Are you for or against the death penalty? A netizen shared an open letter to Mdm President Halimah Yacob which asked her to be more sympathetic towards death row inmates.
The letter explained that many drug offenders commit crime because of their difficult situations and thought it unfair to slap them with a death penalty.
"Take 40 year old Madam Djawani Bte Saradewi for example, who will be hanged later this year. She who was not receiving financial support for from her ex-husband to care for their schooling son and her ailing mother, while struggling with drug addiction and unemployment. I am not arguing that she is not responsible for her choices and is a victim of her circumstances, but that the role of the situation not be overlooked, and that the punishment be proportionate to the crime."
The writer begged our Madam President to be more like former President Wee Kim Wee, who cared enough to sign clemency requests for prisoners to get life imprisonment instead of death sentences.
"Dr Wee Kim Wee signed all requests for clemency for drug traffickers sentenced to death during his terms without altering the rates of drug trafficking in Singapore significantly. I read that perhaps it was because he lost his parents when he was young, and he did not want the same thing to happen to a young Singaporean unnecessarily. He was courageous enough to let the ultimate human value of compassion guide his decision, showing an understanding of what it is like to be poor, desperate and to make mistakes; to be human. His realisation that perhaps laws of the past need to be reviewed, and above all his kindness, won the hearts of many Singaporeans.
I have faith that you too are a leader of such quality, and would consider deeply the clemency requests for drug traffickers like Madam Saradewi."
Does our government's position on the death penalty reflect our progress as a nation? If so, just how progressive are Singaporeans and Singapore?
