Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404120012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: William Safire
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The dictatorship of Singapore has found an American teen-ager guilty of spray-painting cars and sentenced him to four months in prison, a $2,000 fine - and torture.
Singapore's torture of choice is flogging by rattan cane, which elicits the screams satisfying to the torturer and scars the torturee physically and mentally for life. A doctor attends only to make certain the victim remains conscious to feel the excruciating pain.
Torture is an act of savagery as old as civilization. Demosthenes of Athens described it as the surest means of obtaining evidence; Tomas de Torquemada issued detailed instructions for its use in the Spanish Inquisition; in England, the Star Chamber employed the rack to stretch the witness' body until the bones cracked.
In our century, the Nazis delighted in finding new scientific methods for the infliction of pain, while ``tiger cages'' were an Asian contribution.
That was then. Now the civilized nations have a Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that declares: ``No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment''; the United Nations has a Convention Against Torture, and Principle 6 of its protection of the imprisoned states: ``No circumstances whatever may be invoked as a justification for torture . . . .''
But the government of Singapore (along with Malaysia and Trinidad and Tobago) stands aloof from the universal condemnation. Singapore's dictator is actually proud of his country's reputation for keeping order by inflicting pain. Moreover, his diplomats in the United States report that many Americans endorse the lashing to be meted out to the young offender.
That some people here thoughtlessly espouse torture is undeniable. One sap told a The New York Times reporter: ``If you've ever had your antenna ripped off your car, you can sympathize with the government of Singapore. Lash him. Vandalism is a cowardly and insubordinate act.''
I've had more than a few antennas ripped off my car, and a few swastikas sprayed on my house, and felt a surge of mindless fury at the perpetrators.
But I have also seen a Kurdish patriot crippled for life by one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's torturers, and witnessed the misdirected self-loathing on the face of a rape victim, and I do not think any person or government has any right to inflict physical pain on another human being.
Is this being soft on criminals? Of course not; there is no such thing as a ``good thrashing.'' The only civilized punishment is loss of property (a fine) and/or loss of freedom (a jail sentence). Taking away a convict's freedom punishes but does not inflict pain. What about our death penalty? Not germane; that retributive justice by lethal injection is painless.
Those who suggest we not impose our standards on the Singaporean ``culture'' flirt with racism: Asian society is no more intrinsically cruel than any other civilized society.
This issue is not about degrees of harshness, nor is it limited to one teen-ager; it is a case of a state asserting an intolerable ``right to torture.''
On Tuesday, President Clinton sent Singaporean President Ong Teng Cheong a personal plea to avert the infliction of agony on one of our citizens in the hope that ``quiet diplomacy'' will elicit clemency. (Can you imagine if our teen-ager were black or a woman? ``Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.'')But the issue goes beyond clemency.
If the dictator continues to espouse state-sponsored torture, how might Americans react? Three hundred thousand of us could stop going to Singapore each year, or flying its airline; stockholders and customers of Seagate computers, Caltex, Mobil, Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments could re-examine corporate investments and purchases; the use of cheap Singapore labor to ``add value'' to our exports to Asia could be examined.
Torture is a crime against humanity. How long can Singapore prosper as a lawless state?
New York Times News Service
by CNB