Minister
for Foreign Affairs and Law, K. Shanmugam, said that Singapore is committed to
the rule of law, but noted that their application must be adapted to each
society.
Speaking in his keynote address at the Rule of
Law Symposium on Tuesday at the Supreme Court auditorium, he noted that those
who break the law will have action taken against them - no matter that the
offender is a Cabinet Minister, a senior civil servant, or a public official of
a lower rank, or from the private sector.
Touching on corruption, Mr Shanmugam said that
Singapore has tried to minimise the occurrence of these incidents by carefully
selecting people to hold top and civil positions.
However, he said that there will still be
people who do wrong in every system and society. And when that happens, the
system must be able to follow up with effective, strict enforcement. And if
public servants were involved, there would even be harsh enforcement. He did
not refer to any specific case.
Mr Shanmugam added: "That way, everyone
knows that the likelihood is very high, of being caught and dealt with.
"And when you have a system operating
like that, when offenders are caught and dealt with severely and there is a
culture of intolerance towards corruption, then what you get is a relatively
clean system."
On how Singapore makes exception to due
process, Mr Shanmugam cited the example of the Internal Security Act (ISA).
He said that the Act allows for decisive,
preventive detention, without trial, on grounds of national security, something
that criminal law does not provide for since it only covers punishment after
the deed is done.
While he admitted that it is open to abuse,
there are built-in safeguards to minimise this, such as informing detainees of
the reason for their detention as soon as possible and opportunities to make
representation to an advisory board comprising of a person qualified to be
Supreme Court Judge, appointed by the Chief Justic and two other members
appointed by the President, within three months of being detained.
Mr Shanmugam concluded by saying that
Singapore is committed to continually improving the rule of law in Singapore.
AsiaOne
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