Singapore invites billionaire Branson to death penalty debate

(Oct 23): Singapore invited British billionaire Richard Branson to a live televised debate with Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam on the city-state’s drug policy and death penalty, in response to a blog post by the businessman on the subject.

In his Oct 10 post, Branson said “Singapore still finds itself on the wrong side of history” with its continued, almost stubborn use of the death penalty, particularly for drug offenses. He highlighted the execution of convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam this year, which has attracted international criticism due to concerns about his mental capacity.

Nagaenthran was hanged after being found guilty for trafficking about 43 grammes of heroin into Singapore in 2009.

Multiple appeals of the sentence were dismissed in the city-state’s courts, and Branson linked the execution with Singapore’s commitments to protect those with disabilities.

Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs refuted Branson’s remarks in a statement on Saturday (Oct 22) saying that the drug trafficker “knew what he was doing and that he was not intellectually disabled”.

“Mr Branson may use this platform to demonstrate to Singaporeans the error of our ways and why Singapore should do away with laws that have kept our population safe from the global scourge of drug abuse,” the ministry said in the statement. His “flight to and accommodation in Singapore will be paid for”.

The ministry defended the government’s drug policy, stating that the measures were intended to protect Singapore and its residents from the dangers of drugs.

The strict laws, and their clear enforcement, have significantly reduced the amount of drugs entering Singapore, resulting in a steady decline in number of substance abusers.

“Mr Branson is entitled to his opinions,” the ministry said. “These opinions may be widely held in the UK, but we do not accept that Mr Branson or others in the West are entitled to impose their values on other societies. Nor do we believe that a country that prosecuted two wars in China in the 19th century to force the Chinese to accept opium imports has any moral right to lecture Asians on drugs.”

Source: Bloomberg, Staff, October 23, 2022

A proper national reckoning with the capital punishment regime, instead of a modern-day gladiator ring

The prospect of a live televised debate between a minister and a white billionaire is tantalising. We don’t know what format and length is being proposed, but just the idea of it is dramatic and promises to make for some very good TV.

But good TV doesn’t mean good discourse or deliberation. And the issues of capital punishment, drug policy and public health aren’t matters that can be settled in a single debate, the challenge thrown down like an invite to a modern-day gladiator ring. These are complex issues that involve discussions of health policy, social inequality, policing and incarceration, human rights, access to justice, and so, so much more. These are issues that won’t be addressed by a one-off primetime slot with a rich white man in which barbs are traded while TV audiences watch for entertainment, not reflection.

If Minister K Shanmugam’s priority is the lives, well-being and health of people in Singapore — and not ego and scoring political points — then what we need is a proper national reckoning with the capital punishment regime, where Singaporeans can have access to the research and information that exists, and have the space to encounter and consider a range of different perspectives, experiences, and arguments. We need science and evidence, investigation and deep introspection, not TV soundbites.

The Transformative Justice Collective recently kicked off the #StopTheKilling campaign, calling for an immediate moratorium on executions pending an *independent and transparent* review of the capital punishment regime in Singapore. If Shanmugam really cared about best practices, protecting lives, and the well-being of all the people in Singapore, he should heed #StopTheKilling’s call instead of trying to start fights with a foreign businessman.

If we had an open, independent and transparent review of the death penalty and its use in Singapore, the committee tasked to conduct this review can still invite Richard Branson, and his colleagues at the Global Commission on Drug Policy, if they think it relevant. They can review the GCDP’s reports, which are available online. They can talk to other drug policy researchers, experts who work on substance use and/or addiction, human rights experts, legal practitioners, criminologists, etc.

Most importantly, they can talk to the families of death row prisoners past and present, people who have been incarcerated for drugs and experienced Singapore’s extremely punitive drug policy firsthand, people who have been acquitted or had their death sentences set aside, and local activists. Heck, with some cooperation from the Singapore Prison Service, they could even speak to the death row prisoners themselves.

Would this not be a better demonstration of our commitment to being thorough, to due process, to building public participation and trust, to science and evidence-based approaches as we work to Forward Singapore? Why should Richard Branson be the only one to get invited to air his views? Why can’t Singaporeans, especially those most directly affected by the death penalty, also have a seat at the table and the space to speak?

Instead of getting his ministry to issue passive-aggressive challenges to rich white men across the world, I call on Minister Shanmugam and the PAP government to immediately halt executions. I call for a transparent and independent review of the use of the death penalty and its effects. I demand that the government be transparent and accountable to the people on how the death penalty has been used in Singapore. I call on Members of Parliament, of any party, to carry a parliamentary petition — already signed by hundreds of family members and loved ones of death row prisoners — into the House for deliberation. I call for access to information, and the space for Singaporeans to deliberate and express their views without fear.

I invite Singaporeans to sign the people’s petition in support of the families’ parliamentary petition, and to attend our series of events on the death penalty, the first of which is happening this coming week.

If Shanmugam wants an in-depth, substantive discussion of the death penalty and drug policy, he doesn’t need to look so far away for engagement. He just needs to be more open to listening to people who are already here.

Source: theonlinecitizen.com, Kirsten Han, October 23, 2022. This was first published on Kirsten Han’s Facebook page and reproduced with permission. Kirsten Han is a freelance journalist and an anti-death penalty activist.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
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