular race or religion.
What’s confusing is how lyrics like Hozier’s ‘Take me to Church’ constitute as offensive at all. The lyrics merely employ religious symbolism to convey a story or feeling. It’s not an attack on any religion or race.
Mr Shanmugam went on to say that the impact of such offensive speech depends on who delivers it and where it happens. A religious leader criticising another religion might have a different reach compared to an ‘offensive’ song played on the radio.
Still, he insisted that the government remains neutral when assessing such matters. “We proactively accommodate different groups, we recognise their different histories and traditions, and we make practical adjustments. And on that basis, we take a practical approach to assess the impact on, and the reaction of, the different communities. It often involves an assessment of the potential reaction of the targeted community when we have to decide to allow or ban something.”
He continued to say that the governments pragmatic approach in considering what is offensive and what isn’t on a case by case basis is the ‘only tenable one for our society’. He added, “It can be a bit messy, but it has worked so far, with relative success, and with a bit of give and take.”
At the end of this statement, Mr Shanmugam said “We are in the positive part of the spectrum of racial and religious relations because of the way we have structured our legal and social frameworks and all the things we have done to maintain racial and religious harmony.”
