If there are gangs, and there are, we intervene very early and we break them up.
Some of you might recall, I think it was 2010, about 7 years now, over a period of 3 weeks, a series of young boys went on a rampage, different groups, I think one was in Downtown East, a young man was knifed to death, gang attack.
And then in Bukit Panjang, the following week, there was another attack.
Three weeks in a row and people got upset and they said "What is happening? Do something about it."
The police took a number of steps, did something about it, but the CLTPA is an essential tool in the arsenal of doing something about these things.
Otherwise, every Member of Parliament (MP) will answer to your residents, because our people value law and order and security very highly.
Our people get upset with UML cases when paint gets splashed. MPs would have faced them. When their doors get padlocked, when their doors get set on fire, they will come to the MPs and demand that action be taken. The Government has got to be able to respond.
Let me again make a larger point. It is possible to make grand statements about liberty and security if you do not have to deal with real world problems.
Let me go to the US as an example.
President Obama, when he was candidate Obama, he thundered, "The choice between liberty and security is a false choice", he said.
Meaning you can both have security and a full set of rights including due process for all in the Courts, in all cases.
Sounds very good. It is very noble and he promised to close Guantanamo. Signed an executive order in 2009 to close Gitmo in fact.
But then the US was having trouble finding anyone else who was willing to take all these people in Gitmo.
Prisoners there were indefinitely detained without charge. Citizens from 49 nations, youngest detainee was 14, oldest was 89.
The President then tried to move them into centres in the US, but there was a big outcry.
Senators did not want Gitmo closed and they certainly did not want these prisoners in US soil for all the rhetoric from the US.
Majority of Americans also opposed bringing the detainees into American soil. So the President recognised the difficulty almost immediately after he took office.
And he was a constitutional law professor.
So he said in a 2009 speech, after he became President, "There remains the question of the Gitmo detainees who cannot be prosecuted, and yet who posed a clear danger to the American people. And I have to be honest here – this is the toughest single issue that we will face."
And he said, even after the process is complete, there will be some who cannot be prosecuted because there will be lack of evidence, but who nevertheless will pose a threat to the security of the United States.
And he said he was not going to release those individuals. So that is where reality meets rhetoric.
The principle behind the CLTPA is that there will be some criminals where due processes will not get them to justice. Considering the nature of their activities. Is it better for society to leave them out or have the CLTPA and use it? Our current approach has led to the current levels of safety and security.
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*Excerpt of Wrap-Up Speech by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law (edited) on the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) (Amendment) Bill
https://www.mha.gov.sg/
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