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PUBLIC support in Singapore for the mandatory death penalty in serious drug trafficking cases has increased in recent years, according to the country’s Coordinating Minister for National Security, K Shanmugam.
Speaking at the Community Resilience Against Drug Abuse Roundtable, Shanmugam cited findings from the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Survey on Singapore Residents’ Attitudes Towards the Death Penalty, a public perception study conducted in 2023 and updated with additional findings released last year.
According to the survey results, nearly 77 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the mandatory death penalty is an appropriate punishment for trafficking significant quantities of drugs. This represents an increase from 69 per cent recorded in the 2023 survey.
The minister also noted that almost 87 per cent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that the death penalty should be applied to the most serious crimes, including drug trafficking, compared with about 77 per cent in 2023.
Shanmugam also pointed to what he described as improvements in Singapore’s anti-drug efforts, noting that annual arrests of drug abusers have fallen significantly over the past three decades, from around 6,000 cases in the 1990s to approximately 3,000 in recent years.
During his remarks, he rejected assertions that strong public backing for capital punishment was the result of state influence.
Dismissing such claims, he said they amounted to “a lazy, infantile argument” and maintained that Singaporeans are well-informed and capable of evaluating government policies based on their outcomes. - March 12, 2026
