Malaysia Has Abolished the Death Penalty, (Contrary) Despite Tough Penalties, Drug Abuse in Singapore Is Still on the Increase

In October 1968, two Indonesian marines were executed for detonating a bomb in McDonald House along Orchard Road three years earlier, leading to the deaths of three people and injuring 33 others. Their appeal to the Privy Council was rejected. Before their execution, the two marines, Usman Mohammad Ali and Harun Said, had asked to see the families of the victims and sought their forgiveness.

The Singapore Government statement on 7 February stresses that “the matter had been closed in May 1973 when PM Lee Kuan Yew sprinkled flowers on the graves of the two marines”. Jakarta has seemingly adopted a similar view, though with a caveat. According to presidential spokesman for international relations Teuku Faizasyah, “the decision to name the ship after Indonesian heroes is final and Indonesia considers the two countries have long resolved the matter following then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s visit to the heroes’ cemetery and sprinkling of flowers on the graves of Osman and Harun”.

The city-state has traditionally executed people. From terrorists, smugglers, until drug offenses, but cracks in the national consensus are appearing. Given its growing success with rebranding, Singapore’s stubborn adherence to capital punishment seems jarring.

Word of death sometimes comes by the most bureaucratic means.

Notice that Pannir Selvam Pranthaman would be killed by the Singaporean government arrived at his sister’s home via DHL. The red-and-yellow envelope, delivered to Sangkari Pranthaman’s apartment in Kuala Lumpur on May 17, 2019, contained two letters: One stated that the president of Singapore had rejected Pannir’s clemency plea; the other informed Sangkari that her younger brother would shortly be hanged for bringing four small packets of heroin across the border into Singapore from Malaysia five years earlier. Last year, Singapore hanged 11 people, all for drug offenses. The country is only one of four known to still execute people for drug-related crimes, according to Amnesty International.

When the siblings were growing up in Ipoh, a hilly city in northwestern Malaysia, for several years they attended the same school, where Sangkari would try to keep an eye on her younger brother. He was “the naughtiest” of the family’s six children, she told me recently—he had a hard time paying attention and was always bouncing around. After school, she would report back to their strict Christian parents if she’d seen Pannir waiting outside the principal’s office to be disciplined. He didn’t appreciate the constant monitoring. As they grew into adulthood, she, of course, could not be her brother’s keeper.

Singapore is the most committed proponent of the death penalty at the United Nations, perhaps globally, but is facing rare criticisms at home despite incredible restrictions and a powerful gov't narrative. From Capital Punishment in Singapore: A Critical Analysis of State Justifications From 2004 to 2018, which is a great look at the foundations of the Singapore government's narrative on why the death penalty was necessary and remains so.

The critiques and questions about the death penalty, and SG society more broadly, that bubbled up last year re-surfaced again this month, with Malaysia enacting sweeping reforms to its death penalty laws. Getting out trouble is of course much easier with wealth and connections. Here is a former U.S. diplomat describing how the U.S. government would be tipped off to drug issues at the elite Singapore American School and have the students whisked out of the country to avoid charges. "It is not asking them to just feel pity, but to ask questions about the values on which Singapore society is built and how this system works.”

The Singapore government is very conscious of its’ image .. so they do care about what people think, so the visibility is important. What really made a difference last year was the visibility of the executions that were happening. The only time when we say this is when it might not be helpful, if things are done hastily in the way that get the facts wrong .. it let's the government say, this is western influence.

Back again to Pannir. After Pannir was originally arrested on drug charges, in September 2014, Sangkari reprised the childhood role of protective older sibling. First, she tracked down her brother in detention when he stopped responding to messages from family members. Then, in the years since, she has acted as his public advocate and a family spokesperson.

When Sangkari and Angelia, Pannir’s younger sister, speak about their brother, they tear up in laughter recalling their childhood, tear up in despondence at his current plight, and, occasionally, tear up for reasons they can’t fully explain. As they give the details of his case, they pause on multiple occasions to reiterate that they are not arguing Pannir’s innocence. They do not want him immediately freed from prison, nor do they expect him to be cleared of the crime of which he has been found guilty. They just want him alive. “This was his mistake, entirely his mistake,” Sangkari told me. “Because he has committed a crime, he needs to be punished, but the punishment needs to be adequate, not simply putting him to death.”  

The number of executions carried out in Singapore has dropped substantially since the 1990s; in 2012, a number of minor amendments were made to the death-penalty laws. Yet Singapore has stubbornly maintained a hard-line policy on drugs that mandates the death penalty for even minor infractions. Executions restarted with a renewed vigor last year after a two-year hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic. (The Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to my list of questions, but said that “drugs not only kill but cause an immeasurable amount of harm to families and societies as a whole,” and that “the death penalty is an essential component of Singapore’s criminal justice system and has been effective in keeping Singapore safe and secure.”)

Both independent and government surveys continue to show strong support for capital punishment, with about seven in 10 people backing execution for the most serious crimes. Yet the resumption of executions met with a distinct upsurge in public sentiment against the mandatory death penalty. Thousands of dollars in donations poured in to assist the family of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man with an IQ of 69, according to his lawyers, who had been convicted of smuggling roughly three tablespoons’ worth of heroin into Singapore. Hundreds of people gathered to mourn him at a candlelight vigil after he was put to death last April. In a country where freedom of assembly hardly exists and public debate is tightly controlled, the expanding conversation about the death penalty has been notable—especially for the way that it has challenged the status quo more broadly on issues of race, privilege, and inequality. Still, those calling for reforms undoubtedly face a long campaign, and one in which the possibility of enacting tangible reforms remains ultimately unknown.   

Singapore’s government does not release information on the ethnicity of people on death row, but the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted in 2021 that a majority of sentenced prisoners belong to ethnic minorities. From 2015 to 2020, experts from the committee said, 44 individuals were sentenced to the death penalty for drug offenses—of whom four were Chinese, three were Indian, and 37 were Malay. A government official said in September 2022 that 10 Malaysians were on death row. In Singapore, which relies on migrant labor from poorer Asian countries to build its skyscrapers, maintain its roads, and care for its senior citizens, those numbers are striking.  

The Transformative Justice Collective, a civil-society group that advocates for prisoners on death row, has spearheaded the effort to build greater awareness among Singaporeans of the injustices of capital punishment. “It is not asking them to just feel pity, but to ask questions about the values on which our society is built and how this system works,” Kirsten Han, a member of the organization, told me. “This issue of the death penalty and prisons is not separate from questions about inequality and labor conditions.”

Singapore’s mulish position on executions has held despite a worldwide trend away from the death penalty. The government continues to hew to a communitarian ideology that regards the state as obliged to protect the population’s well-being through a range of preemptive actions and stringent measures. And if that protection comes at the expense of individual rights, so be it.  

In many respects, over the past decade, Singapore has shed old stereotypes of being a stodgy, uptight nanny state. It has recast itself as an avatar of innovation, masterfully marketed through Hollywood films and hit TV series. The Economist recently referred to the city-state as the “Vienna of the 21st century,” as it draws in China watchers who abandoned that country during the pandemic or were forced to relocate by Beijing’s more authoritarian turn of recent years. Given its growing success with rebranding, Singapore’s stubborn adherence to capital punishment seems jarring. In the past month, with changes to the death penalty in Malaysia, the country looks more like an outlier even in a region that is hardly known for its progressive values.

Formerly a British colony, Singapore retained the death penalty when it gained independence from Malaysia in 1965. The city-state also retained the method of execution it inherited from the colonial era: long-drop hanging, developed in the U.K. in the late 1800s. According to a 2020 paper by two scholars at Australia’s Monash University, Ariel Yap and Shih Joo Tan, Singapore has since independence maintained an “ideology of survival” and justified capital punishment in part because of the country’s proximity to the Golden Triangle, an area where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet that is notorious for drug production. Singapore extended the death penalty to cover drug offenses in 1973, and made it mandatory for some of those offenses in 1975.

The regulations at times put even Singapore’s most staunch supporters in awkward predicaments. A U.S. diplomat based in Singapore in the late ’70s and early ’80s told an oral-history project that staff at the Singapore American School, an elite international school, would routinely conduct searches of students’ lockers. Those found with drugs would be quickly whisked out of the country to avoid criminal charges.

It’s been eight months since Singapore killed her brother, but the grief and anger have not faded for Nazira Lajim Hertslet.

“It’s not fair,” she said. “We appealed so many times. All along I had hope, and then they hanged him, a 64-year-old man. Why do they need to be so cruel?”

Nazeri Lajim was executed last July 22 after being found guilty of possessing a little more than 33 grams of heroin a decade earlier. He was one of at least 11 people hanged by the city state last year, including Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a 33-year-old with an intellectual disability.

After a two-year hiatus – though not an official moratorium – during the pandemic, the spate of executions has attracted widespread criticism overseas, including from the United Nations, the European Union and British tycoon Richard Branson, who has spoken out against Singapore’s “relentless machinery of death.”

Mr. Branson is hardly the first foreigner to criticize Singapore in this regard or find the state’s fondness for executions out of sync with its glitzy, ultramodern international image: Author William Gibson famously called it “Disneyland with the death penalty.”

Officials typically respond by citing public support for capital punishment and accusing their critics of Western chauvinism. In a statement addressing Mr. Branson, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said a citizen of a country “that prosecuted two wars in China in the 19th century to force the Chinese to accept opium imports” had no moral right to lecture Asians about drugs.

Some Asian countries have abolished the death penalty, notably the Philippines and Cambodia. Hong Kong also doesn’t have capital punishment, though China does. This week, Singapore’s neighbour Malaysia moved to abolish the mandatory death penalty for offences such as drug trafficking and scrap capital punishment completely for most crimes. In parliament, deputy law minister Ramkarpal Singh said “the death penalty has not brought about the results it was intended to bring.”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said this was “an important step forward for Malaysia, and hopefully will help break the logjam on forward movement towards abolition of the death penalty in the country as well as the wider Southeast Asia region.”

He added that Malaysia should encourage other governments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “to rethink their continued use of the death penalty, starting with Singapore,” where the recent spree of executions has harmed the city state’s efforts “to portray itself as a modern, developed and civilized country.”

Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

4,300 km from Singapore. Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark is calling for drug use to be decriminalised and for drug users to no longer be incarcerated.

The chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy says countries should instead regulate illicit substances in the same way they approach alcohol and tobacco.

She believes law makers should follow the lead of the ACT, where from October people caught possessing small amount of drugs such as MDMA, heroin and methamphetamine will no longer be imprisoned.

Instead, they will pay $100 fines or be referred to drug diversion programs.

"The evidences is very solid, I believe (in) going down the path that ACT has gone down, which is to decriminalise possession for personal use in general," Ms Clark told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

"Now the case ... is also reasonably clear that a drug like cannabis should be subjected to a form of regulation that's probably similar to that for tobacco."

The number of drug users around the world grew to 284 million people in 2020, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.

Ms Clark said people would use drugs regardless of legal restrictions so lawmakers should focus on ensuring they use them safely.

"You're going to be able to protect people's health and wellbeing, you're going to lower the prison population very substantially and wouldn't that release resources for harm reduction?"

Ms Cark is attending the Harm Reduction International Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre this week, along with former South African president Kgalema Motlanthe and other dignitaries.

Canada, which along with Malaysia, Singapore and nine other Pacific Rim countries is a signatory to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, carried out its last hangings in 1962 and abolished the death penalty in 1976.

In the U.S., where 27 states, the federal government and the military still have the death penalty, it “can only be imposed on defendants convicted of capital offenses – such as murder, treason, genocide, or the killing or kidnapping of a Congressman, the President, or a Supreme Court justice,” according to the Department of Justice.

Kirsten Han, a Singaporean anti-death-penalty activist, was skeptical about the prospect of Malaysia having a major effect on the government’s thinking, but she hoped it would “encourage more Singaporeans to think about the use of capital punishment in our own country.”

Domestic support for capital punishment is already shifting, she said, shaken by the sudden return of hangings after the pandemic hiatus, along with greater awareness and scrutiny of executions.

“What’s really made a difference is the capacity and momentum of the anti-death-penalty movement,” she added. “There were more executions in 2018 than last year, but we didn’t know about them because at the time the anti-death-penalty campaign was very small, there wasn’t the capacity to track or find out about them.”

Singapore has tight limits on political organizing and protest, but groups such as the Transformative Justice Collective have been successful in organizing small rallies and petitions on this issue.

There’s still a lot of work to do: A government poll published last year found that 73.7 per cent of Singaporeans supported the death penalty in principle, and 65.6 per cent supported mandatory executions for those convicted of trafficking a “significant amount of drugs.” Independent research by the National University of Singapore previously found that less than half the country supported the mandatory death penalty for serious offences.

One development that has encouraged some activists is Singapore’s decriminalization of homosexuality last year, after decades of campaigning.

The lifting of the colonial-era ban on gay sex only came after it was essentially rendered unenforceable by the courts, which have so far been staunchly supportive of the death penalty, though a report by the Law Society of Singapore recommended scrapping mandatory capital punishment as far back as 2005.

Ms. Lajim Hertslet said she felt Singaporeans were “slowly starting to turn against the death penalty, but the government will not budge.” In her brother’s case, she was frustrated by officials’ defence of capital punishment, given that he was a heavy drug user from the age of 14, never struggling to find a supply.

“They say the death penalty will deter people from selling drugs. Where is the proof?”

Despite strict drug laws and strong deterrent efforts from the authorities, drug abuse in Singapore continues to be a problem. You might have seen articles online or watched videos on YouTube pertaining to Central Narcotics Bureau’s (CNB) most recent drug raids. The organisation had conducted a five-day island wide drug raid, raiding suspected drug traffickers’ flats and netted drugs that had a street value of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

About the Central Narcotics Bureau

The Central Narcotics Bureau was established in 1971. It is Singapore’s main drug enforcement agency and is a separate entity from the Singapore Police Force. CNB has the responsibility of coordinating drug eradication activities in the country. A Committee to Improve the Drug Situation in Singapore was set up in 1994 to look into the local drug situation. The committee develop an integrated approach to deal with the drug problems here.

CNB lives by four main strategies: Aftercare and Continued Rehabilitation (for ex-addicts), Treatment and Rehabilitation, Rigorous Enforcement, and Preventive Drug Education.

A Persisting Problem: Drug Abuse and Trafficking in Singapore

Unfortunately, CNB’s latest figures show that the number of new drug abusers remains high. Although there is an overall improvement in Singapore’s drug situation, there is still a record-high number of drug abusers. Individuals, who are aged between 20 and 29, continue to form the largest group of drug abusers in Singapore.

In 2016, the number of drug abusers that were arrested by the CNB were 3,265. A year later, that number dropped to less than 3,100. It is important to note that approximately 40 percent of them were made up of new abusers. Out of the 1,249 new abusers arrested, nearly 70 percent had not exceeded the age of 30.

Repeat and New Drug Abuser Arrests in Singapore

In 2017, there was a four percent decrease in arrests pertaining to repeat abusers. The figures are as follows: 1,917 repeated abusers in 2016 and 1,840 repeated abusers in 2017.

In the case of new abusers, about 1,348 individuals were arrested in 2016 while 1,249 individuals were arrested in 2017. There was a 7 percent decrease within a year.

Understanding Drug Possession and Trafficking Penalties in Singapore

Drug possession in Singapore is a serious crime. It can lead to long-term imprisonment or even facing the death penalty.

Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, an individual can be fined up to $20,000 and/or a maximum of 10 years in prison if he or she possesses small amounts of illegal drugs.

The most commonly abused drugs in Singapore are cannabis, heroin, and methamphetamine. Approximately 98 percent of arrested drug abusers have used at least one of the three drugs. In 2017, 204 cannabis abusers, 847 heroin abusers, and 1,989 meth abusers were arrested. CNB found that new abusers displayed a preference toward cannabis and methamphetamine.

Cannabis comes from the hemp plant and goes by various names, including weed, hashish, ganja, joints, grass, pot, and marijuana. Also known as ice, methamphetamine is an odourless and colourless crystal that can cause psychosis, depression, and more. Heroin is a very addictive and powerful drug that is white or yellowish in colour.

The total street value of drugs seized in 2017 was nearly $7 million (down from $8 million in 2016).

The death penalty in Singapore has long been an important part of the country’s comprehensive anti-drug regime. One of the reasons why Singapore imposes harsh laws on drug abuse is due to the drug’s potentially deadly effects. For example, about 50 percent of heroin addiction cases often end in death (overdose), especially if it is left untreated.

Other reasons include the potential spread of hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and other blood-borne diseases that are caused by sharing unsanitary needles. These are risks that the country cannot afford not to eliminate.

What Were the Most Notable Drug Arrests in Singapore?

• The case of Shanmugam “Sam” Murugesu: A kilo of marijuana was found in his luggage in 2003. Prior to his conviction and execution (in 2005), he maintained a clean record and even served an eight-year term in the Singapore Armed Forces.

• The case of Nguyen Tuong Van: The Australian citizen was arrested in 2002 for trafficking heroin into Singapore. He committed the crime so that he could help pay his twin brother’s debts. Nguyen was caught while in transit between Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh City. The total haul (396.2g of heroin) was approximately 26 times the minimum necessary for Singapore’s mandatory death penalty. He was sentenced to death in 2005.

• The case of Johannes van Damme: The Dutch national was arrested in 1991 for possessing 9.5 pounds of heroin in his suitcase. Van Damme was caught while in transit at Changi International Airport. He claimed that he was carrying the drug for a Nigerian friend. Additionally, he had zero knowledge on the contents of the suitcase. Although the Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the Dutch Foreign Ministry appealed against the judgment, authorities in Singapore proceeded to execute Johannes van Damme in 1994.

How is Singapore Tackling the Local Drug Situation?

The CNB worked together with the Singapore Police Force and the Immigration Checkpoints Authority to conduct multiple island wide operations that targeted drug abusers and traffickers. In total, the partnership of these organizations completed more than 1,100 operations at sea, air, and land checkpoints, intercepting drugs entering Singapore. In 2017, major operations by CNB managed to cripple over 20 drug syndicates.

Efforts pertaining to these crackdowns came after a 2015/2016 Youth and Public Perception survey that was conducted by the National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA). Although most respondents supported the country’s zero-tolerance approach towards drugs, an increasing number of young individuals displayed liberal attitudes towards them.

As the survey showed that nearly 60 percent of these youths were exposed to drug-related content via social media, CNB decided to expand its youth community and social media outreach efforts via popular social media platforms such as Facebook to encourage a drug-free lifestyle.

Today, the CNB continues to work with local community groups to raise awareness about the harmful nature of drugs. Additionally, the bureau also prepares preventive drug toolkits, e.g. developing mobile applications and printing parents’ handbooks that highlight the dangers of drug abuse.

According to a CNB spokesman, the bureau believes that newer and younger drug abusers may form the next generation of drug addicts. That’s why one of CNB’s key drug control strategies is rolling out preventive drug education programmes, including the Drug Buster Academy (DBA). It is CNB’s newest mobile Preventive Drug Education (PDE) outreach platform.

The Use of Mandatory Drug Tests

If you are in Singapore, the authorities can drag you into custody without a warrant. Additionally, you might be subject to drug tests. If you are a first-time offender (i.e. drug consumption), you will be imprisoned for one year. The second arrest entails a three-year sentence. If you are caught the third time for drug consumption, your punishment will be five years’ imprisonment with three strokes of the cane. Do note that consumption refers to one’s urine being tested positive.

In Singapore, Central Narcotics Bureau officers are regularly stationed at Changi Airport. They are trained to search any tell-tale signs of drug use. If you have taken drugs overseas, crossed the border into Singapore, and tested positive, you will still be charged.

Overseas Travellers are Subject to Singaporean Laws

You must know that if you are in Singapore, you are subject to Singaporean laws. This applies to you even if you are an American citizen. If you are an overseas traveller, who has been arrested in the country, you must contact the relevant embassy immediately upon your arrest. You request for the arresting authorities to notify your embassy for you.

An Embassy officer will then reach out to you and brief you about the country’s legal system. He or she will provide you with a list of attorneys. Singapore currently does not have a system that provides free legal assistance. But it does for capital cases.

You should keep in mind that Embassy officials cannot secure your release. Those actions would contravene Singaporean laws. If you have been arrested, your assigned officer will notify your family members as well. The officers can also facilitate the transfer of clothing, money, and food from family members and loved ones back home.

Drug Abuse: What You Should Not Do in Singapore

This is a note for overseas travellers. If you want to avoid arrest on drug-related charges in Singapore, you should never carry any item onto a plane if you don’t know what its contents are. Never carry anything suspicious that belongs to a stranger, an acquaintance, or even a friend.

Under Singaporean law, authorities presume possession if any luggage is checked in under your name and contains illegal drugs inside.

Next, you should always keep your paperwork organized. It is legal to bring personal medications into the country. However, you should always seek permission from the authorities for controlled medications. Never fly in with them if you do not receive any green light.  

It goes without saying that you should never take drugs before your flight into Singapore. If you are planning to fly to Singapore for whatever reason, you should completely detox yourself weeks before your flight.

The Future of Singapore’s Fight Against Drugs

Drugs are being peddled online these days and parcels can come in from any part of the world. Adding to the fire are anonymous transactions and the rise of psychoactive substances. People are taking and mixing drugs with contaminants to lower the cost.

According to Minister K Shanmugam, the country will continue to maintain a tough stance and step up efforts in its fight against drug addiction and abuse. Relevant authorities will constantly review its strategies to tackle new challenges, e.g. differentiating between those who abuse drugs versus those who supply and cause harm.

There is also an ongoing need to ensure that the cultural perception and overall national attitude towards drugs remains strongly anti-drugs.

Drug Rehab and Addiction Treatment in Singapore

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Since our inception, we have treated both local Singaporeans and expats alike for a great array of substance addictions including heroin, prescription drugs, alcohol, and more. We also specialize in other process addictions such as compulsive Internet usage, sex, and gambling.

Did you know that most of our staff members are in recovery themselves? That’s why our counsellors understand first-hand the nature of various drug addictions and how it can be treated.