Singapore island won't dare cane arrested graffiti artist Mohamad Khalid Mohamad

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Two days ago, a 32 year old Singaporean Malay Mohamad Khalid Mohamad was arrested by the Lee Kuan Yew no nonsense government for having drawn the words "DEMOCRACY" across a monument along the downtown seafront. Please see Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits times report titled "Security officer charged with vandalizing Cenotaph" http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/security-officer-charged-vandalising-cenotaph-20130429

This one party tiny island city state has the infamous and Alice in Wonderland reputation of being a mini North Korea of sorts with some weird and barbaric practices where the official legal punishment for such a minor infraction such as graffiti not only carries a long prison sentence, it may also result in the beating of the victim until his backsides bleed with open wounds.

It was about 20 years ago when the world came to hear of the brutality that goes on in this tiny island city state under Lee Kuan Yew when an American teenager Michael Fay was arrested for vandalizing some cars and was jailed and given some 6 lashes on his backside.

Ever since then Singapore not only had the reputation of a thoroughly barbaric blood cuddling little island, it also became the butt of jokes for stand up comics in all TV stations throughout the free world not to mention the severe loss of tourist trade due to such inane stupidity.

Ever since then, I suppose realizing their mistake in making themselves look nothing but blood cuddling clowns, they have not actually caned anyone accept for a Swiss foreign worker whom they claim was beaten (caned) for having graffitied a train. That too naturally drew a lot of flak from the free world who have outlawed this practice since medieval times. 

The question here is whether they will beat Mohamad. I think it is unlikely. The tiny island city state is not only creating a very bad reputation for itself as a place where there is no rule of law, where the courts are no better than Kangaroo courts. And beating this man now would only cause its reputation to fall even further.

Of course the likelihood of his being let off without a beating is provided the Lee Kuan Yew government and the minions who serve the master use their brains this time. Since one party dictatorships such as this, like North Korea, often act in a bizarre manner since there is no one to question them, perhaps they will beat Mohamad after all and ruin their already bad reputation even further.

With Singapore’s reputation for swift "justice" as well, we will know very soon, will we not.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com