Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam covered a range of topics including the death penalty, LGBTQ+ issues, the possibility of a non-Chinese Prime Minister, and racism in a 23-minute interview with the BBC’s Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk, which was released on Wednesday (June 29).
At times the interview got heated, with the two men interrupting each other, especially during the conversation around the recent execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who gained international attention last year as he was said to have had an IQ of 69.
Mr Shanmugam made it abundantly clear that he has no doubts the death penalty is the right policy for drug trafficking, adding that it has been proven to be a deterrent against this offence and that it has saved lives.
“Capital punishment…it's a serious deterrent for would-be drug traffickers" says Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister
K Shanmugam says he doesn’t have “any doubts” about Singapore’s use of the death penalty despite controversyhttps://t.co/vCdYnprMfE
📻 https://t.co/qNUM1wR8Px pic.twitter.com/btWoie8R7T
— BBC HARDtalk (@BBCHARDtalk) June 29, 2022
The minister also pointed out that the BBC concentrated last year on the case of one man, Nagaenthran, and not on the bigger picture of Southeast Asia’s sizable drug problem.
“To misquote a well-known quote, a single hanging of a drug trafficker is a tragedy; a million deaths from drug abuse is a statistic. That’s what this shows,” Mr Shanmugam said.
“The trafficker wants to make money. He… is damaging the lives of drug users, their families – damaged, often seriously destroyed.”
Mr Sackur said in the interview that Singapore has gained a reputation around the globe for its “draconian criminal code”. He asked the minister, ”Particularly when it comes to drugs, narcotics, and the bringing of drugs into Singapore – you have a mandatory death penalty for that particular crime. Do you have any doubts, at all, that that is the right policy?”
“I don’t have any doubts”, Mr Shanmugam answered directly.
”It’s imposed on drug traffickers, and it’s imposed because there’s clear evidence that it is a serious deterrent for would-be drug traffickers.”
The minister went on to talk about the non-persecution of peplum who engage in gay sex, in spite of Section 377A of the Penal Code, calling it a “messy compromise” since there are some who don’t want the law repealed.
He also did not deny the existence of racism in Singapore, and as for a non-ethnic Chinese Prime Minister, he said, “Let’s get real, race does matter in politics.”
Nevertheless, “a good… Malay or Indian candidate,” he said, “as long as the MPs have the confidence that he can lead them into GE and win the elections, I think it’s entirely possible. So I would not rule it out.”
The full interview may be found here.
Many netizens praised the minister for the way he conducted himself during the interview.
/TISG