I find it quite funny when activists try to suggest Singapore either is or should be ashamed of executing criminals, and that they somehow shed a light and draw global attention to this allegedly inhumane practice.
In reality, people like Kirsten Han do a remarkably valuable job of reminding every drug dealer on the planet that:
A. Singapore will execute each one of them if they get caught.
B. Activists have zero influence on policy and are powerless to stop it.
And then mass media of the world pick it all up and broadcast it for free! Can you even imagine the monetary value of prime time coverage in major TV stations or news outlets like CNN, BBC, WaPo, NY Times and so on?
If Singaporean government wanted to pay for such a campaign most news outlets would likely refuse to even run it. But when it's framed as an activist cause it gets global coverage for free!We should all thank Kirsten and her buddies for saving taxpayers millions of dollars in an global anti-drug PR campaign that their caterwauling is for Singapore
But I think it would be even better if the city-state took a stand on the issue too.
You must have noticed how foreign politicians and diplomats like to condemn Singapore for hanging crooks (most recently the Irish PM). So, why not flip it around?
I think it would be fun if Singaporean PM or FM went to his counterpart in Sweden and ask about the sexual assault epidemic. Or to the UK expressing his concern over stabbings and thousands of kids falling prey to pedophiles who weren't prosecuted due to demented political-correctness, which dictated their foreign identities be hidden. Or the Netherlands, where policemen have to hide their names and journalists become assassination targets for drug-dealing organized crime.
Imagine a conference after a visit to America, during which Singapore condemns authorities in Washington for allowing murders, homelessness and drug abuse to spiral out of control.
And why not? If anybody is in a position to be patronizing it is Singapore vs. pretty much every country on this planet.
I would suggest that those unhappy about the city-state hanging murderers and drug smugglers should only come back to preach when their homicide rates and their drug abuse problems are as small as they are in SG.Come when you have something BETTER to propose - not just something an entitled (pseudo)intellectual official, living under 24/7 security thinks is morally superior (whatever the f... that means).
We probably can't eliminate all crime related-deaths but it's the role of criminal justice policy to ensure it's the evil people who get to die - not the decent, law-abiding citizens.
You're either lenient and allow criminals to cause irreversible harm - or you cause irreversible harm to criminals, protecting the society in the process.That's what death penalty (along with other strict penalties) accomplishes rather well.Prisons in the West are full of criminals who ruined lives of millions of honest people - and most of them will get to see the light of day once more, enjoying taxpayer funded survival behind bars in the meantime.Overdose deaths in the US have topped 100,000 last year. Murders have reached a record high of over 25,000. That is in ONE YEAR. If only global activists were outraged about this as they are about death row inmates...
Murder clearance rate in America is just little over 50%, meaning that there's a flip-of-a-coin chance the murderer will never be identified.
And yet capital punishment has either been completely abolished (e.g. in Europe) or is barely practiced (in the US).Anders Breivik, the lunatic who killed 77 people in Norway 10 years ago, could only be sentenced to 21 years (though it could be extended) and lives in a 3-room "cell" with TV, PC and video games.
But somehow Singapore has a moral problem?
SG should wear its executions as a badge of honour. "In our country there's so little crime that the deaths making the most headlines are those of executed crooks not honest people" - this is what the message should be. And it's Singaporeans who should be patronizing towards the world, asking how is it possible that reportedly "developed" and "civilized" countries allow criminal atrocities to harm millions of their citizens.What about their "human rights"?
