Guards show flogging to children

At a school in the northern city of Taiping, about 600 children aged 9-12 watched as prison guard Jigeira Singh beat a life-sized stuffed effigy that had been strapped to a wooden frame. He told them he had been trained to strike with his rattan cane at 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) and produce a force of at least 90 kilograms (200 lbs) on impact.

Photographs carried in Malaysian newspapers Thursday showed some children plugging their ears with their fingers and shrinking away from Jigeira as he thrashed the dummy. Others smiled nervously.

As part of the demonstration, organizers displayed photographs of the bleeding buttocks of criminals who had been whipped, The Star newspaper reported.

The demonstration was among the first in a national program that aims to give children a powerful warning about the penalties criminals in Malaysia face. It comes amid vows by Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein to stamp out what he calls gangsterism in the country’s schools, after a number of extreme bullying cases — including one deadly attack — received prominent news coverage.

Corporal punishment is common in Malaysia, a mostly Muslim nation of about 25 million people in Southeast Asia that bases its criminal laws on those of its former colonial master, Britain. Judges can include whipping with a rattan cane as part of, or instead of, prison terms and fines in sentences for more than 40 crimes, including sexual abuse and assault, drug use and illegal immigration.

Internal Security Minister Noh Omar was quoted as saying last week that prison officials would visit every school in Malaysia at least once to show how authorities wielded the cane.

Taiping Prison Assistant Commissioner Narander Singh said Wednesday’s demonstration should serve as a warning to the children.

“People can see for themselves how the punishment is meted out, and this is enough to deter these young children from being involved in crime,” Narander was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times newspaper.

Rights activists angrily rejected the idea and said children could suffer psychological harm because of seeing the demonstration.

“For the children, it will be just cruel and scary,” Mary Agnes James, a member of the rights group Suaram, told The Associated Press. “It is not the kind of thing you can use to deter people.”

She said whipping was inhumane and should be abolished.

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