Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act
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Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act (CLTPA) is a law in Singapore, which was introduced in 1958, during the colonial era and intended to be a temporary measure. It allows for suspected criminals to be detained without trial. The law has since been renewed.
[edit] Official reasoning
Lee Kuan Yew has provided the following rationale for this law:
"It must be realised that if you abolish the powers of arrest and detention and insist on trial in open court in accordance with the strict laws of evidence of a criminal trial, then law and order becomes without the slightest exaggeration utterly impossible, because whilst you may still nominally have law and order, the wherewithal to enforce it would have disappeared. The choice in many of these cases is either to go through the motions of a trial and let a guilty man off to continue his damage to society or to keep him confined without trial" [1].
[edit] Further information
- Tan, Eugene Kheng-Boon. 2000. “Law and Values in Governance: The Singapore Way,” in: Hong Kong Law Journal 30 Part 1, p. 91-119.
[edit] References
- ^ Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez and Sumiko Tan. 1998. Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas. Singapore: Times Editions and The Straits Times Press, p. 203
