> I've read multiple articles over the years about foreigners being caned in Singapore over relatively minor actions, hence my not being surprised if they did such a thing.
The Michael Fay story was reported with a heavy bias in the US — the media conveniently left our significant parts of the story.
I have friends who were expats in Singapore at the time, and this is (approximately) their version:
- He was caught vandalizing multiple times.
- The first time he was given a stern warning.
- After successive events, his family was warned that their son was in grave danger, and their status in the country was at risk.
- After one or more additional events, they suggested to the family that Michael should leave the country immediately. His parents found that inconvenient due to their jobs being in Singapore.
- After another event, it was suggested to the family that both they and their son should leave Singapore immediately. Again, they chose not to leave.
- Finally, after multiple warnings, and one or more additional transgressions, they threw the book at him.
- According to my friends, most of the expats thought he was a rotten kid, and they thought he deserved it.
Note that this jibes with how I have seen a lot of law enforcement happen (esp. with Americans) in Japan, Korea, and HK. Specifically, warnings often happen before the hammer comes down, and that usually solves the problem. But if and when the hammer comes down, the outcome will be very bad for the recipient. When I have discussed this matter and this type of justice with folks from Japan, Korea, and HK, they all think it is fairly reasonable, and they don’t know of anyone personally who was not given a reasonable chance (obviously small sample size, and obviously the system isn’t always reasonable, but the consistency of the answers was surprising to me).
All that said, I suspect that some folks from developing countries may reasonably disagree with my assessment of Japan. I haven’t had the chance to speak with specific parts of those communities, so it’s hard to know what the reality is.