The arguments raised by Richard Yeoh and Cookie Monster against the recent whipping demonstrations carried out before school children and their claims that such methods are not known to be effective brings to mind arguments against corporal punishment, especially caning, in schools back in the 1950s and 60s.

It was Dr Benjamin Spock in the United States who advocated non-corporal methods of disciplining children. Back then, his ideas seemed workable and had their influence on disciplinary and corrective methods in Malaysian schools and I supported that philosophy of training and discipline.

However, when I saw the recent incidence of indiscipline, gangsterism, hooliganism and so on among national service trainees, as well as the hooliganism, indiscipline, violence, etc among schoolchildren and young people, I've begun to wonder.

I wonder whether the Spock approach was as effective as claimed back then and whether regulated and controlled application of corporal punishment for serious offences in schools would have been more effective.

Coming round to the issue at hand, while it's true that harsh punishments like whipping or the mandatory death penalty have not completely eradicated the incidence of rape or drug trafficking, we don't know whether abolishing these penalties will result in lesser incidence of rape or drug trafficking.

Yeoh expressed much anger and disgust against whipping as a form of punishment, while Cookie Monster provided verbose academic arguments laced with heavy psychological jargon and general references to alternative approaches believed to work in other unnamed countries.

However, their bluster and verbosity aside, both have not provided suggestions for an effective alternative approach to the current real problem of juvenile crime in Malaysia.

And quite frankly, I myself don't understand the cause or causes of the problem at hand to be able to suggest an effective solution.

However, it's too early to know whether the suspended whipping demonstrations will actually reduce the incidence of juvenile crime, so perhaps we should let it go on for a year or two to gauge its effectiveness.

At the same time, educational professionals, psychologists, sociologists, police and criminologists should make a thorough study to try and understand the cause of the higher incidence of juvenile crime today and come up with a possible solution or solutions.

I'm sure the causes are due to a complex combination of reasons ranging from parents being too busy with their careers, a much more consumer-oriented, brand-conscious, acquisitive and competitive society today than in my time, coupled with corruption in the civil service and law enforcers.

As to whether whipping is a deterrent or corrective measure, let me relate this. A tradesman I deal with told me about how he received three strokes of the cane in prison in his younger days, though he did not say what for.

However, today I see a cheerful person working very hard for long hours at his own business and above all, with an ethical policy towards his customers and a willingness to help others wanting to succeed. I keep going back to his shop.

While this person may be an exceptional example of someone who successfully turned his life around, and I wonder whether that caning he got many years ago set him on this correct path in life.

For such people, I wish that like in Canada, their criminal record could be erased after some years of good behaviour upon an application for a pardon.

Finally, I feel that the world after Sept 11 is a very different place and that date marked a turning point in many liberal and 'progressive' trends and approaches which began in the liberal post World War II era and the sexual liberation days of the 1960s.

Thus, these whipping demonstrations are a just a symptom of the new era and I wouldn't be surprised if the next step is to carry out the actual whippings in public places like Dataran Merdeka with full TV coverage and mandatory front-page coverage complete with pictures.