Actually in singapore people can and have been jailed (and caned) for animal abuse. Think they went easy on him seeing he had no other record and this cat had been taking a dump on his door for some time now. Also it's not like it was a premeditated attack, and the cat didn't suffer any serious consequences (only the fur was burnt I believe, no actual injury). Also ti his defense he did try to shoo it away, and when he was spraying it up till the point where he actually threw the newspaper at it, it could have gtfo'd at any time. Pretty crazy cat if you ask me, they always bolt when they see me and I'm only bringing em food... If it died or something then he's likely to be jailed. Not that what he's doing is ok, but I think that's why he got off relatively lightly.
If he did it again, then he's going in the slammer.
And no, child abusers get off easy all the time, and there are no 'council workers' in singapore. Well there are but no where near effective and they mainly only cater to sex abuse. You can be jailed for beating up a cat, but you can't be jailed for beating your own kid senseless for no good reason.