6/09/2015

Amos Yee – punishment versus correction


 

 
Offenders and criminals are rightly and expectedly punished by the rule of law when the law is broken. States need law to maintain order, security and rule of conduct for the proper functioning of a society. The rule of law provides a platform for people to coexist under a given set of rules that would make life bearable, orderly and to a great extent predictable.

 
The punishments meted out by the courts are measured and proportional to the crime committed. But before handling out a punishment, there is always the thought of corrective actions, to help the offenders not to commit the same offence again. But in some serious cases, the punishment is severe with no thought of reforming the offender. Death penalties are passed down in crimes where lives were taken or drug offences that are serious enough that corrective or reformative actions are found unnecessary.

 
So there are at least these two considerations when punishment are passed down, to correct and reform if possible, but if the crime is too serious, the court would do away with the corrective actions, and sentence the criminal to death.

 
In the Amos Yee’s case, it is not serious enough to want to just punish for the sake of punishment like serious crime. The thought is about reformation, about turning the boy offender around. And corrective actions can come in many shades and colours, from a pep talk, a warning, to reformative training and jail. What is then appropriate in the Amos Yee case would depend on how serious was the offence. In this particular case, I think many people have great differences in opinion. Some would rubbish this as the rant of a wayward youth and could simply be ignored. Some treated this very seriously and wanted the maximum punishment to be meted out. And the in betweens could vary between the two.

 
What is thus appropriate to be handed down to Amos Yee, a jail sentence or a long detention in a reformative centre? The prosecution is adamant on a long reformative training under detention and justifying it as reformative and corrective training. They are going to reform the boy.  The intent is so noble. Would it work? Would the boy be reformed after the stint in the reformative centre? Or would it lead to rebellion and harden the boy’s attitude towards authority?

 
Obviously a jail sentence would be just a punishment and would not do much good in correcting the boy. But would reformative training be more effective or be worse than a jail sentence? What’s next if the reformative training is ineffective and counter productive, recommend for an extension to keep the boy in detention again until he is reformed?

 
The effectiveness of reformative training for such a case is questionable.  No one can be assured that a reformative training would work and not to hurt or destroy the person under training. The result may be negative and just the opposite. This case would need the wisdom of mature adults to think through it carefully with the good of boy in mind. The corrective action or punishment must befit the severity of the offence.  What would a sincere and kind wise man or woman recommend for the good of the boy?

What would the people in the Kindness Movement recommend?

22 comments:

  1. :-)
    No need jail or reform.Since its his itchy finger that cause annoyance, consider to fingercuff the fingers for few years so that he cannot anyhow draw or publish.
    Or immobilise the fingers for few years .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amos needs a wise matured adult to reform him.

    This is where our most enlightened judges of the Courts will fulfilled.

    Our Sin Judges must be of the Best Minds in our land and therefore all those that need be punished and corrected are definitely in the Hands of the Best People.

    Amos Yee and All other Singaporeans are lucky to have the Attentions of those specially enlightened folks. Free lodging, food, training and education provided, where to find?

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  3. The "Loot" Cause ......June 09, 2015 10:35 am

    No empire in history did well making riches through vices such as drugs ( read opium ), prostitution, casinos ......

    The Great Britain Empire peddled drugs ( opium ) to China and forced down their throats via 2 Opium Wars but their empire disintegrated faster than they can count the riches and materials supposedly acquired through making the Chinese addicted and perished through opium smoking.

    Casinos bring short term wealth and riches to the top few percent but sooner or later, the house of cards will come tumbling down and prove that it is just that.

    Ask yourself, which prostitute wants to be one if there are other better means .....

    Which drug lord wishes to risk certain death peddling drugs if there is other means in their disposal?

    Which brings to the question which other means do they have beside resorting to casinos to sustain (short term) wealth?

    Would a prostitute resort to prostitution if she has other feasible alternatives like making a living being a teacher, doctor or lawyer?

    Should a prostitute bask in glory that she became a millionaire for prostituting herself?

    Should a nation feel proud and fool themselves in disillusion that they are rich through peddling and prostituting casinos to drive wealth creation?

    With opium or casinos, there is only one course left for a society to go and it is all the way DOWN ......

    That is the "LOOT" cause and game changer.

    All others are secondary.

    Once cancer starts to grow and fester, the end is actually already at the door step.

    What would make this time different?

    Correction, punishment and what not .....

    Does it matter anymore?

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  4. Whose crazy idea is it to put this intelligent boy in a reformative training centre? This boy is many times smarter than the one trying to reform him and it is the latter that needs reformative training instead.

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  5. My Idol made a most enlightened prediction, Matilah Singapura in Malay meaning die lah Singapore.
    I very much agree to it, except that if Singapura is changed to Singaporeans, I think he is spot on, 93% accuracy.
    7% will live enjoy living like royalties in Sin or anywhere else.

    Casinos ONLY get GAMBLERS into troubles, the Operators and the Tax Department will gain forever. However, lose or win, THEY ARE SIN.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  6. Before you all discuss punishment or reform, and scratch your head and your balls to find a"correct answer ", just have a look at your basic underlying premise: that Amos indeed did wrong, people and/ or their private property suffered " losses " and therefore Amos is responsible for these losses, and therefore is a CRIMINAL worthy of punitive justice.

    Amos is categorically N O T A C R I M I N A L , even though he (apparently) broke some fatuous laws, which should not be on the books in the first place.

    Amos should walk out of court a free person, living in free society, able to live WITHOUT FEAR for speaking his mind, on any idea, dogma, social artifact, political characteristic... anything at all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why should he walk out free? He offended so many people.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ya man, he committed such a serious crime. How to let him free to endanger the safety of the people?

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Amos Yee case is a buttress to my assertion that Singapore needs a Benign Dictatorship to make it work. People cannot just disagree amicably. People cannot solve conflicts peacefully. Always have to fight.

    When someone says something off colour, others take it PERSONALLY as if their very personhood has been ASSAULTED. If some idea they hold dear is criticized or satirized, it is taken as an affront to their life, and their identity.

    This is the behavior of FUCKING SPOILT ENTITLED CHILDREN, not of rational, educated and mature adults living in a First World Society, supposedly a shining light of achievement by the human spirit.

    Singapore shows the world, and seals its place in history as a model of "success"... and then it CRIMINALIZES a MINOR for doing what every HEALTHY TEENAGER SHOULD DO: SPEAK OUT against the establishment and dis AUTHORITY.

    The day your youth are silenced into conformity and obedience, is the day your society will start to DIE. No hope. No discussion of wild ideas. No challenge to prevailing ideas. No creativity. No fun. No laughter. And no LOVE.

    Fuck you Singapore. Enjoy life under a totalitarian dictatorship. I'm grateful that I treat Singapore as a HOTEL!

    ReplyDelete
  10. @1128:

    We all get "offended" everyday. Of you make being "offended" a crime, everyone would be a criminal.

    For e.g. here are examples of stuff which "offends" me

    1 People taking selfies
    2 Religion
    3 Children in supermarkets
    4 Local TV and radio
    5 Locals hating on foreigners
    6 Foreigners hating on locals
    7 Oblong dick suckers of the government
    8 Irrational anti government slander
    9 Chick flicks
    10 Horror movies
    11 Most popular music
    12 Most popular magazines
    13 The Straits Times
    14 National day rehearsals (traffic jams)
    15 Karaoke
    ... And so on...

    Imagine if I were to make police report, just because I encounter stuff I don't like and feel "offended" by their prevalence!?!

    Cannot lah! Being offended cannot be criminalized because it is part of EVERYDAY LIFE!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wah now my place many fighting jets rehearsing for NDP. Flying just above the flats.

      kiasu very loud and irritating.

      If Singaporeans were.more assertive in the past, many of the young kids from TKPS would not have die in the first place at KK

      No need opposition MPs to stop the practice. Any true blue Singaporeans could have brought the matter into the open.

      Anyway, we are just too submissive and let tragedies happened.

      Delete
  11. >the two hating on amos
    Because Amos' words can summon natural disasters and inflict countless diseases on people who are exposed to them. I'll be damned, he must be a super mage hiding in the form of a teen.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In those days the good people will burn Amos like they burnt Joan of Arc.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hehe,

    Sin is a fucking top class brothel run by celebrities for the most successful people in the World.

    You fucking well pick the rooms and wash the toilets to make sure the customers are served to their satisfactions.

    This is the most AWESOME BROTHEL ON EARTH.

    WELCOME YOU BEST FUCKERS !

    ReplyDelete
  14. The whole spisode of making a mountain out of a molehill boils down to one purpose. and that is to make sure Amos Yee never grow up to be another thorn in the side of the PAP.

    What this boy said about the old man are just about what many Sinkies, including some of the 60%, dare not have the guts to say so, even though there is much truth in his outburst. This is just like the story about the emperor's new clothes, which nobody dare to point out the truth of his stark nakedness, and needs a little boy to tell the truth.

    Decades of propaganda and mind washing have dumbed the braincells of Sinkies. The young now even believe that 50 years ago Singapore was a fishing village. In fact, 50 years ago we had some magnificent commerical buildings along Collyer Quay.

    Unique architectural marvels like the old HSBC chambers, the old Mercantile Bank chambers, the old Ocean Building, the old Chartered Bank Chambers, not to mention City Hall, old Supreme Court and Victoria Memorial and Concert Hall etc, which are all much older than the first generation PAP leaders.

    And yet many younger Singaporeans still thought Singapore was a fishing village 50 years ago? Little wonder, many of such buildings have to be torn down in the name of progress, but in reality to demolish history so that the young can only give credit for Singapore's progress to one person, the result of the successful brainwashing and propaganda. Manificent castles in England and Europe have stood for centures and no one thinks it wise to demolish them. Why?

    ReplyDelete
  15. If LKY is the Founding Father of Singapore;
    Then is Britain the Founding Father of Lee Kuan Yew?
    No Britain, then no Oxford or Cambridge for LKY tio bo?
    Then LKY will have to graduate from the prestigious University of Mumbai tio bo?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yes, come to Sin.

    Gamble, dine, wine and fuck. There are whores of every nationalities, SPGs and LGBTs.
    And of course Pimps of celebrity class.

    Sin Brothel will pamper anyone that can afford the Best for a price. The wonderful vices that money can buy.

    Come on great fuckers, welcome to Sin.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Redbean, thank you very much for continuing to blog on the Amos issue. I hope other bloggers would follow your fine example.

    I'm sure most people can feel it in their bones, but the media has been so successful in obfuscating what is really a very simple issue.

    Corrective training, by any sensible definition, is applicable only to a person who desires correction. Yes you can force/impose such a regime against his will, but it is in reality actually an extended punishment. Let's be real, no correction is expected, except to break his spirit. Let's call a spade a spade, okay? Call it "Break the boy's spirit" punishment, yes? Don't play around with words, don't think we are fools. There are 60% fools, but not in blogsphere. In blogspere, they're not fools, they're called brigade, and still part of the 60%.

    I think the whole world should open their eyes and see that here we have a regime that is so devilishly wicked that jailing a boy is not enough satisfaction for them, they want to torture him for one year. When this episode comes to pass, I see all the men in white walking around in horns jutting out of their heads and tails swinging out of their backsides.

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  18. Correction:

    >> I see that this Amos-thing has psychologically primed MANY OF you to be bold. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Videos: Via Ferrata Mountain ClimbingJune 10, 2015 5:09 am

    https://youtu.be/d9fw4HJODI4

    Short video: Mt Kk Via Ferrata trail

    Looks far more difficult, tougher and more dangerous than even army training.

    More videos on Via Ferrata mountain climbing:

    https://youtu.be/tXoCIT7LT1M

    https://youtu.be/dQsESye7gDE

    Some online video reports on the aftermath of Mt KK and video footage/ accounts of some survivors:

    https://youtu.be/TwivW_0ZzzA

    https://youtu.be/OkaW1LRifsc

    https://youtu.be/SpYFScLSjJg

    ReplyDelete
  20. A Tribute To Amos Yee

    Amos Yee, Amos Yee,
    We want Amos Yee in Jail.
    No, No, we want Amos Yee in RTC.

    No, No, we want Amos Yee as our MP.
    No, No, we want Amos Yee as our PM.
    No, No, we want Amos Yee as our PRESIDENT.

    Three Cheers for Amos Yee!
    Who takes on the Horrible with glee.
    Prosecuted with injustice and stupidity.
    Persecuted with vengeance and absurdity.
    All actions backfired on the Authority.

    Million Cheers for Amos Yee,
    Our next Best President to be.
    And that is what we must see,
    So that Singapore won't be the Sinkie.

    Billion Cheers for Amos Yee,
    The Martyr of Freedom for us to be set Free.
    And that is what it has to be,
    So that Singapore won't be forever under the Lee.

    Trillion Cheers for Amos Yee,
    The Champion that Everyone should be.
    And that is for our future and our country,
    So that Everyone will be free and happy.

    Cheers, cheers, cheers to Amos Yee.
    Cheers, cheers, cheers to our New Presidency.
    Cheers, cheers, cheers to the downfall of the Familee.
    Cheers, cheers, cheers to Singaporeans with determination to be
    SET FREE ........ FREE ....... FREE ......

    by Freedom Fighter Poet.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Je Suis Amos Yee!

    ReplyDelete