Taiwan authorities consider caning petition

World
Europe

In the early hours of Wednesday, a hit-and-run drunk driver in Taiwan was reported to have killed a woman on a scooter and sent the rider into coma.

Fatal accidents of that type have triggered an online petition calling for the caning of intoxicated drivers, as well as child abusers and sex offenders, in the island region.

The authorities now have to formally respond to the petition as it has gained more than 5,000 supporters, the threshold set by the authorities for an online policy interaction platform created two years ago.

But critics of the proposal have called it inhumane and out of step with modern systems of punishment.

Senior Taiwan politician William Lai says the petition will have to be fully discussed. /AFP photo

Corporal punishment, whether as judicial punishment or school discipline, is also explicitly prohibited by international conventions on human rights, including the United Nations.

It is against this background that a senior government figure in Taiwan, William Lai, cited the rights concerns of the caning proposal, which he said requires more in-depth debate.

Although current sentiment might favor “a strict penal code in a time of turbulence,” Taiwan is law-abiding and values human rights, Lai was quoted as saying by the Taipei Times.

“A majority of the population will likely have reservations about adopting caning like in Singapore,” he said..

Singapore uses a 1.2-meter rattan rod which is just over a centimeter in thickness. The cane is soaked in water overnight to make it supple and prevent it from splitting and embedding splinters in the inevitable wounds.

The justification for the use of corporal punishment has been that the pain, injury, humiliation and degradation that it inflicts would deter the offender from committing similar offenses in the future.

But opponents of the practice say that the evidence is not enough to support that claim.

An article in the Taipei Times said that tougher and tougher penalties for drunk driving have not worked in the past.

But the petition reflects growing frustration with serious crime and the desire of some Taiwanese to consider using caning as a judicial punishment.