but the fact is that one of the most high profile cases that your system has dealt with in the last few months is that of an individual from malaysia, nagaenthran dharmalingam, who was caught with the equivalent of three tablespoonfuls of heroin as he entered singapore. he has an iq of 69. medical experts say that represents intellectual disability. and after more than a decade on death row, you hanged him. does that seem proportionate and compassionate to you? you ve got your facts wrong. the courts found that he had the working of a criminal mind and he made a deliberate, purposeful, calibrated, calculated decision, to make money, to bring the drugs in. psychiatrists called. he was mentally impaired, minister. he was mentally impaired. psychiatrist called by the defence. he had an iq of 69. psychiatrist called by the defence agreed and confirmed that he was not
influence, it referred to a rising tide of ugliness with regard to racial discrimination in singapore, which it said is provoking a reckoning over race. now, as home affairs minister, are you worried about the evidence presented of routine systemic discrimination, particularly against malay people in singapore, to a certain extent indian people as well? again, you know, there are various assumptions that there is routine discrimination and that this is systematic. you are not producing any evidence to this effect. as i said, the economist magazine and others have produced evidence which gets to the very heart of this problem. it shows that when people, when people look for housing, to rent housing, it is quite plain. and many people have done this, quite plain that in many places, ethnic chinese people are favoured and it s impossible for indian
no, fine. i can prove it. so, that s your frame for that particular aspect of your social policy. what is the. and our. what is the justification. let s move on now. let s move on from drugs to another aspect of your social policy. yes. and that is the fact that in singapore, homosexuality is still defined as a criminal act. now that s not saving lives. so, what on earth is the justification for that? the position in singapore is that people engaging in gay sex will not be prosecuted. even though there is this old piece of law which makes gay sex amongst males an offence, the attorney general has confirmed that position and the supreme court has said that the government s position has legal force. why are we taking this approach? because a significant proportion of our population, the middle ground as it were, don t want that law repealed. attitudes are shifting somewhat, but still governments cannot. singapore government cannot ignore those views. so, we have arrived
are foreigners who are seeking housing in singapore. so, you know, people get their facts confused and mixed up. well, i suppose the biggest test of all of this, if i may say so, the biggest test of all of this would be what happens at the very top. now, the current prime minister has just made it plain who his successor is going to be. it s going to be lawrence wong, the current finance minister. that will mean that the four leaders of independent singapore in the modern era have all been ethnic chinese. you re a very senior minister yourself, you perhaps could have aspired to the top job. isn t the reality that you, with your indian heritage, are never going to be able to be prime minister of singapore? and that is a great shame, is it not? leaving me aside, i don t think it is accurate to say an indian cannot be a prime minister or a malay cannot be a prime minister. how many non white prime ministers have there been in the united kingdom? so, let s get real. race does matter in pol
30 years later, today, there are more drugs around the region. there are. singapore is wealthier. afghanistan and myanmar are among the largest producers of drugs in the world. we are a logistics centre. we would be completely swamped. the undoc. unodc said that, you know, this place is swimming in meth and a record haul of1 billion meth tablets was seized in southeast asia. yeah. you keep painting. in that situation. you keep painting this apocalyptic vision of what singapore might face. but surely, in the end, you are going to be challenged by the international community on the standards that you set in yourjudicial system. let me ask you which is better. you look at the netherlands, the chief of the largest police union talks about the netherlands being a narco state with a parallel economy