12/07/2005

shall i support abolishing capital punishment

the last few weeks there have been many letters and voices in support of abolishing capital punishment. the singapore govt has been labelled as cruel, barbaric, inhuman, and all things bad and unkind because of the death penalty. we cannot be so cruel and barbaric to a criminal. this brings back memories of the hours when the two saf scholars were bashed to death in australia. during the last few minutes of their tragic lives, i could only hear the sound of a baseball bat whacking on their bodies, wham, wham, bonk, bonk... the latter sounds were from metal bats hitting the skull. and you could hear the cries and plea to stop, the fear and anguish in the two helpless young men, fear, shock and crying for mercy. did the killer show them any mercy? was the killer any less cruel or barbaric? should we show mercy to the killer if he did not show mercy to his two victims? and there were many badly beaten up victims, children, women and old folks, being bashed and banged till their bodies limp....and died a painful and frightful death. can anyone feel the pain of the parents and wives of these two young men, knowing how helpless they were at the mercy of a cruel killer? wham, wham, thud, thud...pleeeeese no, no, help...........pl who shall we show our mercy to? the reasoning put forth in several of the arguments is that the death penalty will not deter those who are bent to kill. but itsn't that the point? it is exactly meant for this group of incorrigible killers, that nothing can stop them from killing that they should be put away before they go on to kill more people. and for the fearful group that would have been deterred from killing because of the death penalty, and avoided killing, then the death penalty has helped to save some lives and prevented some from taking lives. at times i think it is more evil and wicked to let an incorrigible or senseless killer on the lose again, all because the law spared his life. and he went out to kill again, to inflict more pain to the innocent. those who supported the abolishing of the death penalty must share the sin and guilt of these criminals and be answerable to the victims and their love ones. there are times when one has to be hard to be kind. and let not trying to be kind and ended up perpetuating cruelties, pain and suffering on the innocents. who is more evil?

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