Singapore Official Labels Criticism of Floggings Absurd

SINGAPORE — The government on Saturday defended its controversial policy of flogging vandals and said it is absurd for critics from countries with high crime rates to question Singapore’s approach.

The defense of the justice system was made by Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng after nearly a month of increasingly vitriolic exchanges between Singapore and the United States over the decision to sentence an 18-year-old American, Michael P. Fay, to six strokes of a rattan cane for spray-painting cars.

“Nobody takes any joy in carrying out these strict punishments, be it imprisonment, caning or execution,” Wong said in a speech. “But it has to be done, it must be done. Laws will not be effective if the penalties for flouting them are not sufficiently strict.”

Fay is serving a four-month jail term also imposed in the case and awaiting the outcome of an appeal for presidential clemency in the caning part of the sentence. A Hong Kong teen-ager convicted in the same case was sentenced last week to 12 strokes of the cane and eight months in jail.

Fay’s parents, as well as U.S. officials, contend that Singapore’s government uses a double standard: Other cases involving damage to private property have brought charges of “mischief,” not vandalism, which carries a mandatory sentence of caning.

Wong, however, said that Singapore upholds the ideal “that all are equal before the law, regardless of whether they are Singaporeans or foreigners, rich or poor.”

President Clinton has called the caning sentence “extreme.” The punishment flays the skin of the buttocks, can induce shock and leaves permanent scars. But Wong said caning, which is carried out about 1,000 times a year in Singapore, is neither cruel nor unusual punishment.

“It is absurd that societies so stricken with crime should attempt to apply their standards on us and teach us what to do,” he said.

Wong mentioned the case of a youth in San Leandro, Calif., who was sentenced to four weekends of community service for spray-painting buildings. He said he had read that the police involved in the case had expressed the wish that the youth could be punished in Singapore.

He said he was not suggesting that other countries adopt Singapore’s approach. But he added: “While we believe that an individual has certain rights, the overriding consideration has to be what is in the community’s overall good and its long-term interest. The fundamental question we ask ourselves is, who should pay the price for crime, the criminal or the law-abiding citizen?”

Wong referred obliquely to allegations from Fay’s parents and others that police hit and threatened the teen-agers arrested in the spray-painting case to coerce them into signing confessions. He said every complaint is taken seriously and investigated. In Fay’s case, the police have said an investigation showed he was not abused.