http://www.petitiononline.com/TCaction/petition.html
Fri 6th May Candlelit Vigil for Shanmugam Murugesu
--------------------------------------------
NOTE FINAL VENUE:
Furama City Centre Hotel,
Canton Room, Level 4,
60 Eu Tong Sen Street, Singapore 059804.
Time: 7 - 10 pm
Dear all,
Singapore's President has rejected a clemency appeal for 38 year old Singaporean Shanmugam Murugesu. He was convicted of cannabis trafficking. Singapore does not set dates for executions, although they are usually carried out on Fridays at dawn. Shanmugam is due to be hanged in the next week or so.
Proponents of Singapore's tough laws against drug trafficking often claim that sending convicted traffickers to the gallows will act as an effective deterrent because drug abuse destroy lives and families,
Fact #1 : Drug abuse is not the only social ill that destroy lives. Addiction to smoking, gambling and alcohol kill as many, if not more, people in Singapore than drug abuse. Should we also prosecute and hang directors of tobaccco companies, casino operators and alcohol maufacturers?
Fact #2 : Drug couriers like Shanmugum often take on such jobs because of economic hardship. Syndicates who want to ship drugs into Singapore often use decoys to distract the police. Shanmugum was likely deployed as such a decoy. At the time when Shanmugum was caught at the causeway, there may have been 4 or 5 more other couriers who had escaped the custom. This is one way in which drugs continue to flow into Singapore.
Fact #3 : Despite the use of the death penalty as a deterrent to would-be-criminals, prison population in Singapore is one of the highest in the world. "Singapore locks away more people than over half the nations of the world, a British survey on prison population shows. For every 100,000 people, 359 are in prison - above the sum total of Cambodia (46), Malaysia (121), Brunei (120) and Indonesia (29). It also exceeds those in developed countries such as Japan (48), France (85), Britain (139) and Australia (116)." (Straits Times, 31 March 2003)
Fact #4 : While we hang small-time drug couriers, the Singapore Government invests in companies owned by Burma's most notorious druglord, Lo Hsing Han.
Burma-Singapore Axis: Globalising the Heroin Trade
Singapore's blood money :
Hanging drug couriers but investing with their suppliers
Fact #5 : Currently, more than 100 countries have abolished the death penalty either in practice or in law. Singapore is one of 25 countries that are still carrying out executions. Not only that, we have the highest per capita rate of executions in the world.
Singapore: High execution rate shrouded in secrecy
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA360022004?open&of=ENG-SGP
http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/document.do?id=AA4D3A610F648A3E80256F400047A922
Fact #6 : There is a lack of safeguards in the judicial system to ensure that no innocent men or women should be executed. In an exchange during the final appeal of Malaysian trafficker Vignes Mourthi, when asked by the defence counsel if the public prosecutor was still maintaining that an innocent person be hanged because of legal procedure, Chief Justice Yong Pung How replied, "Yes. The answer is yes." (Today, 27 Sept 2003)
******************************
Men and women are being killed by our Government because the Government says it is good for the rest of us. As Singaporeans or permanent residents who live, work and contribute to the very system that supports this killing, we need to take on more a more active role in promoting, at the very least, a more open debate on the issue of the death penalty.
Singaporeans to gather for Shanmugam Murugesu
Think Centre, with the support of concerned members of civil society and the arts community, is organising a candlelight vigil for Shanmugam Murugesu. He is expected to be hanged on the morning of this day. The evening will involve a series of candlelit music, performances and readings by concerned, non-partisan individuals as an expression of our 3C's:"Compassion", "Care", & "Concern" .
Fri 6th May 2005
Time: 7 – 10 pm
Venue: The Substation arts centre garden,
45 Armenian Street
(Back Entrance by old National Library carpark)
Please come and participate. Admission is free.
This event will hopefully be the start of a public awareness campiagn to get Singaporeans to talk openly about the pros and cons of capital punishment in their country.
55 comments:
I just wrote a short post on the imposition of the death penalty here in Singapore - a bit before I found out about the Shanmugam appeal.
http://almostinfamous.blogspot.com/2005/04/suspects-are-guiltyotherwise-they.html
I can't say I'm suprised by the outcome though.
This event will hopefully be the start of a public awareness campiagn to get Singaporeans to talk openly about the pros and cons of capital punishment in their country.
I would think most people in Singapore will demonstrate support for capital punishment. i think recently in the ST forum there was a person who wants it extended to rapists?
the death penalty
It's wrong to kill a person for bringing grass into a country. The punishment is a much greater crime than the original misdemeanor.
while severe punishments should be made to drug traffickers, capital punishment should be abolished, or handed out only very sparingly. The severe punishments (more jail, more caning) should also extend to other crimes of the same degree of seriousness, eg rapists. Counselling in jail has done well, though, statistics show. Number of people exiting jail and returning again are dropping.
Its kind of really difficult to get this into people's mind as they had got used to such news.
Suppose it became part of their life unknowingly because its part of our education during young anyway.
I've tried bringing this to few friends but all of them seems unaffected and insisted that they should be hanged. hur hur hur.
Hmm.. Actually, i do see raping as a more serious crime than drug trafficking. It directly harms someone life and it stays with her for the whole life. Really felt sad for the ger whom got raped by a bangla recently.. :D
You are right to denounce the death sentence but your arguments are not quite cogent. To equate smoking with drug trafficking demonstrates this.
What is required is not a diatribe but a cogent argument against the death sentence.
~Sayvyn
Whats new and suprising about that? The men on top can do what they want without having to answer for their actions. Public awareness? The PAP have done about everything to mow down public awareness, and they've done a good job.
"The PAP have done about everything to mow down public awareness, and they've done a good job."
i've got news for you bro. it happens everywhere, not just here. you might have noticed this if you've ever left you little shell, or picked up a paper or two to read.
the death penalty shouldn't come as a surprise. every singaporean has heard of it, and every foreigner will as their plane taxis into Changi International.
while i do think the circumstances of this particular case merits a little more heart, there is also the issue of how malleable we want our laws to become.
is it "drug trafficking is prohibited" or "drug trafficking is prohibited, unless you are poor"?
the larger question is why Shanmugam felt it was worth the risk.
but that one's a big can-o-stinky worms.
Sayvyn
you need to provide a counter-argument to the points made. Something similar to what singapore legal mumbo jumbo attempted to do.
Simply saying the points are not cogent is too vague. Why are they lacking in rationality or reason.
To equate the producers and distributors of one substance that kills you with another substance that kills you isn't cogent?
To think that the state can kill but you can not, is that rational or predicated on a value judgement, that the state has the only legitimate right to violence? That in some contexts violence is the correct answer. Possibly self-defence. Or in the state defending your life.
So it would be OK for a state to kill a drug distributor but not the drug producer?
See fact 4, and argue that that isn't so.
The death penalty appears to be based on a very 'practical' consideration. We will invest at the level of manufacture/production and kill our distributors.
The question that is at issue is
"The mandatory application of the death penalty." MANDATORY...
Words have been issued that each case will be assessed on its own merits, and yet every case is bounded by a MANDATORY application.
And if the strong measures against drugs in Singapore works, why are over half the inmates there on drug or drug related charges. And what is all the 'talk' about Singapore being drug free?
There's no such thing as being totally drug free, being schooled in research methods I am sure you know that; we are not the MOST drug free perhaps but relatively drug free as compared to other nations.
so who declares 'drug free' and the better question is why make such a statement?
"drug free" is the goal. as in, "the mandatory death sentence for drug traffickers helps keep singapore drug free".
it's a little like the all-american shrub declaring the war in iraq "won", but in the same breath talking about the work that still needs to be done.
singapore may not be completely drug free, and maybe there are a whole bunch of people in our prisons for drug related offences, but the fact that they're IN prison and not peddling poppers on street corners is a step in the right direction.
we do not only target two-bit traffickers either; we also hang users who possess sizable stashes.
economically, it makes little sense to support manufacturers while killing off both distributors AND consumers.
a link between our government's investment arms and burmese druglords, while smacking of conspiracy, really isn't.
first. any such link cannot be for the express purpose of moving dope into singapore; that would be both an open contradiction to policy, as well as being economically ludicrous (seeing as we murder distro/consumers).
second. like the mafia, the burmese dealers, having built a tidy sum of money, now have the financial gestalt to make more money, legally, at a lower risk. if i had to make a guess, i'd put my money on the fact that our government's investments are more closely aligned to sprawling Integrated Resorts, rather than sprawling poppy fields.
plus, assuming we DO invest in the drug trade, it seems logical to assume that profits are not generated from pimply 14 year old ACS boys, but from regional and international drug markets.
this policy would be pretty similar to the capitalist practices of outsourcing low-value, high-pollution, shady industries to the third world, and redirecting those profits back to the first.
if that's a crime, then we've got bigger fish to catch than Temasek.
lastly. to point at singapore's association with people of dubious background is all well and good. but consider america's involvement with the drug trade, her associations-of-profit with despots, and her not-so-covert attempts to topple governments in an effort to install friendly puppet governments (see cuba, vietnam, korea etc et al ad nauseum).
Excuse me mate, the fact that the Singapore government invest in the Burmese druglord yet at the same time punishing those who only try to make a living is TWO FACE. Why don't they hang the Burmese druglord instead?
Mate, do you know that casino, drugs, mafia, and prostitution are all related.
"plus, assuming we DO invest in the drug trade, it seems logical to assume that profits are not generated from pimply 14 year old ACS boys, but from regional and international drug markets."
Are you saying that it's alright to sell the drugs to 14-year old non-Singaporean? There are other people beyond Singapore. Ever hear of humanism?
Yes, most of us who hold moral values, know that what George Bush did IS WRONG. Most of the people OUTSIDE Singapore is ALLOWED to show their disagreement by protesting. Yet in Singapore, people need to get a license to do a protest, which you will never be granted. This is a disgrace. Even in a corrupted country like Indonesia, students can still do a demonstration/ protest. So what this make of Singapore then?
Truly sad that we have stopped looking at our citizens as people but merely as sheep. Hanging a person for "ruining other people's lives by drug trafficking" is bullshit. No one forces a person to take drugs. The person who takes drugs makes a conscious decision to do so, and therefore should bear the brunt of the blame, not the pusher. Cigarette smoking ruins lives as well. In what way are we "punishing" the pushers (Singapore has one of the world's largest cigarette making factories)? We merely charge higher prices which is eventually passed to the consumer.
I am against the death penalty except in the rarest of rare cases, namely serial killing, serial child-rape and corporate swindling. If things went my way, people like Nick Leeson, Enron's Ken Lay, WorldCom's CEO would all be swinging at the end of a rope. Corporate Malfeasance destroys far more lives than drugs ever will. Just ask all those who invested in Enron stock.
thats the problem when different people have divergent moral attitudes towards who deserves the death penalty and who does not.
No individual, group, organisation, government, should have the right to decide if a person lives or dies because of their own subjective moralistic stance.
Another misgiving is the fact that most take a localised rather than a global humanist perspective to the issues. Like it or not, we are part of the global equation as well. Intentional ending of life should be abolished - fast. Whether its murders, wars, or death penalties.
dear anonie mouse.
"Why don't they hang the Burmese druglord instead?"
there's just a tiny issue of jurisdiction, wouldn't you agree?
sure, we could go all O.K. Corral on burmese druglords like mr. shrub on a terrorist hunt... but even the U.S. doesn't pull stunts like that without a clear profit objective in mind.
what's ours?
"Are you saying that it's alright to sell the drugs to 14-year old non-Singaporean? There are other people beyond Singapore. Ever hear of humanism?"
yes, i am.
and yes i have.
"Most of the people OUTSIDE Singapore is ALLOWED to show their disagreement by protesting. Yet in Singapore, people need to get a license to do a protest, which you will never be granted. This is a disgrace."
there's an excellent point in here; what ABOUT protests?
how many people across the globe took to the streets to protest the war in Iraq? thanks to these brave souls, who felt so strongly motivated by their sense of justice (and not at all by a herd mentality) they mamaged to put an end to the plans to invade Iraq.
NOT.
the only effective form of protest is violence. we live in a world motivated less by morality and more by profit. protest therefore MUST be targetted at where it hurts most; the pocket.
but you don't believe in that sort of activism do you?
this is Singapore, where most people are indifferent by action and activists the most by heart only. How many people you know who are truly discontent with the ruling party will go and join the opposition rather than just complaining? I think it's a matter of fact that we are rather desentisized and will not choose to "protest" in that way. We would not boycott too. It's the Singaporean way. However, as what some of us are doing, is to argue intellectually and figure a solution out, and sooner or later the government would know of the discontent. This is where the internet comes in handy.
Most Singaporeans are not willing to risk something (or anything) when it comes to showing their discontent. Nothing comes without a price, hence, the lack of "marching the roads". But I think we are doing a good job already.
"so who declares 'drug free' and the better question is why make such a statement? "
I'm sure common sense tells us that the term drug free does not mean there are NO DRUGS in Singapore. Why make such a statement? Like every country, singapore needs a selling point. You have the Big Ben, the Buckingham Palace, the Royal Family to draw peoples' attention. Being known as a "safe country" is one of the few ways a small city state like Singapore can draw foreign investment.
Also like to point out that Singaporeans are not indifferent. We care about our family, the community, and the well-being of our neighbours. We may not have a culture of protesting on streets, but that doesn't mean we don't give a damn on what goes on besides the fact that we're earning money. You may interpret our regional efforts with cynicism, but the fact is that we really do want a safe, prosperous SE Asia.
Steve, can you point out ANY government which doesn't have some investments related to companies with owners of dubious origins?
Perhaps you don't know what the meaning of "separate legal entity" is.
And though cigarettes are equally harmful as some drugs to one's own body, I think the pertinent question is, how much in control of your mind are you under the influence of some drugs, as compared to cigarettes? Perhaps cigarettes are still allowed because they don't cause you to do things you wouldn't do normally.
"So it would be OK for a state to kill a drug distributor but not the drug producer?"
is ok to give jail a thief 7 years max, and 20 years max for those who buy his stash?
Our government is too sensitive on this issue. They put the death penalty so they think Singapore is a clean, efficent and wholesome country and so no one will protest. They are too authocratic
However you debate this, men are men, not potatoes.
its easy to say so but tough for those who do so... being drug producer, i think pushing a sum of money is very affordable to them to which those vulnerable ones are normally the victim....
otherwise, it may be due to other reasons that they were forced to do so.. Eg. owning loansharks & etc
These people just noe how to take full advantage of these people on the desperate move.
Thus, on the other side, they may still be seen as a victim. I suppose no one will risk their life doing this even knowing this would cause their life. Unless done unknowingly about consequences.
Its just like those grannys & grandpas being conned although the news was out everywhere on tv, radios & even people were talking about it. But still, people got taken in. Most likely due to the incentives earned & their 'hardships'.
And again, from their position, greediness to be hanged? If its argued being subjective that how can they noe whom to hang.. then dun hang. Why behave like CAO CAO, rather to kill all then leave any roots behind. maybe a 30-40 yrs sentence is good, at least not killing anyone.
To sum up, you won't know their situation of desperateness as i believed, in 'humane' logic, who would wanna earn that sum of money knowing they will have to give away their life? So, hang those cigarette addicts and gambling addicts 2!!!! Ops, then i'll be hanged. :D
The government want to wipe out and purged all those people or the citizens who did bad things even a minor mistake. They must try to change their law or else there would be crticism from the outside world
We debate this also no use as the government never see this. So this is useless
so if firstly the death penalty is a deterrent and secondly ppl have to face the consequences, we might as well have the death penalty for every single crime, then s'pore will be 200% crime-free without having to bother with excuses like "but all i did was draw on the wall..." cos YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARENED, CHOOSE TO COMMIT ANY CRIME AND DIE!!
oh and this country says we shld have the casino to "keep up with the rest of the world", but "we're a conservative society" and "don't need foreigners to tell us wat to do" for everything else. wat convenience! bottom line is those who're happy here, good for u - i'm with the 20% of locals who'd rather migrate and will soon be able to.
p/s: how's it coming along for dat vietnamese australian? too late too?
The fact is that the death penalty does not in fact serve as a deterrent - year after year after year people are sentenced to death in Singapore for various crimes, and these people obviously were not deterred at all by the thought that they could possibly be hanged.
The argument that the death penalty is a good deterrent is simply nonsensical. It also ignores the fact that penalties should fit the crime, instead of some amorphous, wider social message, the effects of which no judge and no group of (unfairly) elected politicians could ever accurately gauge.
I agree with below statement made by whiteout.
"drug addiction is a big social issue if not under control (come to think of it, some people here can even relate it to prostitution, gambling, and mafia). keep in mind the psychological damage, the costs of addiction, the ease for 1 pedlar to harm tens of potential addicts."
And also the statement made by v.a.o.
"The fact is that the death penalty does not in fact serve as a deterrent - year after year after year people are sentenced to death in Singapore for various crimes, and these people obviously were not deterred at all by the thought that they could possibly be hanged."
In conclusion, drug trafficking and other serious crimes are social issues and since death penalty still could not serve as a deterrence, then singapore should look beyond.
I personally feel that education is very important to educate the citizens. Yes, we know that from time to time, the govt do conduct compaigns, however, it is not sufficient. Perhaps, to do it on a wider scale, reaching out from kindergartens to schools, colleges, universities and public spheres.
And as far as I know from some social workers, the govt do not provide much subsidies to the social services in SG. As such, there is often not enough funds to conduct their counselling or any activities to reinforce their messages. More often than not, the professionals in these services also had to join in the effort to help to raise funds. In short, lack of manpower and funds to be able to do a good job.
Another suggestion is that we, Singaporeans, must also offer our volunteering services to the nation in order to solve the social issues.
Rational singaporean
whiteout, u know wat...i pray with all my heart dat someone in ur family or whom u hold dear faces a desperate position and hopefully commits a crime like trafficking or kidnapping, only then will u truly understand.
u said "the govt did weigh" but i'm saying the govt weighed WRONGLY. the act itself of trafficking/smuggling is harmless and "serious" ONLY BECAUSE the law states so. u can't prove me wrong so you change the subject to addiction. we're not talking about addiction, we're talking about trafficking, which is only carrying something to be dropped off elsewhere (and usually the final destination is not even s'pore!)
a good structured discussion is not possible with someone with the brain power to do nothing more than repeat and regurgitate platitudes and cliches.
Then must well say the government ban pubs and clubs to open as this place are more prone to have exchanging of drugs or comsuming of it. So if they do that the drug crime will go down and will save many of our Singapoeans lives and letting them to live again by teaching them the right value. To stop this they can put put propaganda, Tv advertisements all those to influnence the citizens.
Yes, definitely ah ma wun be conned if they had known and traffickers could have rejected doing so if they knew those were drugs. But what i am concerned here isn't the process, but rather the motivation that had made them doing so..
And it is due to this weakness that had led them to a temporary unforseeable threat. And most importantly is that those druglords definitely have their upper hand on these vulnerable people be it the poor ones or those whom are under the control of those producers due to some particular reasons.
And most importantly, is the legislation that hang anyone who traffick drugs without giving considerations to the underlying reasons. And yes, i do notice the subjective elements to consider these factors. But it will be more favourable to gain an equilibrium in this subjective (giving benefits of doubt) and objective (maintaining social order) context by reducing sentence to maybe a 30-40yrs.
Yes, they do pose great social problems through trafficking drugs but not to the extend of capital punishment since its not deterring. And moreover, its inherently impossible for a country to be problem-free. And hereby, in reiteration, its still more humanly favourable to impose a lighter sentence even arguably a life sentence.
as jowie and many others have repeated (but for some weird reason ppl like whiteout simply appear to be unable to comprehend a simple point made in simple english), wat we're saying is:
firstly: dat KILLING/ PUTTING TO DEATH is TOO MUCH when there is no life directly taken by THE ACT OF TRAFFICKING/SMUGGLING and in fact no SPECIFIC/PARTICULAR individual harmed.
secondly: nobody's saying it's not a crime or they shld be let off SCOT-FREE/ WITHOUT PUNISHMENT AT ALL by sole virtue of their pitiful plight etc. so for goodness's sake stop repeating points dat have already been addressed even if u can't come up with something new!
Its alright, anyway it won't change the book simply by doing this.. suppose its more of an intellectual stimulation or exchange. :D
Anyway. keep up this spirit for a better tomolo.. and for my tomolo tomolo tomolo....... it isnt getting any better as MY EXAMS COMING SOON!!!! :D
Gtg, TATA!
some poor nut tinks dat writing a long essay hides his repetition and makes it stronger
REITERATING for the benefit of thick numbskull (and hopefully - altho i doubt it - this time it will get thru): it's not about bending the law here and there but getting rid of such a ridiculous one in the first place once and for all YOU IDIOT!!
sorry too, b4 u call someone a joker, kindly check the mirror. u really DO have a problem with comprehension...i won't pray dat for just "anyone in a desperate situation" but specifically for someone u care about TO BECOME A VICTIM OF A DESPERATE SITUATION AND COMMIT SUCH CRIMES, simply to watch u suffer and see whether u still hold on to ur spastic views.
again, more non-answers "with this i agree with..." as well as lousy responses "do we need to have someone who is harmed before we charge that person?...laws for protection?"
REITERATION NO. XXX: so just becos trafficking/smuggling/transporting/carrying drugs causes so-called SERIOUS PROBLEMS from ADDICTION the perpetrator must be hanged/executed/killed??
geez, speaking of education, whiteout really needs to advance from kindergarten!
Rules & laws are created by government. In order to change such laws, a new government has to be put in place. We can argue till the cows come home but if the old guards are still in power, new ideas cannot be accepted becos they still think that using punishment is the best way to change a person- like caning. The old mindset.
Singapore laws are effective for the government using as a propaganda as foriengers think that it is a safe place to invest their business here as these laws can lead to low crime rates or others. Like that the government can earn a lot of money
Until the 1890s, hanging was the primary method of execution used in the United States. Hanging is still used in Delaware and Washington, although both have lethal injection as an alternative method of execution. The last hanging to take place was January 25, 1996 in Delaware.
For execution by this method, the inmate may be weighed the day before the execution, and a rehearsal is done using a sandbag of the same weight as the prisoner. This is to determine the length of 'drop' necessary to ensure a quick death. If the rope is too long, the inmate could be decapitated, and if it is too short, the strangulation could take as long as 45 minutes. The rope, which should be 3/4-inch to 1 1/4-inch in diameter, must be boiled and stretched to eliminate spring or coiling. The knot should be lubricated with wax or soap "to ensure a smooth sliding action," according to the 1969 U.S. Army manual. (The Corrections Professional, 1996 and Hillman, 1992)
Immediately before the execution, the prisoner's hands and legs are secured, he or she is blindfolded, and the noose is placed around the neck, with the knot behind the left ear. The execution takes place when a trap-door is opened and the prisoner falls through. The prisoner's weight should cause a rapid fracture-dislocation of the neck. However, instantaneous death rarely occurs. (Weisberg, 1991)
If the inmate has strong neck muscles, is very light, if the 'drop' is too short, or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur. (The Corrections Professional, 1996 and Weisberg, 1991)
Wow you know so much of this. Asking whether anybody knowing the method of hanging in Singapore prison??
to the last anonymous,
That is precisely the problem isn't it? No one knows how the death penalty looks like, no one knows how it is administered. It has been normalized. The sovereign authority kills Shanmugam but he cannot be sacrificed.
We have to re-introduce the spectacle of this form of Death and prompt a questioning of the efficacy of this form of punishment.
For ArtsCommunity, lets have a danse macabre tomorrow.
Everyone please turn up for the event thank you every much
The number of signatures is pathetic. 119. Singaporeans are such an apathetic bunch of people, even just to petition online. They themselves deserve such a system that demean their basic right as a human. Way to go, singabloodyporeans.
hey, just a note:
the venue's changed to this, according to an email i got.
i'll paste it here for your reference.
Fri 6th May Candlelit Vigil for Shanmugam Murugesu
--------------------------------------------
NOTE FINAL VENUE:
Furama City Centre Hotel,
Canton Room, Level 4,
60 Eu Tong Sen Street, Singapore 059804.
Time: 7 - 10 pm
The evening will involve a series of candlelit music,
performances
and readings by concerned, non-partisan individuals as
an expression
of our 3C's:"Compassion", "Care", & "Concern" over the
death penalty
ruling for Shanmugam Murgesu.
Shanmugam Murgesu's lawyer M. Ravi and family will be
present at the vigil.
The objective is to give Shanmugam and family as much
positive support and solidarity as we can, with the
secondary objective of
starting an ongoing debate on the role and
administration of the death penalty in Singpaore
Artists and other concerned individuals who have
pledged their
support for the evening include:
Alfian Bin Sa'at, Richard Chua, Lucy Davis, Kirpal
Singh, Iris Koh,
Lee Weng Choy, Charles Lim, Jason Lim, Jonathan Lim,
Zelda Ng Lay
Chin, Noor Effendy Bin Ibrahim, Rizman Putra (aka
Manic Jango,
Tiramisu/ KYTV), Gene Sharudyn, Sim Pern Yiau, Wan
Ahmad (From
Sweet Charity) Cyril Wong, Zai Kuning, Andree Weschler
This event is organized by: Think Centre - Concerned
Civil Society Initiatives www.thinkcentre.org
Please come to the vigil, and express your solidarity
for Shanmugam
and his family.
There will also be t-shirts on sale and opportunities
to write
letters to Shanmugam and a petition asking for
clemency.
> >Numbers are all important.
The organizers were encouraged by the overwhelming
turnout at the
recent forum on this issue at Asia Hotel and want to
make a public
gesture that Singaporeans care about these issues.
It is also important for the morale of the family and
Shanmugam himself.
Shanmugam's lawyer Mr M.Ravi reports:
"Shanmugam's main concern in these days is that his
family be taken care of. He and the other eight
prisoners currently on death row for
drug- related offences are also extremely encouraged
that for the
first time ever, Singaporeans are making a public show
of support
for them. The inmates are permitted to read the
newspapers and read
about the vigil for Shanmugam in [The] Strait's Times.
It gives them
all hope that if Shanmugam's name is remembered by
caring members of the Singapore population, perhaps
their own names will be too"
We want at least 1000 people to sign the petition. Please go and sign and encourage your friends too. Thank you very much!
caleb, u took the words rite out of my mouth - VERBATIM ("an eye for an eye"..."a life for a life")!
i've always used the idea of "a balance" to describe to many frens how i felt dat equal treatment is the best/fairest punishment and indeed it shld be nothing more nothing less.
anyway i think it's too late, he's gone...don't expect his mother to give a shit about the president years down the road when it's finally his turn to leave the world unlike dat woman who was so grateful to dr wee.
The petiton is down and cannot be accessed why?
no idea, i didn't set it up.
who set it up?????
If the individual doesn't give their real name then the petition will be removed.
For Shanmugam Murugesu
Cannabis is a soft drug. One Kg of cannabis should not be penalise for a death sentence. Rishis (saints) in India smoke cannabis for meditation. People who worship Lord Shiva knows about cannabis and other herbs and flowers used in religious ceremonies. Shanmugam is of Tamil origin who settled in Singapore. Tamils are Hindus and they worship Lord Shiva.
Hanging that 25 year old Aussie guy is so wrong. There are far better ways of dealing with this. Jim. New Zealand
Parl. of Singapore are fascists
Death Penalty
The death penalty is a crime committed by the society against a single individual, who is helpless. I cannot call it a penalty, it is a crime.
And you can understand why it is committed: it is a revenge. Society is taking revenge because the man did not follow the rules of the society; the society is ready to kill him. But nobody bothers that when somebody murders it shows that man is psychologically sick. Rather than sending him to imprisonment or to be executed, he should be sent into a nursing home where he can be taken care of ― physically, psychologically, spiritually. He is sick. He needs all the compassion of the society; there is no question of penalty, punishment
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