Opposing voices on death penalty muted but important

• Source: Global Times
• [03:28 January 06 2010]
• Comments

Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed in 2007 for corruption and scandals involving shoddy medicine that killed many. Yang Jia, a young Beijing man living with his divorced mother, was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing six Shanghai policemen.

Crimes such as corruption and multiple murders are enough to stimulate cries for justice, which allows little space for an opposing viewpoint that dares to speak for the public enemy.

In terms of tolerating divergent viewpoints, the Chinese public still displays immaturity. Internet comments on controversial issues are crude and lacking in depth. The power of majority opinion leaves no space for opposing views.

Sometimes, the opposing viewpoint tends to be muted in a broader context.

In a country that is still building a comprehensive and properly functioning legal framework, public opinion, to some degree, holds more power in condemning and deterring than legal consequences.

Absence of divergent voices over these death sentence cases deprives us of the opportunity to discuss the social sickness that led to the crimes.

Thorough debate can help expose loopholes, remedy injustices and fi nd ways to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

Will capital punishment help deter corruption? Does the death penalty make the world safer? These are questions that haunt many Chinese and deserve clearer answers.

That said, while dealing with crime with a fi rm hand, the Chinese government's e. orts in reducing death penalty and tightening sentencing review process should be commended.

Justifi cation of the death penalty is an open-ended question, but disrespect for life is embarrassing.

Lack of open talk about the condemned in China may refl ect a lack of veneration toward life.

Be it rampant careless driving, ever-increasing production safety incidents, or food safety scandals where improper supervision and law enforcement are the culprits, numbness to the lives of others also plays a role. An oversimplifi ed view of right and wrong covers up the complexity of what is right, and ignores the value of human life.

Anyone of us can be wronged by public opinion. Don't we want our voices to be heard?

We should be more lenient when judging the lives of others if we want our own lives to be better.

The author is an editor with the Global Times. lujingxian@ globaltimes.com.cn