An 18-year-old French student returns a straw after sucking it at the orange juice vending machine. He also records the process and posts it on his Instagram account warning that “the city is not safe.” A mischief harmless, he must have thought. It happens that pranks are little appreciated in Singapore and the young man faces two years in prison.
The recording circulated without brakes in a city that prioritizes order and social discipline. The machine’s owner, the iJooz company, immediately changed all 500 straws, calling the licking “extremely serious” and confessing its “regret and dismay.” The international business school where the boy studies has announced a internal investigation because “it takes issues of conduct and community responsibility very seriously.” He has been accused of damage and of disturbance of public order. The first contemplates penalties of up to two years in prison; the second, jail up to three months, a fine of up to $2,000 or both. The sentence will be known on May 22.
The news has once again spread the message: no one, and not even rich foreign children, are exempt from the rigid social etiquette in Singapore. “It will probably be fined and maybe you will receive a jail sentencebut well below the expected maximum. His age and the absence of personal injury and permanent property damage will be mitigating factors. His visa could be revoked,” Ja Ian Chong, professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, predicts by email.
‘Fine city’
It is the Asian financial capital known as the fine citytranslatable as the good city and the city of fines. That polysemous trick explains everything. A walk through its iconic Marina Bay, the futuristic heart, discovers streets like operating rooms, more sterilized than clean. Keeping this city-state, with the second highest population density in the world, pristine, requires an arsenal of laws y sanctions disincentives. Locals have internalized them but reckless tourists can find themselves in trouble. It is advisable to take a look at the Penal Code.
This forbiddenFor example, sell or import chewing gums. Throw them at floor carries up to 1,000 dollars of fine. The measure was adopted in 1992 after a wave of vandalism that threatened to ruin the brand new MRT or urban metro after an investment of 5,000 million dollars. Many young people covered the door sensors with them and caused delays and service outages. Other exorbitant fines await those who they smoke o vapeen outside the few authorized areas, cross the streets where they shouldn’t or disdain the traffic light, escupanforget pull the chain in public toilets or throw something paper on the floor. And doodle on a wall or one sticker on a lamppost are acts of vandalism here and for the most aggravated, in addition to fines, the jail or even the fearsome be.
The rod symbolizes all the harshness of the Singaporean penal system. It was tested by the American student Michael Fay, sentenced to six strokes of the cane for spraying various vehiclesin a case that deserved the covers in his country more than 30 years ago. The then president even asked for clemency, Bill Clinton. Corporal punishment is reserved for violent crimes, sexual assaults or drug trafficking. Also to those who enter the country illegally or remain after their visa expires. And to the vandals.
Medieval punishment
Those punished are men under 50 years of age and healthy. The rod is made of rattan and is soaked in water to accentuate its flexibility and the damage inflicted on bare buttocks. In many cases, chronic scars remain. A medieval punishment is surprising in a city so attached to modernity. Lee Kuan Yew, the eternal prime minister, justified its adoption in 1966 by the added element of public humiliation. Illegal immigrants, who were considered reasonably happy being fed in prison, were also thought against. For its detractors, it is a way of torture inhuman, degrading and prohibited by international laws. The majority, however, points to the Ridiculous levels of crime and the absence of drugs in the city.
“Harsh punishments are likely to give Singaporeans a sense of comfort in seeing that crime is being dealt with forcefully, especially if they do not have to see the bloody consequences of those punishments. Whether they actually contribute to reducing crime is a more doubtful matter. The number of violent crimes in Singapore is similar to that of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan y Hong Kongand in none of those places there are canings,” says Ja Ian Chong.
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