"Don't quote me."

This is a line I hear almost everyday.

The second most common line is, "Don't take my picture."

Whenever I am out doing street interviews, people would often agree to say something, or anything at all, if and only if they are not named.

Whenever journalists carry out interviews, three particulars regarding the interviewee are extremely essential: name, age and occupation.

This is the way to show that our news report came from a legitimate source, i.e we did not imagine it or made it up.

I often meet people who gladly accepted the interview, and readily provided information they knew. But, at the end of the interview when I asked for their particulars, they would wave me away and move away as quickly as possible.

At times, this was my experience:

Me: Sir, can I have your name please?
Interviewee: Hmm...Tan.
Me: Eh, can I have your full name please? Tan...what?
Interviewee: Just put Mr Tan will do lah. Need to write till so clear meh? You ask so much for what? I am very busy now, that’s it okie?

This is why in most of my news articles, the people interviewed are quoted as Mr Lee, Mrs Tan, Miss Chan, Madam Tay etc etc etc. Sometimes, they are simply quoted as "a neighbour who declined to give her name" or "a resident who requested not to be named".

And the worst scenario takes place when the interviewee hears the “cha-kaa” clicking sound of the camera. Two things may happen then. One, he automatically shuts up and runs away as if he had just seen a ghost. Or two, he turns nasty and demands that his photograph be deleted.

It seemed that many people are afraid to be held responsible for their opinion or what they have said. And they are “scared out of their wits” if their faces (photographs) are associated with their comments.

But why? What is there to be afraid of, if you are giving your honest and harmless personal opinion? (Of course, I do not mean comments that may hurt people or cause unrest such as racist remarks etc.)

You might have seen some television news crew trying to find interviewees on the streets and people simply make detours or bend their heads low as they walk by. Some smile awkwardly and shake their heads to show that they do not want to appear on TV. Others run away long before the TV crew could get near them.

I can understand these reactions. It is almost the same as sitting in a lecture theatre and slumping as low as possible in your seat, hoping the lecturer will not call on you to answer questions. It's like being afraid to say something “stupid” and “silly” in front of everyone, a kind of "cowardly" behaviour which I have experienced before too.

Well, perhaps it is the Singapore context, where everything has to be kept in right order, and mistakes are often unforgivable, that created this “phenomenon” whereby no one wants to risk anything (even if it might be nothing) at all by giving their opinion.

But come to think of it, there is something seriously wrong somewhere, if we are afraid to be associated with what we think or what we have said.

If you have said something with a true heart and clear conscience, be proud of it.