Singapore’s Minister of Law and Home Affairs, K Shanmugam, stated on Sunday ( Jan 19 ) that personal feelings are” set aside” to protect the majority of Singaporeans from the death penalty.
Before quitting his position on January 20, Mr. Shanmugam responded to a Wall Street Journal ( WSJ) article from December of last year about US President Joe Biden commuters serving prison terms for the death of 37 inmates.
The US newspaper’s commentary, Biden’s Prisoners of ( His ) Conscience, highlighted some of the convicts whom Mr Biden has pardoned, such as Jorge Avila-Torrez, who sexually assaulted and murdered women, and Anthony Battle, who killed his wife and a prison officer.
” President Biden referred to his private consciousness, for doing this,” said Mr Shanmugam in a Twitter post.
He added that WSJ had also pointed out that, in comparison, there were others whose dying words Mr. Biden had no commuted.
This included the shooter who killed Israeli members at a Pittsburgh synagogue and the shooter who killed African-American visitors to a Charleston religion.
” WSJ made the point about Biden’s personal morality overriding the rules: The prisoners who were pardoned by him had gone through testing, appeals, and were found guilty – beyond reasonable question”, said Mr Shanmugam.
The discrepancy in President Biden’s deeds in allowing the dying sentences to extend to some other cases is “at the same time”: The religion and synagogue’s killers were no pardoned. Why was it ok to forgive some cold-blooded murders, while no forgive was given to another cold-blooded murders? “
I am frequently questioned about my place on the death sentence. What is in the best hobbies of Singaporeans as a whole, in my opinion, is the primary concern? ” Mr Shanmugam said.
” One’s personal views can and will advise one’s opinions on policy, but in the end, you have to do what is correct by world, for the benefit of the community as a whole, regardless of your personal beliefs; doing anything else would be incorrect. “
While removing the dying charges will save the life of drug traffickers, Mr. Shanmugam claimed that it will encourage more people to enter Singapore and that the supply did “undoubtedly fall.”
” And there will be effects: More serious murder, murder, drug-related murders. Some more innocent people will die in Singapore, including more stupid younger children. “
According to Mr. Shanmugam, “more than a third of illegal firearms spasms were linked to pharmaceutical trafficking,” he cited the European Union as an example.
” In the US, every 14 times, more Americans die from abusing methadone than from all of America’s war combined since the Second World War, from Korea to Afghanistan,” he added.
In Singapore, the Central Narcotics Bureau then arrests about 3,000 substance abusers per month, far less than the 6,000 per year in the 1990s, Mr Shanmugam pointed out.
” All things being equal, this variety may have gone up in the last 30 times: The supply of medicines in the region has exploded, our buying power has increased significantly, and the global atmosphere is increasingly drug-tolerant. But rather, the amount has halved,” he said.
Singapore’s hard view “has saved thousands of lives: Some ability offenders, victims of crimes that come with substance abuse, and their people”, he added.
When we fully believe that removing the death penalty would result in more deaths, and countless more lives ( including those of children ), being harmed in some way by medication, if the government do so? ,” said Mr Shanmugam.
” As policy makers, we set off our private thoughts, and do what is necessary to protect the majority of people.
And if we take a move that causes many more innocent people to die in Singapore, we cannot be at peace with ourselves. “