Sakinah Abdul Aziz

I've been going back and forth in formulating my thoughts on this topic. I have to make a disclaimer that writing this isn't done with the intention to offend or make judgements about anyone in particular, but rather a reflection that came out from my past travelling habits and my observations on the trend and culture of travelling in the past few years. It hasn't been an easy piece to write about, also because I recognise that I'm part of this problem and having perpetuated the very things you would be reading later on. So firstly, this is a critique on myself. And secondly, I think we ought to reflect about this because of the prevalent and widespread travelling culture that is further exacerbated, romanticised and normalised by social media and people/community around us who travel frequently.  I was actually that person who made sure I was to make travel plans every year. I had a few places in mind, forming my own bucket list with each place waiting to be struck out...

I'm inspired to write (pretty anti-climatic I must say) on this topic because of recent discussions with some friends and also because I just recently wrote an essay on religious freedom a couple of weeks ago, which very much delves into this discussion of freedom of speech. Being in the UK allowed me to have firsthand experience of being at the receiving end of hate speech and micro-aggressions. It is no wonder that there have been many ongoing campaigns, ground-up initiatives and NGOs which address issues such as racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, along with many others which are associated with intolerance, abuse, and hate speech. The things I have been reading on these forces of hatred have actually come to life. In Singapore, voices are being stifled and suppressed because of the rules and laws in place. When there are voices that are deemed by the state to be corrosive to the national harmony, the state would not hesitate to implement bans (for instance, banning re...