10 M’sians On Death Row In S’pore, Shanmugam Reiterates Need For Tough Drug Laws

Shanmugam Says Death Penalty For Drug Trafficking Is Necessary

This year alone, Singapore has executed nine convicted drug traffickers. Amongst them are two Malaysians — Kalwant Singh and Nagaenthran Dharmalingam.

Speaking to The Star on Saturday (3 Sep), Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam shared that 10 other Malaysians are currently on death row in Singapore.

These Malaysians facing capital punishment, he said, were mainly convicted for drug trafficking. They are currently waiting to see if they will be granted clemency.

Tough drug laws necessary due to Singapore’s position

Mr Shanmugam said nearly 70% of Singapore’s population agrees that the mandatory death penalty is an appropriate punishment for drug trafficking.

Addressing how Singapore had faced internal and external pressures to show clemency regarding Kalwant and Nagaenthran, Mr Shanmugam shared that reporting is often filtered through the ideological lens of others and not facts.

He pointed out that Singapore’s drug laws are tough because we are near major heroin-producing regions such as Afghanistan.”If drugs come through on a large scale in Singapore, the number of serious crimes will go up. Homicides will go up.”

And in my view, the number of people who will die as a result of drug abuse and crime will increase.

Both Nagaenthran and Kalwant acted as traffickers and made money “off the misery of others”, said Mr Shanmugam.

While they arguably deserve compassion, he stressed that the same feeling also needs to be extended to their victims.

Singapore will not bow to international pressure

Mr Shanmugam said Singapore would not bow to local or international pressure to get rid of capital punishment.

Despite their criticism, the minister shared that Singapore has been successful without listening to them.

Drug traffickers, whether from Malaysia or elsewhere, are fully aware of the consequences if caught and convicted in Singapore.

With these laws in place, some deliberately smuggle in drugs in a way to avoid the mandatory death sentence if caught.

Mr Shanmugam said evidence shows traffickers consciously bring in amounts below Singapore’s death sentence threshold, reported The Star.

Flow of drugs will be higher without death penalty for trafficking

Earlier on Friday (2 Sep), Mr Shamugam spoke about the death penalty at a dialogue session with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students.

He shared that Singapore’s death penalty for drug trafficking is in Singaporeans’ interest.

During the session, he stated that a survey among non-Singaporeans in the region revealed that 83% felt that the death penalty made people not want to traffic a substantial amount of drugs into Singapore.

If the death penalty were to be removed, he said the flow of drugs into Singapore would be much higher.

“Your lives, your siblings’ lives, and many other lives would be at risk. More people will die in Singapore,” he said.

Claims many activists ignore facts

Mr Shanmugam shared that a separate survey showed almost 87% of Singaporeans support the death penalty.

He said there hadn’t been a great deal of argument within Singapore. Instead, it has been some people repeating their arguments.

The minister said that the world’s three largest countries – China, India, and the United States – still have the death penalty. This puts the idea of “international practice” into question.

Bringing up Nagaenthran’s high-profile case, Mr Shanmugam pointed out that around the same time in April, the US executed two men with similar IQs to Nagaenthran. However, nobody was writing to them and complaining, he said.

So, he said that it is important not to fall into the “trap” set by a few people when talking about international and local pressure.

Substantiating his point on 3 Sep, Mr Shanmugam shared an article by the Financial Times, stating that life expectancy in the US has been reduced due to deaths from drug overdoses.

Such data, he said, shows the damaging effects of drugs.

While Singapore activists campaign on behalf of drug traffickers, they are often unaware or ignoring the facts, he said.

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Featured image adapted from K Shanmugam Sc on Facebook.