This Is Shitty. It's A Shanmful Shame!

You are on my mind . . . in promoting what?

Just what is Deepika Shetty up to?

What is Straits Times up to?

Promoting Singapore as a destination for more foreign talents?

I'm ashamed as a Singaporean that someone is promoting my country as a good place to live when a young lady from India was dying in Singapore after being raped and brutally assaulted by her countrymen in India.

Rape happens everywhere. Shetty (a journalist, I think) should know that there are rapists in Singapore too. Though the degree of senseless cruelty and hurt done to rape victims by rapists in Singapore and India may differ; though the frequency of rape cases may be different, I cannot fathom why Shetty should include Singapore "is a city where girls can walk freely in their spaghetti top and shorts any time of the day and night  . . . For six years. I took a cab at 1.45am to get to work at a television station, never once fearing that the taxi driver would do me harm. Most of my movie watching is done close to midnight, and I love the stillness of the streets as I drive back home in the wee hours of the morning. . . In the country that you and I hail from, and whose passport I still carry, there is so much that needs to improve." in her musing over the tragedy of the poor victim.

To add shame to cruelty, the Law Minister of Singapore, in my perception, is taking advantage of this tragedy to advocate the death penalty. He wrote in his facebook: "Many are sickened by the horrific gang rape and subsequent death of the young Indian student. Happened in broad daylight. A young life cut out brutally. Media reports that 6 men have been charged with murder. The family had pinned its hopes on the young girl - father had sold his plot of land to finance her education. Our thoughts are with the family. It is a heart breaking case. Many will agree that this is a type of case where, if the injuries inflicted were of a nature sufficient to cause death, then the abusers should face the death penalty. In discussions with people who want the death penalty abolished, I would often cite cases like these - ( similar cases have occurred elsewhere) . There was a good letter written in by an Indian journalist Deepika Shetty , published in yesterday's ST. She points out that in Spore young women can go about confidently at any time of the day and night, in spaghetti tops and shorts - a right which they should have, a right which society should protect."

Whether promoting Singapore or advocating death penalty, there is a right time and place. This is not. This is not the way to show respect to the poor victim who was so brutally murdered.

On this eve of a new year, 2013, I mourn not only the tragic and senseless loss of a fellow life traveller from India but more so the loss of moral decency, respectability and conscience of some who take advantage of tragic incidents to make their candles burn brighter.

With people like these, what is Singapore coming to?

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