From Asian Correspondent
Ben Bland
Just over 16 years ago, American teenager Michael Fay was caned four times at Queenstown Remand Prison in Singapore after pleading guilty to vandalism.
The case thrust the tighly-controlled city-state into the international limelight (see Asiaweek story from 1994) but despite (or because of) pleas for clemency from U.S. President Bill Clinton and many other quarters, the government was unwilling to make any exceptions to its draconian justice system.
Now Oliver Fricker, a 32-year-old Swiss software consultant, may force Singapore to relive the Michael Fay debate after being charged with trespass and vandalism for allegedly spray-painting a train alongside a British accomplice who has fled the city-state.
Fricker has been released on bail and will next appear in court on June 21. If convicted, he faces a fine of up to S$2,000 ($1,424), up to three years in jail and three to eight strokes of the cane.
The case, which was the first time a Singapore train has ever suffered a graffiti attack according to the Straits Times, has attracted significant international press attention, particularly in Switzerland and Britain. It has also been big news in Singapore, where the state-controlled media has reported it as a major security lapse.
Fricker’s trial will no doubt be closely watched, with particular focus on whether or not the judge opts to have the defendant caned if he is found guilty.
Stern Singapore has come a long way since 1994 and, although it still scraps with foreign journalists and human rights experts, it prefers to promote a softer global image these days as an open, creative business and leisure hub.
If Fricker is found guilty and caned, it would undo a lot of the careful international public relations work carried out by the People’s Action Party-led regime, placing Singapore visibly in the ranks of oddball states. Swiss embassy official Peter Zimmerli said his government would not interfere in the case but noted that “certain punishments such as corporal punishment are foreign to Swiss legal conception”.
Errant Singaporeans and Asian migrant workers regularly face corporal and capital punishment but the sad reality is that these cases attract little or no attention in the wider world.
A decision to spare Fricker the rod (if found guilty) would provoke the ire of many Singaporeans who already feel that Western expats get an easy ride when they commit such misdemeanours.
There has been significant disquiet on Singaporean blogs and message boards over recent cases in which Western expats (both Brits) escaped prison in Singapore for (variously) drunkenly stealing a truck and driving it down Orchard Road and stealing thousands of dollars from someone else’s bank account.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
————
The writer also blogs here: http://asiancorrespondent.com/the-asia-file
Visit Asia Correspondent (AC) for more news.
Picture not from AC’s report.
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
If you like this article, please consider a small donation to help theonlinecitizen.com stay alive. Please note that we can only accept donations from Singaporeans. Thank you for your assistance.Do you have a flair for writing? Volunteer with us. Email us your full name and contact details to theonlinecitizen@gmail.com
Just monetary fines. Perhaps impose 2 week jail sentence, then renegade & after 24 hours both will be released from jail prematurely with no dire consequences.
Lots of precedence for this happening to Spore elites & to white men & women.
So in reality, just monetary fines. Now if this is China, they will tell the ang mohs go fly kite, we do what we want & this includes execution.
Spare him the flogging. From now on, spare EVERYONE – Singaporeans and foreigners alike – the flogging. It’s not the 17th century anymore.
Will Fricker “be allowed” to jump bail and avoid standing trial?
Will SG succeed to bring the Briton to stand trial?
Let’s watch the wayang unfold
wah… so efficient :-)
but car accident investigation took so long… why?
I can bet a million bucks this guy will be spared the rod. Takers anyone?
Caning Frickers would make the pap look bad. Not caning him would also make the pap look bad.
So the best solution for the pap is Fricker “jumps” bail.
The country wanted foreign talents and this is what it got in Fricker. Now that these foreign talents are showing us how talented they are, beyond the talents we have imagined them to be, we want to spank their backsides.
-
The ones who really ought to be punished are the ones trying to use Fricker as the scapegoat for their failings.
-
I hope that when this storm cloud is blown over we do not forget that the greater misdeed is the failure to protect our public transport premises from intrusion and possible terrorist infiltration. This is a bigger concern considering the amount of effort, time and resources that go into preparing Singaporeans for a worst-case scenario.
i am not siding with Fricker and co.
But without the ‘Vulnerability test’ by them, who would know how Vulnerable the SMRT security really is?
So, i thank them for revealing to us this Weakness at their own expense.
If terrorists had exploited this loophole, imagine how many lives are at stake.
I personally feel they deserve a commendation.
This case is different from the usual vandalism case. It’s not because he is a Westerner that he shouldn’t be caned. But rather, his act actually did a big social good of identifying a major security lapse going on under our noses. The clean-up costs seems to be insignificant in comparison to this.
Contrast this act with the other cases involving Westerners/foreigners. Or even other acts of general vandalism like those vulgar images drawn with marker on the back of bus seats or toilet doors. Smashing of car windows, scratching of car paint. Loan sharks splashing paint on people’s front doors or writing OMPM on common walls. What social good do these acts carry?
Surely we Singaporeans can see the difference in this case compared to the other absurd things previously done by other Westerners/foreigners?
more likely the ceo needs to be spank,,
just like your little child , across the laps of mm.
@kixes
“Spare him the flogging. From now on, spare EVERYONE – Singaporeans and foreigners alike – the flogging. It’s not the 17th century anymore.”
Even if we were to change the law today, it should still apply to him because he committed the offense when caning was still the punishment. If he is spared, it will not only look like we have double standards, we even changed the law to save his ass. Nope, even changing the law won’t help him.
Somehow, i think Fricker is looking for attention.
It’s not one of the typical- spur of the moment, stupid, fun that ang mohs like to do. It was pre-planned and executed.
Come to Singapore, the famous land of caning and other strict, drastic punishments- break into a protected area- vandalize public property- which will be paraded around Singapore publicly in broad daylight… that there is no way of closing one eye.
Best, he still stuck around to get caught, even when SMRT reported it 2 days late.
Sounds like he wants to get caned and be famous. (maybe he’s into SM?) He is so asking for it.. even the swiss govt can’t be bothered abt him.
Maybe we should just oblige him.
Singaporeans should use such “Michael Fay” moments to fight against such inhumane, uncivilised laws, instead of wanting their PAP govt to show “equality” towards the ang-mohs, which so far they have not. Such desires, if fulfilled, will just “solidify” the law, so our citizens will remain caned.
As for our govt’s efforts at public relations to “promote a softer image,” we Singaporeans should help spread the word that our regime HAS NOT changed since. We are still the old stern, conformist Singapore like ever before.
But yes, this time it is not just vandalism, but trespassing, and a security breakdown by SMRT and the authorities, with the former mistaking the vandalism as advertisement!
We need to get into the right focus.
We should thank Fricker for exposing our weakest link.
Why punish him for helping us in disclosing our security problem.
this is going to be tough-faye time no intewrnet like now-
our garment have to react n punish him differently- think trice -it will hurt sg most if upholding the rules is utmost important.
its going be be a high price to pay if you whip him . 16years n now can have totally different reaction from the whole world. mind u, dont be stupid . angmo straight,
Yes, spare him! Ang Moh backside very precious! Cannot touch!!!!! Hahahaha!
But wait, this time,swiss only. Europe now in big trouble so very weak now. Unlikely for EU to intervene since they want GIC & Temasek to invest in them.
So, let’s cane this guy & see how! Hahahaha!
Agree with you SGC.
-
Singaporeans should use this case, with that of Michael Fay’s, as backgrounds to evoke a change in using the cane as punishment. What we MUST not do is to force the government’s hand to cane Fricker just to be consistent with past sentencings.
-
Caning is in itself an inconsistent and qeistionable punishment. Imagine someone new at the job, would he cane as hard as one who has been in the job for say, ten years?
-
A criminal would be ‘lucky’ if he gets a new bird caner, as opposed to getting one who has been in the job for a number of years.
-
Is the meting out of such punishment, which depends on the experience, the size and strength of the caner a fair one?
-
Not unless every caner can exert the same degree of force for each and every stroke, and at the same angle and same speed, can we say that the punishment is consistent.
-
But even before we get there, we should ask this: Who determines how hard each stroke should be? Is the cane meant to teach the criminal a lesson or is it meant to cause harm to him by the excessive use of force?
-
Without clear cut answers to all these questions, the cane must be immediately suspended.
gemami,
What ‘cut cut’ answers do you expect?
what about “Is jailing meant to teach the criminal a lesson or is it meant to cause harm by excessive mental torture?” ALL punishment are subjective in its impact to different people, so there are no clear cut answers. Then should all forms of punishment be suspended?
-
With regards to Fricker, and in comparison to Fay:
Fay was obviously out to cause ‘harm’. His acts were destructive in nature, and throughly deserved to be caned.
Fricker, I am not sure of his intent. The harm, if any, seems minimal. His act of ‘vandalism’ was so well done that people thought it was decoration! While we should not and cannot decide cases based on the quality of the ‘art’, it is at least not the harmful, as compared to breaking windows of MRT or sabotaging of electronics components of trains.
-
With regards to the (perhaps unintentional) effect of highlighting a lapse in security of a very important facility, I would like to highlight a somewhat parallel case. There was a British person who hacking into an important US Defence network, and the US are looking for ways to extradite him back to US for trial, where he would expect to get a very heavy sentence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/26/hacker-mckinnon-faces-us-trial
While I would like to ‘reward’ Fricker for highlighting a security issue, I am not sure institutions would like to encourage such acts. They might face hordes (yes, I know it’s an exaggeration) of teenagers who would then invade important facilities to ‘highlight flaws in security’. Terrorists might then recruit such people (who can get away with light sentences) to do their work for them.
That is why I think McKinnon is looking at a heavy sentence should he be convicted in a US court, and why Fricker is unlikely to escape caning (unless PAP wants to appease Switzerland).
One country two systems has been demonstrated several times. Will it come as a surprise if the punishment is carried out mildly with a slap on the wrist because that chap is a FT?
Lobo76,
-
There is no one-solution-fits-all type of punishment. As you have correctly pointed out, any punishment is subjective as it impacts different people differently. It is why a punishment must be a ‘general’ one, one that is not overly excessive – for to be overly excessive would be unfair to those who have a higher capacity to reform themselves with lighter punishments.
-
Mitigation, or a good mitigation might help reduce the punishment. Unfortunately, in our courts, mitigations are seen as nothing but a desperate attempt to reach the soft-spot of a judicial process.
-
The main purpose of any punishment is to both ensure that the criminal gets his due dessert as well as to allow him the opportunity to reform and change for the better.
-
An extra day or two in jail, in this case, is a better option as the chances of any lingering damage (like mental torture) is not as high as that which caning would cause. It will also not devalue the punishment which has to be seen as one that dishes out justice as well as compassion.
One country two systems also applied to the political elites and the non-elites.
Pap grassroots leaders and YPAP members got off lightly when they commit molest.
The ordinary Singaporeans got heavy fines, jail, and caning.
We could throw The Pledge, based on justice and equality into the bin.
Havent really given the matter any thought. Perhaps I should. But if you tag someone with a word like vandal or communist. Or any other tag. Then its easy to just decide what to do with him. Recently, the NLB decided to bar someone from speaking because he was not an academic. Maybe he was also a communist. Or whatever. On another occasion, we had a minister claim that Mr Brown was not a professional journalist and we should only read what is written by trained journalist. Then we also had many people who through the years have suffered as they have been tagged as either mad or mentally unstable. The problem is when I look at what was done to the train. I dont see it as the work as a mindless vandal like Michael Fay. I see something that is nice and colorful. This wakes me up
I am coke sure that many singaporeans never thought there is Security Loophole in SMRT train premise.
This incident is a solid evidence that Assumption is Blind.
Its a priceless contribution by the vandals for indirectly proving that the SMRT’s security is flawed, lacking in standard and a complete failure in preventing trespass and people doing things to the train. The checks on the train also scored an ‘F’ by letting the train operate and continue to carry hundreds and hundreds of passengers and only report to police days later.
Could this delay have allowed the other to have escaped?
It reminds me of M Salamet.
Last time, i was disappointed and shocked.
Now, i am just speechless.
People pls wake up!
Tracy Quek 15 June 2010
The problem is when I look at what was done to the train. I dont see it as the work as a mindless vandal like Michael Fay. I see something that is nice and colorful. This wakes me up.
I don’t see how your ‘standard’ is any more objective than use of ‘tags’. Do you mean to say that people-who-paint-where-they-shouldn’t ( or … ‘vandals’) should have different punishment depending on the quality of their ‘art’?
Would one judge say, “I like your work, but it is still ‘wrong’, so I will fine you a token of $1″;
and another judge say, “I hate pink, and you used so much of it, that it is ghastly. You can going to jail, pls 3 strokes of cane.”
i heard that when sentencing the community service or something provided by the one being sentenced can be considered and sometimes get liniency?
so the 2 vandals have helped the community realise how under-secured the train premise is. And hopefully, based on hindsight, the train people can buck up their security for the sake of lives of the passengers.
So, in this aspect, have the vandals not contributed ?
i wonder like the lemon tree.
Singapore should thank Oliver Fricker for exposing the security lapse of our train depot. Thank goodness it was just harmless graffitti and not something devious and explosive.
But the govt with egg on its face, will want to overcompensate their loss of face, by making Fricker a scapegoat.
Strange that they can allow Mas Selamat, a dangerous terrorist escape from a high-security cell and limp, swim all the way to Malaysia, but they must make an example of this dude. Shame indeed.
kixes 14 June 2010
Spare him the flogging. From now on, spare EVERYONE – Singaporeans and foreigners alike – the flogging. It’s not the 17th century anymore.
Exactly! Do away with the barbaric, atrocious death penalty too.
kamsumhamikua 15 June 2010
So, in this aspect, have the vandals not contributed ?
Not sure if you read one of my previous posts. Here is a parallel case (with regards to ‘contribution’ part).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/26/hacker-mckinnon-faces-us-trial
I would say McKinnon contributed by exposing flaws in the US military security network. Why do you think US wants to give him 60 years for his ‘contribution’?
These vandals have contributed to passengers by giving them solid evidence there is a Big Security Lapse in SMRT.
With this loophole plugged, passengers know they are now safer than before. Unless another loophole is discovered.
Till then, lets assume we are safe.
Woefully dismal article. Underlying notion that singapore exists as an unhumanitarian state blatantly apparent throughout entire passage. It’s a wonder toc published something of such substandard quality while, with the same hand, talk about objective, unbiased, factual journalistic standards. It’s like commiting adultery and criticizing fornications. Seriously bad shit.
C’mon, “stern Singapore”? I don’t know about you, but this smacks of some very subtle traces of that brainwashing material the state media would have you subscribe to.
Why not be fair and objective? If you let these sentiments through toc, might as well put up some of those award winning st propaganda articles… we have to balance it out, right?
This barbaric nation proves once again that it still practices legalized torture both to foreigners and its own citizens. The sadistic practice of flogging someone who comitted no violence is cruel and inhumane and wrong and the rest of the world knows this. The Singaporean flag should be burned in protest because of its fanatical obsession in brutally beating males. Disgusting.
I am an American. I say whip the man.
To my S’pore friends; love your country values and cultures, it’s one of your greatest assets.
Btw, where is my Billy Clinton?
I understand he has already been Tortured. I am also an American and cannot believe that America and other countries still do business with this Barbaric government. I was shocked and ashamed to hear they even have a Disneyland and Universal Studios in this third world place. I say Boycott Singapore and have United Nations sanctions placed against this Torture Hub of Asia.
Why ah? Ang Mo kachng precious or wat. Like one poster said here, he seems to be asking for it. So wait for wat? Let him have it. At least get something back for our losses at UBS!