Children see demonstration of flogging

PRISON guards are showing Malaysian schoolchildren how they flog convicts, using dummies for the demonstrations but showing photos of wounds caused by the real thing, in a bid to steer the youngsters away from crime.

At a school in the northern city of Taiping, about 600 children 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 cane at 100 mph.

As part of the demonstration, organisers displayed photographs of the bleeding buttocks of criminals who had been whipped.

The demonstration was among the first in a national programme that aims to give children a powerful warning about the penalties criminals in Malaysia face.