After Singapore introduced capital punishment for trafficking more than 1.2 kilograms of opium in 1990, there was a 66 per cent reduction in the average weight of opium trafficked into Singapore in the four-year period thereafter.
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A 2021 study conducted in regions where many of our drug traffickers come from found that 87.2 per cent of respondents believed that capital punishment deterred people from trafficking substantial amounts of drugs into Singapore. Of those polled, 82.5 per cent also agreed that capital punishment was more effective than life imprisonment for this purpose.
Singapore’s public assembly laws
Second, on public assembly laws, Lasry claimed that local anti-death penalty activists were persecuted for their political views. Meanwhile, Hope questioned why assemblies in Singapore were confined to a place in the city centre called Speakers’ Corner, where he had attended a vigil for a death-row inmate.
As Hope’s experience shows, activists in Singapore are free to express their concerns, as long as they do not break the law. The assembly he attended was held without the need for a police permit, as were the previous anti-death penalty demonstrations held there. No one is persecuted just because of their political views.
It is true that Singapore has strict rules on public assembly. With the exception of Speakers’ Corner, public assemblies in Singapore require a police permit for the purpose of ensuring law and order. This is to guard against what we have seen all around the world, where many well-intentioned protests started out peaceful, but spiralled out of control and devolved into fiery chaos and violence. These risks are even more acute for densely populated Singapore, given the inherent fault lines in our multi-racial, multi-religious society.
We thus make no apologies for regulating, and even prohibiting at times, protests that could be extremely divisive and contentious for our society. But these laws apply equally to everyone in Singapore, regardless of their political views or opinions.
Singapore’s policies have worked to create a safe, stable, and relatively drug-free society. Hope has seen the effects of our policies himself. He notes that Singapore can “point to some of the safest big-city streets in the world”, and that it is “nothing to walk alone here at night”. A 2023 survey showed more than 75 per cent of Singapore residents supported the death penalty for the trafficking of a significant amount of drugs. In 2024, Singapore was ranked second in Gallup’s Law and Order Index.
Our policies suit our geographical and social context. We have no desire or interest in imposing our approach on others. But we will continue to correct misrepresentations – deliberate or otherwise – and protect our people from the harms of drugs.
Anil Nayar is Singapore’s High Commissioner to Australia.
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