Today-Oct 22
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. TODAY has reached out to Mr Branson for comment. Read more at: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/mha-invites-richard-branson-live-tv-debate-shanmugam-death-penalty-rebuts-blog-post-slamming-spores-stance-2026531?cid=internal_mcdrecs_24102022_tdy#mdcrecs_s
