It's happened again, but this time it's an experienced graffiti artist and IT professional who committed the crime in Singapore. He was just sentenced to five months in jail and three strokes of the rattan.
Singapore Metblogs starts off the discussion with the pro graffiti argument.
In what might be the first case ever, a Singapore MRT train was graffiti’d while parked in the depot. Train painting has a long history tied to the origins of modern day writers and is fairly common in some parts of the world, but until now unheard of in Singapore. It’s easy to pass something like this off as simple vandalism but in a country which such well known policies against it this is kind of an exciting occurrence, as many people believe that graffiti is an example of the culture of a society being so active it literally bursts onto the walls. Active culture is a good thing in my book, and something that takes a little looking for in S’pore. Here’s a brief documentary about the Singapore Graffiti scene called The Art Behind The Vandalism.
/The Straits Times announces the sentence.
CONVICTED vandal Oliver Fricker was sentenced to five months' jail and three strokes of the cane on Friday evening for entering a protected place and spraying paint on two carriages of an SMRT train. The 32-year-old IT consultant is appealing against his sentence, according to his lawyer, Mr Derek Kang.
Fricker, who went to jail on Friday, had admitted to a vandalism charge and an offence under the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act. He did them with his friend, Briton Dane Alexander Lloyd, 29, at the SMRT Changi depot between May 16 and 17.
A third charge of cutting the perimeter fence of the depot was considered during his sentencing. The graffiti on the train with the large words McKoy Banos was seen by many commuters and members of the public before it was reported by a SMRT staff two days later.
Seeking an appropriate jail term on each of the two charges, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharon Lim argued that such serious breach of the law could not be taken lightly or viewed as a mere prank. The duo, she said, were experienced graffiti writers who had targeted the SMRT train which is the backbone of Singapore's public transport system. Fricker could have been jailed for up to three years for the vandalism charge; and up to two years for entering a protected place.
Singapore Dissident points out the sad and disturbing fact that Oliver was unable to find a local attorney to represent him, and then presents a few arguments in his defence.
Other than the dubious honor that Singapore has the fewest lawyers in relation to population for any country in the world, a mere 3000 for a population of nearly 5 million, it has also earned the disgraceful notoriety, that, no Singaporean lawyer would dare question the legality of it's laws when defending his client, for fear of attracting the wrath of Singaporean strongman Lee Kuan Yew.
Strangely enough in that island, unlike every other country in the world, if there was one profession in Singapore who fear Lee Kuan Yew the most, it is the lawyers.
Oliver Fricker, the Swiss man who had tagged a Singapore subway train would not find a single lawyer in Singapore who would dare to raise the defenses that he would be raising had he been in any other country. Here is what he, or his lawyer should say.
Kent Ridge Common, the NUS student newspaper, points out the the security breach is an important lesson for Singapore, and reminds everyone that corporal punishment for such a minor act is overkill.
Swiss Oliver Fricker entered Singapore through the most original way possible — two days ago, he made the headlines by being arrested for allegedly spray painting graffiti on one of Singapore’s MRT trains. Another Briton, Lloyd Alexander, is wanted in connection with the case. He reportedly left Singapore for Hongkong before the incident was reported.
The Fricker graffiti reminded many Singaporeans of what was most probably the most infamous case of vandalism due to the international furore surrounding the corporal punishment of caning lashed out on American Michael Fay, in 1994. Fay had then spray painted several cars before being arrested and punished with 6 strokes of the cane. Following pleads for clemency by the then President Clinton, the late President Ong Teng Cheong commuted Fay’s sentence from 6 to 4 strokes of the cane.
What was Fricker’s role in this alleged case of vandalism? If reports were to be believed, he and his accomplice cut through a fence at an derelict MRT depot, before having the luxury to spray paint graffiti on an MRT carriage. He faces up to 3 years in jail, a fine, and most certainly a few strokes of the cane — given the authorities hard-nosed approach in dealing with vandals.
Most of the reports so far focused on punishing Fricker for his role in the vandalism. Sure enough, he trespassed into an out-of-bounds territory in the MRT depot and spray-painted a train. But if Fricker should be punished for vandalism, dare I say that SMRT should be equally if not more culpable.
Without question, they must answer for the startling lack of security around the premises of the train depot — an obvious easy target for terrorists. While intelligence months earlier resulting from a raid of terrorists in nearby Indonesia had pointed at the possibility of an MRT train station being targeted for terrorism (a map with a red circle around Orchard MRT was found), it is clear that from this breach of security that security strategists were still stuck within a box — that is, the box of merely deploying additional personnels for a presence around train stations, believing that a terrorist needs to board a train, deposit a bomb and leave in order to carry out acts of terrorism on our transport system. This is not to say that such a method of having security personnels on board train is ineffective, but there could be thousand more ways a terrorist may plant a bomb on a train that does not involve him boarding the train even. Cutting through the fence in a poorly guarded MRT train depot to plant a bomb is but one of the many possibilities.
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