Regarding Vincent Wijeysingha’s appeal for clemency for Yong Vui Kong

The story of Yong Vui Kong is an unfortunate one. His life in poverty, bad company and an incomplete family has led him to act as a drug mule for $2000. However, all of us have gone through hardships and have managed to turn out differently. In my grandmother’s village (Alostair,Malaysia), there are people that have not seen a chicken for the whole year. To them, chicken is cuisine. An occasional fish would be heaven to them.

Yes, they are poor. Yet they live proudly knowing that they have done nothing wrong. They scrimp and save. They eat sweet potatoes planted in their small backyard farm. The mother works 2 jobs while the children help out by washing clothes for their neighbors. Their textbooks are all hand me downs. They study in a small corner of the floor not covered by clothes to be washed. Many a times I have attempted to give them some money, but they refuse. They are poor, but they live with pride.

In the case of Yong, one may blame his unfortunate circumstances. One may blame his 大哥 or (Big Brother) that convinced him to traffic drugs into Singapore. He might not have even known the penalties that accompanied his wrong doing. Many say that he was not mature enough at 19. I fully agree that he is a victim of circumstances, but remember that he has a choice.

All of us have the choice to live by the law or break it. I am sure that he was not forced at gunpoint to traffic drugs. He chose to do so to support poor family, but he still made that choice. The choice he made happens to be a bad one, and a very bad one in fact.

Many people dismiss the seriousness of drug trafficking. They say that the drug abusers should be the one punished, not the traffickers. After all, they are the ones that choose to ruin their lives. But these are the people that import these pills of misery into Singapore. You point to the sob story of parents bowing in front of the Istana. But you never mention the so many broken families that Yong’s 47.25g of drug creates. Your standard dose of heroin is 5-20mg, and the package he trafficked is enough for ~2300 doses. Heroin is one of the most destructive drugs that is almost impossible to withdraw from without help.

Vincent, I respect your empathy for Yong. You make a speech for his family that suffers when he is caught. But who speaks for the families that have their husband, son, wife or daughter destroyed by that 47.25g of powder?

There is a theory called the “Broken Windows Theory”. Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

The window here is the law. If the president breaks the window and makes an appeal to court, it shows traffickers that they can use young people like Yong as mules without incurring the death penalty. Suddenly drug trafficking becomes a much less risky offence (nothing is as bad as a death sentence). We defied the US government’s pleas and gave Michael P Fay 4 strokes of the cane. Our laws are solid and not negotiable. Break them once, and all the effort put into them will be wasted.

Yong made a choice, and he has to take responsibility for it.