Retribution

I was reading a novel by Paulo Coelho titled, "The Devil and Miss Prym." It is a story of a small town in the mountains which, being remote, is inhabited mostly by criminals, who go there because they know no one would catch them there. A priest also lives there in a small church. The strongest of those criminals is Aheb. The priest, sick of living alone in the church wants to get a good night's sleep in a proper bed, for once. He goes to town and over to Aheb's place. Aheb is astonished how come this guy is sleeping at a killer's place. He gives him a bed and sits close by sharpening his knife while talking to the priest. Soon, the priest goes to sleep, waking up to the sound of Aheb crying. He asks Aheb what is wrong, and Aheb says that his whole life is changed. Aheb is amazed how a person could be so calm to go to sleep knowing that death is on his bed post.
Aheb then tells all the criminals to mend their ways and to find a legal line of work otherwise, Aheb would punish them. Everyone is apprehensive and talking amongst themselves of what to do. Aheb gives the design of a wooden structure to the carpenters and has them build a big structure in the middle of the town's square. He unveils it. It is a sort of hanging place. Now, the criminals are always crafting their crimes, but whenever they do their planning, the wooden structure comes to their mind and being scared, they give it up. The wooden structure is up for years, but no crime is committed. Then when everyone is righteous, whether they like it or not, Aheb has the carpenters take the structure down and replace it with a cross made of the same wood.
We need such wooden structures in our streets. We have no real punishment system. We know that even if we commit wrong, we'll let ourselves off by bribing or by influence.
We need a few of those wooden structures and we need a few million people or so hanged or put to firing squads. That's the only way to survival. We need a Mao Ze Tung.