It is four days till Nagaenthran’s scheduled execution. On this day, Singapore mainstream news outlets The Straits Times and Channel News Asia have finally broken their silence, only to echo the sentiments of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). According to MHA’s latest statement, the Court of Appeal is adamant that Nagaenthran “knew what he was doing”, and made a “deliberate, purposeful and calculated decision”.
Abolitionist Kirsten Han has criticised MHA’s statement in her latest Facebook Post:
The determination of the Singapore government to make someone with an IQ of 69 + ADHD + impaired executive functioning sound like some sort of conniving criminal mastermind, just so they can hang him, is really something.
Even if he can tell right from wrong in a general sense, with his IQ and other impairments, his ability to reason and his thought process isn’t the same as the average person’s... Even if we want to hold him accountable for having done something wrong, why are we so insistent that the price has to be his life? He’s already been in prison for over a decade in a solitary cell. Is that not punishment enough?
Lawyers for Liberty and the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign have also released responses to repudiate MHA’s previous statement. Furthermore, the campaign to #SaveNagaenthran has received media coverage in the The New York Times, as well as in several other news outlets from France, Canada, India, and the United States.
Here is an excerpt from The New York Times article:
“There is still time for Singapore to change course and stop this unlawful execution from taking place,” said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty International’s Singapore researcher. “Taking people’s lives is a cruel act in itself but to hang a person convicted merely of carrying drugs, amid chilling testimony that he might not even fully understand what is happening to him, is despicable.”
The Divisions of Social Justice of the American Psychiatric Association called the planned execution “a flagrant breach” of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, which prohibits imposing the death penalty on people whose mental and intellectual disabilities may impede them from receiving a fair trial.
“Nagaenthran is diagnosed by a qualified Singaporean psychiatrist as having mental health issues that give rise to poor impulse control, attention issues,” and other problems, the organization said. “As a result, he does not meet the threshold for culpability.”
Amnesty International has also composed an appeal letter demanding that Singapore commutes Nagaenthran's unlawful execution, which you can send to President Halimah Yacob automatically via this link.
Two nights ago, at the BayBeats music festival in Singapore, several artists used their platforms to demonstrate their solidarity with Naga, and to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Thank you artists, for your incredibly powerful and encouraging messages!
On a personal note, it has been a week since the petition has been created. I have recounted my experience since then, to encourage my fellow ikan bilis (anchovies) who feel like they do not have much to contribute. The truth is, each of us is a thread interwoven into a giant tapestry, a synapse firing in a dense neural network. The smallest actions we take can ripple throughout our social ecosystem, and extend to the peripheries of society. I urge you all not to trivialise the amount of agency and impact you have as an individual.
The constitutional challenge takes place in two days’ time. If the review fails, Nagaenthran will be the first person executed in Singapore since 2019. As the number of signatures we are receiving has been dwindling significantly over the past two days, let's continue to soldier on in speaking out against Naga's execution.
Thank you for your continued support and show of solidarity!