Caning of Michael Fay

Michael P. Fay
Parent(s)	George and Randy Fay
Criminal charge	theft, vandalism
Penalty	four months in jail S$3,500 four strokes of the cane

Michael Peter Fay (born May 30, 1975) is an American who was caned in Singapore as an 18-year-old (25 days before turning 19) on May 5 1994, for theft and vandalism. The number of cane strokes in his sentence was reduced from six to four after US officials requested leniency.

Life prior to vandalism

Michael Fay was born on May 30, 1975, in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother Randy divorced his father George when he was eight. In his childhood, Michael was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, a fact that his lawyer would later claim made Fay not responsible for his actions.

Although Fay mostly lived with his father after the divorce, he later moved to Singapore, where his mother and stepfather Marco Chan lived. Michael was enrolled in the Singapore American School.

Theft and vandalism

Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper in 1993 was full of stories about car vandalism in Singapore. Unknown individuals, although they were thought to be residents of the HDB flats in which 85% of the local population had been living, went after their neighbours' cars with hot tar, paint remover, and hatchets. Taxi drivers complained that their tires were slashed when they let people off. In the city center and the condos, where the better-off 15% of the local population and foreigners live, people keyed cars, making deep scratches, and threw car doors open denting the cars next to them. One man interviewed by the Times complained that he had to refinish his car six times in six months. In the fall of 1993 a vandal took red spray paint to six cars in a garage off Orchard Lane, making the vandalism highly visible. The next night someone sprayed a line of red paint right through the official seal of a judge's car, left out on the street by his son who had forgotten his key.

The police eventually arrested a 16-year-old suspect, Shiu Chi Ho (also known as "Andy Shiu"), from Hong Kong. He was not caught vandalizing cars, but was charged with driving his father's car without a license. After questioning Shiu, the police had several expatriate students from the Singapore American School, including Michael Fay, questioned and later charged with more than fifty counts of vandalism. Advised that this course of action would preclude caning, Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing the cars in addition to stealing road signs. Fay later maintained that his confession was false; that he never vandalized any cars and that the only crime he committed was stealing a couple of street signs. Under what some might regard as the misapplication of the 1966 Singapore Vandalism Act, which was originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore and which specifically covered vandalism of government buildings, he was sentenced on March 3, 1994 to four months in jail, a fine of 3,500 Singapore dollars (US$2,214 or £1,514 at the time), and six strokes of the cane. Shiu, who pleaded "not guilty", was eventually sentenced to eight months in prison and twelve strokes of the cane.

Fay's lawyers appealed, arguing that the Vandalism Act provides caning only for indelible forms of graffiti vandalism and that the spray-painted cars were cheaply restored to their original condition. Although the appeal failed, then Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong commuted Fay's caning from six to four strokes as a gesture of respect toward then U.S President Bill Clinton, who had made a request for clemency on Fay's behalf. (Shiu's sentence was also reduced from twelve strokes to six after a clemency appeal to the Singapore President.)

Fay was caned on May 5, 1994.

Response from the United States

The official position of the United States government was that while it recognized Singapore's right to try and punish Fay with due process of law, it deemed the punishment of caning to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime. The United States embassy in Singapore pointed out that the graffiti damage that Fay made on the cars was not permanent, but caning would leave Fay with physical as well as long-term emotional scars.

U.S. President Bill Clinton called the punishment prescribed by Singapore as extreme and mistaken, continuing to pressure the Singaporean government to grant Fay clemency from caning. Two dozen U.S. senators signed a letter to the Singaporean government also appealing for clemency. After Fay's punishment was carried out, the United States Trade Representative said that he would try to prevent the World Trade Organization's first ministerial meeting from taking place in Singapore.

Following Fay's sentence, the case received wide coverage by the U.S. media and dozens of reporters were sent to Singapore to cover the case. The New York Times had several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy in the United States with protests. Newsday wrote about a person who claimed to have witnessed a graphic public caning event in Singapore, despite the fact that Singapore does not practice public canings. Some commentaries treated the Michael Fay affair as a clash of civilizations between Asian values and the differing view of human rights common in liberal western cultures.

Public opposition of the caning within the United States was uncertain as opinion polls produced by different news organizations contradicted each other. Nevertheless, a significant number of vocal Americans were in favor of the caning, reasoning that Singapore had a right to use corporal punishment if it chooses, or that their own country did not mete out severe enough punishment to criminals. The Embassy of Singapore received numerous calls strongly supporting Fay's punishment, often from individuals who felt that Singaporean style caning was little more than a "good spanking".

The media coverage of the case continued for several years.

Aftermath

Fay returned to the United States to live with his father. He did several television interviews and while there was talk of a book or movie deal, Fay maintained that he would never sell his story for profit. In 1994, Fay suffered burns to his hands and face after a butane incident. He was subsequently admitted to the Hazelden rehabilitation program for butane abuse. He claimed that sniffing butane "made him forget what happened in Singapore." In 1996, he was cited in Florida for a number of violations, including careless driving, reckless driving, not reporting a crash and having an open bottle of alcohol in a car. Later, in 1998, still in Florida, Fay was arrested for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, charges to which he confessed but was not found guilty because of technical errors in his arrest.

"Weird Al" Yankovic described Fay's caning in the lyrics of Headline News, a 1994 song parodying Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by the Crash Test Dummies. Bob Rivers did a satirical take of it in Cane 'Em Good, another 1994 song parodying Devo's Whip It.

Saturday Night Live did a sketch parodying Fay's caning, with Emilio Estevez guest-starring as Fay. The humorous premise of the sketch is that Fay's caner is an affable American, who explains that "professional caners" aren't able to find work except in countries like Singapore. He carries on one end of a pleasant conversation with Fay while delivering the strokes.

Obliquely parodied in a 1995 The Simpsons episode Bart vs. Australia in which Bart is sentenced to a "booting".

Fay's caning was also mentioned in the Notorious MSG song "No Good Muthabitch" in 2007.

After Michael Fay was arrested in Singapore and sentenced to a caning, Extreme Championship Wrestling head booker Paul Heyman decided to capitalize on the publicity by holding a Singapore Cane match between Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman — with the loser having to take 10 lashes.

Further reading

• Latif, Asad (1994). The Flogging of Singapore: The Michael Fay Affair. Singapore: Times Books International. ISBN 981-204-530-9.
• Baratham, Gopal (1994). The Caning of Michael Fay. Singapore: KRP Publication. ISBN 981-00-5747-4.
• Reyes, Alejandro (May 25, 1994). Rough Justice: A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate About Crime And Punishment. Asiaweek, p. 34.
• The Asiaweek Newsmap (April 27, 1994). Asiaweek.
• Singapore's Most Famous Convicts, from Think Singapore

External links

• The Singapore Government's response to the American Embassy's statement, 1 April 1994