On the Death Penalty

Breaking News: Nguyen Tuong Van faces death by hanging
(Think Centre)21 October 2005

Think Centre is very disappointed that Nguyen Tuong Van faces death by hanging for a non-violent drug offence. The death penalty for Nguyen Tuong Van is unfair, cruel, inhuman, degrading and disproportionate punishment. It violates the right to life.

I saw this piece of article on the Think Centre website where they criticise the Singapore Government on the use of death penalty. As you can see, this guy was sentenced to death due to a "non-violent drug offence", or so the people at Think Centre claimed. However, when I looked up the details of his conviction, it turns out that this guy was smuggling heroin.

Hmmm, the way Think Centre puts it, you would have thought this guy is going to be hanged for smuggling panadol.

Of course we know that heroin is a non-violent drug. I mean, we've seen heroin addicts on TV right? They look like skinny zombies, like someone you can really just take out with a punch, right? Not to say that a lot of heroin drug addicts commit crimes to get the money they need for their drug habits. Not to say families are broken up. Not to say those addicts who overdosed and died as a result. Yeah, heroin is a non-violent drug.

No, I'm not a keen supporter of the death penalty either, and I respect the right to life as much as anybody else. However, in the view that the extent of harm that is caused by drugs to the society, albeit in a more insidious and not-so-salient ways, I will not reject the death penalty as a harsh deterrent to stopping drug trafficking. This is because I respect the right to life of those mislead and probably impressionable teenages who might have their lives ruined by drugs, thus you will never find me signing any petition for someone who is sentenced to death by smuggling in drugs.

Just because you do not see the dead bodies, doesn't mean it is not violent.