TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In the wake of the brutal sexual assault and murder of a Malaysian student by a Taiwanese man, a political commentator on Sunday (Nov. 1) called for the legalization of caning as a punishment for his crimes.
On Friday (Oct. 30), news broke that 28-year-old suspect surnamed Liang (梁) had confessed to sexually assaulting and murdering a 24-year-old Malaysian female student surnamed Chung (鍾) who was studying in Tainan. As Chung's parents arrived in Taiwan on Sunday to claim their daughter's remains, political commentator Ellen Huang (黃越綏) on her Facebook page called for the legalization of caning.
In her post, Huang wrote that although the president of Chang Jung Christian University and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) over the weekend both offered apologies for Chung's death, "for the parents of the deceased, belated justice is not enough." She stated that in 1998, she held a press conference with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) to call for the Ministry of Justice to legalize chemical castration or caning for four types of criminals: rapists, drug traffickers, habitual thieves, and murderers.
She wrote that the Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) did not object to the proposal at the time and more than half of the legislators signed in approval. However, she lamented that in the end, "nothing came of it."
Huang pointed out that when Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was Minister of Justice, he drastically shortened the prison term for parole offenders and signed the United Nations moratorium on the death penalty during his presidency in 2009. She acknowledged that "it is understandable to give the rehabilitated a chance to be educated since it signifies the progress of a civilized society."
On the other hand, Huang said that recent societal events are "attacking and threatening the safety of originally good and law-abiding citizens." She called on legislators to reconsider the practice of caning: "do not let false civility and hypocritical compassion cause widespread grievances. Not only has Taiwan turned into a garbage island in the eyes of the victims' families, but it will never comfort those countless innocent and unjustly dead souls."
Like neighboring Singapore and Brunei, caning is legal in Malaysia for a variety of crimes, with the exception of women, men sentenced to death, and men over the age of 50. However, the law was amended to allow for the caning of men over the age of 50 if they have committed sexual assault.
Huang's Facebook post.
