Defamation trial highlights Singapore's rope and lash law

Alan Shadrake was arrested there on July 20, the morning after launching his book "Once A Jolly Hangman".

The book's main focus is Singapore's veteran hangman Darshan Singh who executed about 1,000 people from 1959 till he retired in 2006. But the book  also contends that dubious  legal decisions by the country's courts have sent many people to the gallows. Shadrake's claims have incensed Singapore's rulers, who are very sensitive to suggestions that its legal system is anything less than totally competent, professional and politically unbiased.

During his three-day trial last week, the state prosecutor accused Shadrake of making "baseless" attacks against the country's judiciary. His book  had implied that Singapore courts succumbed to political and economic pressure, were biased against the poor and were used to suppress the government's political opponents, she said.

Shadrake's trial ended on Wednesday and the presiding judge is expected to give his verdict today. If found guilty he faces a fine and/or two years jail. On July 30, the Singapore government had offered to withdraw the charges if Shadrake issued an "unreserved apology" but he has defiantly refused to do so. "I would never apologise and I would never say sorry," he said.

His trial will again focus world attention on Singapore's high hanging rates and other draconian methods for keeping crime down, including the widespread use of corporal punishment for scores of offences.

Since 1981, Singapore has executed 468 people, according to Amnesty International and a University of California (Berkeley) study. In the mid-1990s, over 70 people a year were being hanged. From 1994 to 1999, Singapore's executions' rate of 13.57 per million population was the world's highest. But since 2005, the numbers hanged yearly have dropped to single digits. A major reason for this is that political pressure from Western and Asian countries has prevented Singapore from hanging their nationals, notes Shadrake's book.

About two-thirds of the hangings have been of drug traffickers, usually small-time couriers and low-level dealers. The Mr Bigs in Singapore's drug trade are rarely caught and executed.     

Anyone possessing 15 or more grams of heroin, or 30 grams of cocaine or morphine, or 250 grams of methamphetamine or 500 grams cannabis is hanged.  

Those caught with smaller amounts of such drugs are caned with the rotan, a 1.2-metre cane wielded by martial arts experts to maximise the pain experienced.

One caned prisoner recalled that "The pain was beyond description. If there is a word stronger than excruciating, that would be the word to describe it."

People can also be caned for committing victimless crimes such as overstaying for more than 90 days, or being illegal migrants (three to 24 strokes) and for knowingly employing more than five illegal migrants (three to 24 strokes). 

Singapore's "rope and lash" law is often hailed as the reason for its low crime rates. But countries like Hong Kong and Japan have kept crime down to Singapore's levels without resorting to such harsh punishments.

Hong Kong neither hangs nor canes people yet its level of murder, rape and drug offences are similar to Singapore's. Japan also does not practice corporal punishment and only hangs serial killers. Its violent crime and drug numbers match those of Singapore and Hong Kong. 

 While Singapore's murder rate per 100,000 population was 0.4 in 2006 and 2007, Hong Kong's was 0.6  and 0.4 for these years. But Tokyo's was higher at 1.1 and 1.0.  By comparison, the murder rates for such Western cities as New York during both years were 7.3 and 6.0, London (2.2 and 2.1) and Toronto ( 2.6 and 3.1).

Also, Singapore's rape figures are much higher than Hong Kong and Japan's. In 2002, Singapore had 3.2 rapes per 100,000 population compared to 1.85 for Japan and 1.0 for Hong Kong (in 2003), according to UN crime statistics.   

The picture becomes more complex when comparing drug offence rates for all three countries.

The prevalence of drug abuse (as percentage of a population aged 15 to 64) for such opiates as heroin was 0.2 for Hong Kong in 2003 compared to 0.1 for both Singapore and Japan in 2002, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The figures for cocaine abuse were 0.01 for Hong Kong and 0.03 for Japan in 2003 and 0.01 for Singapore in 2000. Again, drug-abuse rates for most Western countries were usually several times higher.  

But these figures do disprove the widespread belief in the West that Singapore is completely drug-free.

These statistics can only provide an approximate comparison between Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. But they are sufficient to show that Singapore is achieving no better crime control with its draconian criminal punishments than they are. 

Further proof of this is provided by a University of California (Berkeley) study comparing the incidence of homicide in Singapore and Hong Kong with and without the death penalty. Hong Kong stopped executions in 1966. The study concluded that there was no correlation between the execution and murder rates for either Hong Kong or Singapore.

This and other research casts significant doubt on the widespread belief that Singapore's harsh criminal penalties explain its low crime rate. Crime-weary Westerners need to think again before assuming that such tough punishments can best combat the drug-driven violence and homicidal craziness of their own societies.   

Rodney King is the author of 'The Singapore Miracle, Myth and Reality' and co-authored 'Harry Lee Kuan Yew, A Pictorial Account of His Life and Times'  with Western Australian cartoonist Greg Smith.