I have not been keeping up with Singaporean politics of late (I had quite a run in with the ruling party, aptly named the PAP, some years ago) but this news story has caught my eye: a first-time drug offender, Nguyen Tuong Van, a heroin mule, caught in the transit lounge of the Singapore airport, is scheduled to be put to death soon, the latest victim of the city-state’s zero tolerance drug policy.   Death.  For a first time offender who was not selling the drugs in Singapore, but just passing through.  Death.  How terribly disproportional and unjust.

     Not long ago – and I imagine if I looked around I could find more recent comments – the Singaporean political elite, and especially the decrepit authoritarian Lee Kwan Yew, represented themselves to the world as "Confucian gentlemen."  They were, supposedly, steeped in the Venerable Sage’s wisdom, philosopher kings all, worthy the rule over the lesser men and women of the city state, and suppress any who might challenge their rule.  For those of us who have actually read the Analects, we know just how far from the Confucian ideal Lee and company have always been. 

    Confucius, of course, looked down upon the death penalty ("To put the people to death without having instructed them – this is called cruelty").  Mencius takes a clear stand against it.   An honest application of Confucian thought in a modern context might not disallow a death penalty in all cases.  There may be some crimes so terrible that death might be justified.  But in a case like this, to impose death is clearly un-Confucian.

     The Singaporean political elite are not Confucian gentleman.  They are Legalist tyrants, concerned only with what will keep them in power.  And if killing a man for a crime undeserving of the death penalty helps to bolster their image of no-nonsense law enforcement, then they will kill a man.  Kill one to scare one hundred: a brutal, inhumane, Legalist approach to law and political order.  Not Confucian at all.

     So the next time a PAP politician trots out the tired old "Confucian gentleman" line, just tell him to go to Legalist hell.