THERE seems to be a difference between justice and compassion if one perceives it through a binary mind, but if one perceives it from a holistic point of view, justice and compassion are integrated values since it deals with reality from a broader perspective.
In a Facebook comment I was criticised by a netizen on my statement that even though a particular city state has progress significantly in the social-economic sphere, it is still poor in accepting the richness of compassion.
This comes to light after Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, from Perak, said to have an IQ of 69 – a level recognised as a disability – and had been on death row in Singapore since 2010 after being convicted of smuggling 42.7gm of heroin into the country a year earlier, had been hanged.
In the statement, the netizen mentioned that authorities had enough compassion when it gave the accused enough time and opportunity to defend himself.
In my reply, I stated that what was given to Nagaenthran was the due process of justice, but compassion should transcend justice taking into consideration the situation of the accused that requires sensible discretion on the part of a judicial system than outright condemnation to death.
Years ago, when I was attached to a factory, there was a particular worker who was detained for a few days on suspicion of drug use.
When he came out I asked him about his experience being in detention and he told me that there was a person in the cell with him detained for drug offences, who said that if there was a so-called rebirth for him in next life, he would still sell drugs since the money from it was lucrative enough that it couldn’t be earned from a normal profession.
I began to wonder at the time, why are the top wealthy drug dealers and syndicates, who bankroll people into selling harmful drugs, were not caught and sentenced while those from the lower strata are punished?
If there is no lucrative money why do people take the risk even at the expense of their life?
It is not just the personal circumstances of Nagaenthran’s poor IQ that should have been taken into consideration in deciding whether to proceed with capital punishment, but the very social economic context and system where the rich drug lords are able to get away with financing and recruiting the poor and vulnerable to commit a crime.
Therefore, it is time for authorities, who are dealing with law and sentencing on drug issues, to do away with the rigid approach to justice and take a broader perspective of addressing drug crimes.
There is a need to do away with the death penalty that seems to target the most vulnerable, what more a disabled human being in a context where the rich drug lords are still lurking around.
Justice cannot be divorced from discernment and compassion.
Rigid justice of sentencing the vulnerable has dulled the human spirit from addressing the reality of drug crimes from a broader perspective.
Ronald Benjamin
Secretary
Association for Welfare, Community and Dialogue
