Majority of Singaporeans Support Death Penalty

After reading my earlier post about the Biblical Stand on Death Penalty, Mr Wang expressed his amazement that the bible actually prescribes the death penalty (for murder). I suspect that he will be even more amazed when he reads today’s Sunday Times which reported that, according to a survey of 425 Singaporeans and permanent residents, 96% actually supported the death penalty.

“Almost everyone here, both young and old and of every race and education level, supports the death penalty for heinous crimes, a survey shows”, read the opening paragraph.



Frankly, I too was surprised. I would have guessed that the figure would not exceed 60 to 70%. Even more shocking was that many of these guys were even more bloodthirsty than me. For example, nearly half (45% and 42% respectively) actually advocated the death penalty for sex with children under the age of 12 and rape. I only support the death penalty for murder and nothing else. In fact I think we are too liberal in the use of the rotan.

One conclusion I can draw from this survey is that the blogosphere is not a good place to gauge public opinion. From most of the blogs I have read regarding this issue, one would have thought that the majority of Singaporeans are opposed to the death penalty.

I guess this is bad news for the opposition parties. They appeared to be quite hopeful that the criticisms of government so widely and vociferously expressed in Singapore blogs were reflective of the general feeling of Singaporeans towards the PAP government. I really think they should not get their hopes too high.

As for me; sigh – it is not going to make any difference. I didn’t get to exercise my vote for the past few elections (lost count already) and I doubt it is going to be different this time.