Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Sacrificing Human Life for the Religion of Sacrificing Human Life

 

Something very strange just took place within the criminal justice system today. Singapore’s highest court decided to delay the execution of convicted drug trafficker, Mr. Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, after he tested positive. The justices decided that common sense and humanity should prevail and Mr. Dharmalingam, who was due to be hanged at 6am on 10 November 2021, will now have a bit more time until the next court hearing.

This twist has made people in Singapore’s section of cyberspace. Many are asking how a man who spends his time alone in a cell waiting to be executed get covid. The anti-death penalty campaigners are also asking how is it possible for the justices to stay the execution on the grounds of common sense and humanity because a condemned man has a disease, yet so no issue with executing him on the same grounds.

I will leave the discussion on Mr. Dharmalingam’s fate to those who are working hard to save his life and as in my posting “DRUGDEALING 101,” continue to look at the discussion on whether the mandatory death penalty deters drug crimes and if it does, how effective is it. I’ve argued that whilst things may look rosy on the surface, they are not what they seem. Whilst you are unlikely to see drug addicts roaming our streets, Singapore has people who abuse drugs and that figure has stayed pretty consistent over the years. It goes without saying that our regular drug users (anywhere from 3,000 to 3,500 people are arrested for drug abuse every year) must be getting their drugs from somewhere and it is clear that while our “zero tolerance” may make the business too risky for many, there are people willing to engage and profit from the business.

The government has claimed that Singaporeans support the government’s harsh stance on drugs. Hence, it continues to keep those policies. If you were to trawl through the online comments related to drug case, it seems that the government is correct. Take the following story related to Mr. Dharmalingam:

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/court-dismisses-last-ditch-application-case-malaysian-drug-trafficker-death-row?fbclid=IwAR2Wzcw7TuE0HLI72Pa1w3HRpsrZtZkp2LosMDdelqUyMj8kAIlGogEl4sY

 


If you were to look at the comments to this story on the Today Newspaper’s Facebook page, you will notice that there are a number of people who think that granting any form of clemency towards Mr. Dharmalingam would be a mistake. The common thread is that mercy for drug traffickers, even if they are at the bottom of the food chain would send out the wrong message and that any mercy would only encourage drug traffickers.

https://www.facebook.com/search/posts/?q=today

 


Given that Singapore has remained a relatively low-crime society, its easy to see how people can have faith in the system.

However, as stated in “DRUG DEALING 101” the picture isn’t as rosy as one might imagine. Singapore has drug users and that number has held steady from 2011 to 2020. It’s been noted that even when the number of people being arrested for drug use fell in 2020, there were more first-time users. Somebody must be selling to the drug abusers and clearly not everyone is being deterred.

There is also a greater concern than the number of drug users that don’t seem to decline much. That concern is the issue of whether the “mandatory death sentence for drugs” has become a religion rather than a policy, particularly by the people from the top. In a way, its easy to understand when people on the ground take a “religious” view on policies in as much they see how a certain policy affects their immediate surroundings. It’s a different story when a person at the top, who has a holistic overview of the situation and all the data at his fingertips, defends a policy like a religion even when the data is saying otherwise. Take this 2019 Reuters interview with our Home Affairs Minister, Mr. K Shanmugam as an example:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-law-drugs-idUSKCN1UQ197

 


In this article, you have the man with probably the best overview of drug related issues in Singapore defending a policy at a moment when the evidence is showing him that the policy may not be working the way he thinks it should.

Nobody is saying that one shouldn’t be tough of drug trafficking. However, when your drug abuse cases go up at the same time as your execution rate, it should be a sign that the drug dealers aren’t being deterred the way you think they should.

One might conclude that the sensible thing to do would be to relook at how things are being done. Our ASEAN neighbours are experimenting and trying different things. Only time will tell if their experiments will be beneficial. However, they are at the very least trying to do something different in the hopes of getting a different result. We, by contrast, are doubling down on the same thing even when we should know the result. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Given that we pride ourselves in being the most rational nation in the region and our government prides itself in being practical (we do what works) rather than ideology driven, why do we treat a policy like a religious text at a point when that policy is showing signs of diminishing returns?  

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Maira Gall