MHA invites Richard Branson to live TV debate with Shanmugam on death penalty, rebuts blog post slamming S'pore's stance

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday (Oct 22) rebutted several statements made by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson regarding Singapore’s drug laws and invited him to a live televised debate with Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam in Singapore —  with Mr Branson’s flight and accommodations fully paid for.  

Mr Branson, who is the founder of multinational conglomerate Virgin Group, published a post on his personal blog on Oct 10 titled “World day against the death penalty: what’s the matter with Singapore?”, where he questioned Singapore’s approach on drugs laws. 

In response to his post, MHA said that while Mr Branson is entitled to his opinions and these opinions may be widely held in the UK, it does not accept that Mr Branson or others in the West "are entitled to impose their values on other societies". 

“Nor do we believe that a country that prosecuted two wars in China in the 19th century to force the Chinese to accept opium imports has any moral right to lecture Asians on drugs.”

On its invitation to Mr Branson, the ministry said that Mr Branson may use this platform to "demonstrate to Singaporeans the error of our ways" and why Singapore should do away with laws that have kept its population safe from the global scourge of drug abuse. 

In his post, Mr Branson claimed that Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who was executed on April 27 for drug trafficking, was hanged despite having a “well-documented intellectual disability”. 

Nagaenthran was sentenced to death in 2010 for importing 42.72g of heroin into Singapore in 2009.

Singapore had breached its "international commitments to protect people with disabilities" by hanging Nagaenthran, Mr Branson had charged.

MHA said that both statements were untrue. 

“The Singapore Courts held that Nagaenthran knew what he was doing and that he was not intellectually disabled. The psychiatrist called by the defence themselves agreed, in court, that Nagaenthran was not intellectually disabled,” said MHA.

PRIORITY IS TO PROTECT SINGAPOREANS FROM SCROUGE OF DRUGS: MHA 

Mr Branson also questioned Singapore’s approach on drugs, including the use of the death penalty on those who traffic in large amounts of drugs.

MHA replied that its priority is to protect Singapore and Singaporeans from the scourge of drugs. 

According to MHA, there are about 500,000 deaths globally linked to drug abuse every year. 

In the United States alone, there were more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021, which was a record number. 

Similarly, there were over 4,850 drug-related deaths recorded in 2021 across England and Wales.

It was the highest number since records began in 1993, as more people are dying after using opiates and cocaine, said MHA. 

It added that countries incur significant monetary costs because of drug abuse. 

A study by Nanyang Technological University found that drug crimes cost Singapore S$1.2 billion in 2015, said MHA. 

Similarly, the economic cost of opioid use disorder and fatal opioid overdose in the US was estimated to be about USD 1 trillion in 2017.

“We take a comprehensive harm prevention approach, which includes the use of the death penalty for traffickers who traffic large amounts of drugs and seek to profit from destroying other people’s lives and livelihoods,” said MHA. 

The ministry added that the capital sentence has had a “clear deterrent effect” on drug traffickers in Singapore and had helped major drug syndicates from establishing themselves in the country. 

“Convicted drug traffickers have provided first-hand accounts that they deliberately trafficked below the capital threshold amount — they were willing to risk imprisonment, but not the capital sentence,” it said. 

MHA also said that there was a 66 per cent reduction in the average net weight of opium trafficked into Singapore within four years, after the mandatory capital sentence was introduced for trafficking it.

Similarly in the four years after the mandatory capital sentence was introduced for trafficking more than 500g of cannabis, there was a 15 to 19 per cent reduction in the probability that traffickers would choose to traffic above the capital sentence threshold, said MHA.

LAWS APPLY EQUALLY TO ALL RACES: MHA  

Another point raised in Mr Branson’s post was the suspicion of racial bias “against a population that is disproportionately represented on Singapore’s death row”.

“All eleven men executed in Singapore this year were small-scale traffickers, often of Malay origin or Malaysian nationals,” he wrote. 

In response, MHA said that such an assertion is false and that Mr Branson had "probably picked it up from some activists in Singapore with their own agendas".

“Our laws and procedures apply equally to all, regardless of background, nationality, race, education level or financial status.”

MHA also addressed Mr Branson’s claim regarding Singapore's “continued harassment” of capital defence lawyers and human rights defenders. 

It said that this was another falsehood and defence lawyers have never been penalised for representing and defending accused persons.

MHA had also responded directly to Branson on Saturday and as of 6.45pm, it has yet to hear back from him.

TODAY has reached out to Mr Branson for comment.