Law Enforcement in Singapore

Singapore has gotten a bad rap with regard to their many laws and fines. The media in the west, especially, has chosen to play up the incident of the kid getting caned several years ago and portray Singapore as a backwards country with barbaric tendencies.

Caning is used in conjunction with a prison sentence. It’s not administered in public, but in a private location in the prison with only official witnesses and medical personnel there. The prisoner is certified medically fit to receive the caning before it is administered, and if the doctor decides that he is not, the prison sentence is simply increased. He’s given medical treatment afterwards.

Let’s look at the particular case that hit the news in the US a few years ago (1994, to be exact). The kid, who was named Michael Fay, was caught spraying graffiti on BMW’s. He was sentenced to 6 strokes, American diplomats got involved and it was reduced to 4.

Incidentally, he was supposedly caught doing the same thing after he returned to the US.  That doesn’t say a lot about the punishment stopping recidivism, but it does about the kid’s character.

The reality is, Singapore IS a city of fines. They’re pretty strict about enforcement for spitting, littering, food on subways, jaywalking and things like that.

Mohan, who was our guide on Sunday, told us of his own experience – he threw a cigarette butt toward the can, but didn’t quite hit it and didn’t pick it up. As he was leaving, a plainclothes enforcement officer came to him and gave him a ticket ($150). You have to come in person, which would hurt a lot of people more than the fine and watch a 15 minute video about littering.

In a bit of irony, across the bottom of your receipt it says, “Thank You, Come Again.”

The fine is not too far off of the penalties for littering in the US, although our enforcement is much more lax.

If you’re convicted of a second offense, you have to go to the City Offices, pay a larger fine and when you arrive you will go through “training”, and will receive a broom, a vest, and will be assigned an area to clean. It can take as long or as little time as you want, but you don’t leave until it’s cleaned up and you bring the trash to the supervisor to show him.

That doesn’t sound all that barbaric.

Singapore still has the death penalty. It’s a potential offense for possession of firearms (many of the nurses here have never seen a gunshot or stabbing wound in their emergency department), murder or trafficking drugs.

That may be a bit barbaric, but the US has no room to criticize in that regard.