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Comment by dehrmann | Hacker News Reader

They do at least a few of these every year, and they warn you before you enter the country:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Singapor...

There is a convenient garbage can as you exit the airplane; I think it’s intended to give people one last chance to contemplate the risk.

I think he was already present in the country, he's actually a Singaporean. There's a lot of ethnic Malay folks, or folks from India in Singapore. Also, this dude has been in jail for nearly 10 years (since 2014).

Pretty flimsy case it seems:

Tangaraju was arrested in 2014 for drug consumption and for failing to show up for drug tests. While he was in remand, authorities identified Tangaraju for his potential involvement in a case of cannabis trafficking in September 2013. The court ruled that a phone number used to coordinate a drug delivery belonged to Tangaraju, and found him guilty of abetting the trafficking attempt. Tangaraju denied being involved in the transaction.

Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/88xn7b/death-penalty-singapo...

I wonder how much of Singapore's drug punishment policy is economic: they want to create a corporate and financial haven, and if they permit too much drug trafficking and international organized crime, the may end up with harsher KYC/AML requirements, that will hamper these businesses. It's probably sold under the harm it can do to "the population", but under the economic theory that's only tangentially true (via reduced trickle down), it's really about the harm done to large banking and services base in Asia if it co-locates with too much high volume illicit business.

I also wonder how much racism in Singapore affects this, looking at the list of people executed by Singapore I notice that non-Chinese names outnumber Chinese names by a lot, despite Chinese being the dominant socioeconomic class in Singapore. Singapore death row inmates allege racial bias: https://transformativejusticecollective.org/2021/08/16/inves...

Another article with additional info about this human's situation: https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/662908

And some articles about racism in Singapore:

https://www.beenaroundtheglobe.com/racism-singapore/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/5/singapore-executions...

https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/07/29/racial-prejudice-r... (https://web.archive.org/web/20230422045704/https://www.econo...)

It would be great if posting something on here could stop this guy getting executed.

It’s not to do with money.

Part of it is due to the opium wars, where Britain forced China to take their opium via military means.

On the Malay side it is due to Islamic prohibitions on drugs. Arab countries also have extremely harsh drug laws.

And in modern times there’s just a desire to not end up like the Americas.

I think this makes it about Malay, when they're not in charge (or don't feel themselves to be). Most of the executed are ethnic Malay. It's more a Chinese run city-state. I think it's very much about money.

Islamic prohibitions and Arab countries have extremely harsh drug laws is not universal: hashish is culture in many Arab and Islamic places, isn't it?

The opium wars are a Chinese cultural memory. Islamic prohibitions are Malay. Between them there’s a strong consensus for these kinds of laws.

When I said “Arabs” I had gulf Arabs in mind. UAE is notorious for jailing hapless travelers for the possession of poppy seed bread rolls. But it’s true that there is no universal Arab culture, and certain substances are licit in certain Arab countries. For example qaat in Yemen.

Is that how it’s justified? Maybe to the populations. How far back is Malaysia Islamic?

If Chinese are so against the drug trade because of the opium wars why is so much fentanyl manufactured in China and sent to the United States?

Also, I don’t think recreational drug use is exactly uncommon on the mainland.

And poppyseeds in UAE? Wow I didn’t know that.

I think its due to Singapore's history with drug use, opium additions which got the country kicked out of Malaysia.

https://www.sana.org.sg/history/

Nowhere in your history link does it claim that Malaysia kicked Singapore out of its union because of opium.

No, Singapore got kicked out of Malaysia because Singapore is a Chinese-majority city in a Malaysian majority country and the Malaysian political party saw it as a threat to their power.

That plus both countries had very different ideas about how the country should be run.

I like your answers on here. You clearly know about this stuff. What's your view on the drug policies / capital punishment / or just general governance and social condition in SG if you care to give it? :)

The government has a near zero tolerance for drugs (it reminds me of the US government in the 80's). There are very large drug busts every couple of weeks so there is a thriving drug trade, but it's forced underground and the government makes sure it always appears they have it under control. Drug problems are much reduced in Singapore compared to the West, but almost much of it isn't publicly visible either.

Singaporean citizens and PRs can be (and are) randomly drug tested when coming back to Singapore and if found guilty can be fined and/or receive a prison sentence. Yes, you can go to prison for flying to Thailand and smoking legal marijuana.

As for the death penalty, my guess is Singapore will eventually stop mandatory death penalties. Global pressure and stigma will eventually be too much. Even their neighbor, Malaysia, has stopped all executions since 2018.

However, if they end executions, they'll make sure to spin it as their idea and will give no hint that they bowed to international pressure or opinion.

Thank you! Very interesting :) Wow I had no idea about the drug tests. That to me seems insane in terms of legal jurisdictions and human rights.

So what legal chemicals a person imbibes in another jurisdiction, can, if detected in SG, lead to a prison sentence in SG. Wow. In some way, that's like a lack of respect from SG toward the laws of the place where it's legal. Law is not just about punishment, it's also about protection.

So basically SG is now like a much shinier, better run Changi prison, where the prisoners are insanely productive in high-impact industries. I guess it makes sense, even the airport is called Changi.

This does suck tho, as it is a very nice airport, and everything looks very beautiful.

I did not expect this thread to enlighten me as to just how very fucked up Singapore is. Very interesting.

That's pretty interesting, I didn't know that. Thanks!

But even such history doesn't mean a place can't move with the times. Also, I don't think you can blame capitol punishment on this.

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