A Question for those who Oppose the Death Penalty

I followed with interest the ongoing discussion at Mr Wang Says So about the death penalty.

As with many of the previous debates, those who oppose the death penalty (for murder) cite reasons relating to revenge, deterrence and so on. Strangely, they seldom talk about justice. To all these people, I have a question:

What will you say to Mdm Kittiduangrat Ketkanok?

In case you don’t remember, she is the mother of 4-year old Sindee Neo, the girl who was reportedly pushed or thrown to her death from the sixth floor of a HDB flat in Telok Blangah Crescent on October 7, 2004..

I quote from the Straits Times report of 5th August 2005.

Weeping uncontrollably, she said through a Thai interpreter: “I bear no grudge. I only ask for justice for my daughter’s death.”

The heart of the issue is justice. It’s not about revenge. Referring to the case of the murder trial in Thailand (see below), even if Katherine Horton's mother is willing to forgive the 2 accused murders, the judges still have to do their job and uphold the law and make the murderers pay for their crime.

It’s is also not about deterrence. Many people quote studies to show that the death penalty is not effective in deterring others from committing murder. But of course, there are also many others, including myself, who question the reliability of such studies. Anyway, my view is that, even if capital punishment is not effective in deterring criminals from committing murders, it is still justified.

I think the Chinese idiom sums it up best: 杀人偿命，欠债还钱。

Mr Wang says that he knows of no religion that is proactively for the death penalty. That’s strange, because I thought 2 of the major religions, namely Islam and Christianity clearly support the death penalty.

Genesis chapter 9, verse 6 (in the Old Testament) clearly specifies the death penalty for the crime of murder. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

Of course there are also Christians who believe that capital punishment does not apply to the New Testament and church age. But I think I leave it to the theologians to debate that one.

My Related Posts:

Biblical Stand on Death Penalty
Majority of Singaporeans Support Death Penalty
One Country Two Systems
Do Australians Really Oppose The Death Penalty?

The Great Indian Massacre

Last year I posted an article about the The Great Singapore Massacre

How sad to read of another massacre of far greater proportions recently.
(BBC NEWS : India Loses 10m Female Births)


"More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research.

Researchers in India and Canada for the Lancet journal said prenatal selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year.

Their research was based on a national survey of 1.1m households in 1998.
........"

The irony is that, due to their religious beliefs, many of these people literally will not even kill a fly.

Sunday Times, 01 January 2005

Two interesting items caught my eye this morning.

Article no. 1: What if you had one year left to live? by Ms Sumiko Tan

Ms Tans thinks that we should focus our minds and prioritize our goals by asking what if we have only 1 year, or 1 month or even just 1 hour to live. She listed 4 things which were her top priority if she had only 1 hour live. Her list included making peace with those she had offended; by sadly she left out making peace with her creator.

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)




Article no. 2: Dr N Varaprasad shared his enjoyment in reading the bestseller, The Da Vinci Code

Apparently, he read the book twice, and both times he couldn’t put it down. In contrast I tried to read this book a few months ago. My nephew had recommended it, and week after week, it was the most popular book in our book stores. My reaction though was completely different from that of the learned chief executive of the National Library Board. After a few chapters, I simply could not continue. The blasphemies were too much for me to endure.

The Da Vinci Code has undoubtedly made Mr Dan Brown a very rich man. But the person he blasphemed said these words; “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

Australian Leaders No Better Than Habibie

Every Singaporean remembers former Indonesian president Habibie’s famous insult when he referred to Singapore as a ‘little red dot’.

“You are nothing, we don’t give a damn about you and we don’t need you as a friend” – is in fact what he was saying.

Now of course the Australian leaders are much more civilized than that. They repeatedly talked about how much they value Singapore’s friendship. But as the saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words”. Australian leaders’ actions in recently demonstrate that they are no better than Habibie.

Take the Michael McCrea incident for example. Remember this guy? He was suspected of murdering his driver, Kho Nai Guan, and the driver's girlfriend, Lan Ya Ming in 2002. He escaped to Britain and then to Australia where he confessed to the crime. Because the Australians do not believe in the death penalty, they refused to extradite him to Singapore. In the end, we had to give the Australians an assurance that he would not be executed even if he was found guilty before they would release him to Singapore.

As a Singaporean, aren’t you outraged by such an arrogant attitude. The crime was committed here in Singapore. Shouldn’t our laws take precedence? By insisting that we give in to their demands, doesn’t it undermine our own laws. Future murderers will simply run and hide in Australia. No, we don’t care. This is our policy. We cannot change for a little red like you.

Now we have the Nguyen Tuong Van incident. This convicted drug trafficker is sentenced to die soon. And the Australian government applies non-stop pressure on us to bend our laws to spare him from the gallows; knowing full well that this goes completely against our stated stand on such matters (Please see excerpt of PM Lee Hsien Loong’s 2004 National Day Rally Speech below).

Don’t you see a double standard being applied when you compare the two cases. You are just a little red dot. We don’t give a damn about your laws. We are civilized people. Your laws are barbaric. You must bend to our demands.

Maybe Dr Mahathir was right after all; “It's very difficult to get along with deputy sheriffs.”



Excerpt of PM Lee’s 2004 National Day Rally Speech

The one thing that will not change is our approach to foreign relations. We seek to be friends with all countries, especially our immediate neighbours and the major powers. We pursue win-win co-operation with all countries which are willing to cooperate with us. But that does not mean that we can always accommodate the views or positions of other countries. When our vital interests are at stake, we must quietly stand our ground. As Dr Habibie said, Singapore is a little red dot. If we don't defend our interests, who will?

This approach has earned us respect internationally, and a network of good relations with many countries around the world.

From time to time we are put to the test. As a small country, we cannot afford to flinch. When Michael Fay was sentenced to caning for vandalism, President Bill Clinton wrote on his behalf, but we could not remit the sentence to cane. People in Asia noted our stand. When Prime Minister Mahathir pressured us to change the Water Agreements, we stood firmly by our legal rights. We gave a full public explanation of the negotiations with Malaysia, and why we were justified in international law and were prepared to go to any international tribunal.


Footnote: Please don’t misunderstand me. This article is about foreign relations. It’s not about the death penalty. Personally, I don’t support the death penalty except for the crime of murder.

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” - Genesis 9:6

So Many Insomniacs In Singapore

Out of curiousity, I did a Google Blog Search on the name "Sleepless in Singapore". To my surprise, I found so many postings by bloggers who were unable to sleep.

It's a bit worrying. So many bloggers are young people. Many bloggers cannot cannot sleep. Can we then conclude that many young people suffer from insomnia in Spore?

For my case, I don't really know what prompted me to use the name Sleepless in Spore. Insomnia is not a problem for me. Reflecting on it, it does seem to be a rather stupid name. Gives the impression of a handsome Tom Hanks type when if fact it is just the opposite. Actually, at the time when I started this blog, the movie You've Got Mail came to my mind.

Anyway, I will just stick to it. Unlike our government, I am not fond of changing names.

Consciously Rude

I once attended a seminar on Safety. The speaker talked about 4 levels of safety behaviour. It goes something like this:

• Level 1: Unconciously unsafe - this person is not even aware that he is behaving in an unsafe manner.
• Level 2: Consciously unsafe - this person has probably undergone safety training, and is aware that he is behaving in an unsafe manner.
• Level 3: Consciously safe - this person has probably undergone safety training too, and consciously reminds himself to adopt safe work practices.
• Level 4: Unconciously safe - after prolonged practice, safety becomes a part of this person's habits and he adopts safe practices unconsciously (e.g. Sporeans buckling up whenever they get into a car).

I believe we can apply this concept to customer service by replacing the words, 'safe' and 'unsafe' with the words, 'courteous' and 'rude'.

I think many small Singaporean establishments like the HDB retail shops and hawker stalls belong to the Levels 2 and 3. Previously they mostly belonged to Level 1. But the bad economy and tough competition caused them to 'shape up or ship out'.

The other day, I bought some fruits at an HDB shop in North Buona Vista. As the lady started to count the apples that I have selected and pack them into a plastic bag, she suddently put one aside and told me curtly to take another. As my hearing was not so good, I asked her to repeat.

"Go and take another apple", she ordered somewhat impatiently. "This one is bad."

After I returned with a new apple, she toned down her voice considerably to explain that one of the apples I had chosen earlier was slightly rotten. (She was probably thinking. "This chap is not only deaf, he is blind as well.") It wasn't exactly an apology, but she must have realised that she shouldn't have adopted such a rude tone of voice with her customer.

I cannot comment about the situation in expensive establishments because I seldom patronise such places. But, I suspect mostly they are in Level 3. With the strong emphasis on customer service training, many sales staff do make an attempt to be courteous. But it is tough for them because it goes against their nature.

I am sorry to say this; but I think that Singaporeans generally are quite rude and impatient. I hope many people will disagree with me.

Go and Jump into the Sea

The president of Iran said a few days ago that Israel should be wiped off from the face of the earth. Later, his government declared that they are a peaceful people who do not believe in force and violence and that sort of thing.

I guess the only other alternative then is to tell the Israelites, "Go and jump into the sea."

Good Government

Last week, I had the opportunity to play host to some visitors from the Philippines. Some comments that they made helped me to appreciate the good government that we enjoy in Singapore.

First of all, on the several occasions that I met them at the hotel, I noticed that the lobbies were often crowded with tourists of all shapes and colours, and the car park jammed with tour buses. Our STB must have done a pretty good marketing job to bring in so many people to visit our expensive ‘little red dot'.

Then, when I looked at the photos that they took at the Esplanade and Merlion Park, I suddenly realized that Singapore is really quite beautiful, albeit in an artificial sort of way. Because I seldom go to such ‘touristy’ areas, let alone take pictures there, I didn’t notice this before.

When driving my friends around, one of them remarked that our streets and roadside parks are so beautiful and well-maintained. “You really are blessed to have such a good government”, one of them remarked. I shared with them a little about our efforts to keep Singapore ‘clean and green’. True – our Nparks has done an excellent job.

After nearly one week, one of them said, “Its strange; I hardly see any police around in the public areas. Back home, we have police at every street corner, and yet there is so much crime. Here, you have so few police, but you have so little crime”.

I could not help but agree with them, although, in order not to sound too proud, I remarked that our government employed very highly qualified and highly paid professionals to manage the government departments; and many of our public sector organizations like the Singapore Police Force and the Library Board have actually won recognition in the form of national quality awards.

When I surf the internet and visit various forums and blog sites, I notice that many people complain that our ministers are over-paid. I do not have any opinion on that. However, I totally support the principle that the best talents should be hired to run the country; and such people should be paid salaries that are comparable to those in the private sector.

Today, we live in perilous times. Earthquakes, terrorist bombings, hurricanes, SARS, dengue, and a very real threat of a bird flu epidemic stare us in the face. Now, more than ever, we need good leaders to run the country.