SINGAPORE: Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said on Friday (Sep 2) that Singapore’s policy of having the death penalty for drug trafficking is one that is in the interest of Singaporeans.
Mr Shanmugam was responding to a question about how Singapore balances conflicting viewpoints, domestically and internationally, on the issue at a dialogue session with students from the Nanyang Technological University.
“My starting point (is) what is my task as a minister? Do we say we have tough punishment because we want to be tough? Is it because there’s some glory in being tough? None of that,” the minister said.
“From something as mundane as building a road to naming a building to having policies – whether it’s on aviation, healthcare, Budget, to what kind of penalties we have for littering, molesting, rape, murder, drugs. Everything has got to be based on a certain view on what is in the interest of Singaporeans.”
Mr Shanmugam cited a survey done by his ministry among non-Singaporeans from parts of the region, where 83 per cent of the respondents said the death penalty made people not want to traffic substantial amounts of drugs into Singapore.
“If I removed the death penalty, the flow of drugs into Singapore will be much higher. Your lives, your siblings’ lives, many other lives would be at risk. More people will die in Singapore if we removed the death penalty,” he added.
He also mentioned a separate survey by the ministry, which showed nearly 87 per cent of Singaporeans supporting the death penalty.
“So there isn’t a great deal of argument within Singapore. It’s some people who keep repeating the points,” the minister said, before adding that Singapore is not alone in capital punishment laws. The death penalty is also in place in the world’s three largest countries – China, India and the United States.
“All three (countries) have the death penalty so what international practice are you talking to me about?”
Continuing, the minister cited the high-profile case involving convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who was executed in April after 12 years on death row. The case in Singapore had gained international prominence, with headlines focusing on Nagaenthran’s alleged intellectual disability.
Mr Shanmugam noted how the United States had executed two men with IQ ranges similar to Nagaenthran around the same time that the Malaysian’s final appeal was dismissed.
“Nobody is writing to them. Nobody is complaining,” he said.
“So when we talk about international practice and local pressure, don't fall into this trap that is set by a few people repeating the same points over and over again."
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
