Nguyen Controversy Made Singapore PM Proud
Angie visited the Becks at their England home. While Vic and Dave went into the kitchen to pour her a glass of their finest wine, she placed a C4 under their couch. Unfortunately she got busted by one of their security dudes. The Becks sued. The Pitts cried.
On a serious note, here is the real scenario:
Nguyen Tuong Van. 25-year old. Australian. Trafficked about 400g of heroin into Singapore. Arrested. Hanged. The End. Finito.
But instead…
The Australian people got pissed; and decided to shit all over Singapore.
Australian Prime Minister, John Howard:
“… It will have an effect on the [Australia-Singapore] relationship on a people-to-people, population-to-population basis.”
Australian Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock:
“[Nguyen’s death sentence is] a most unfortunate, barbaric act that is occurring.”
“… drug trafficking carries a mandatory death sentence in Singapore…” the exact words announce on the flight’s PA system while flying into Singapore. You have been warned. There was no excuse for the crime committed.
Nguyen’s story was indeed a sob one. Yet again, heroic. He was trafficking enough drugs to make 26,000 doses, for the sake of paying off his brother’s debts. He was well-aware of the consequences and risks from the minute he strapped $1.3 million worth of heroin onto his body; but still he carried on the job that eventually cost him his life.
Singapore was not as kind as her Indonesian neighbor, whom in the eleventh hour decided to free 24-year old Australian model Michelle Leslie from her 15 year jail term for possessing two Ecstasy pills in her bag. Remember Schapelle Corby?
Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong in an ABC interview:
“… it’s an enormous amount in terms of the misery it can cause to addicts, to their families, to the destruction of lives, and we have had previous cases similarly with young people with similiar quantities and similar circumstances, and we have allowed the law to take its course.”
A commendable decision by Lee has unfortunately led the Australian public to accuse Singapore of being “barbaric”; but in fact these drug laws have been enacted since 1975 and nobody has ever accused it of being ever “barbaric”. Why now?
Because a fellow Australian was in another country’s jurisdiction, they so decided to make it their problem. Australians are sometimes very passionate about the little matters that they shut their minds, not knowing that Singapore is not susceptible to pressure from outside parties around the world after being led by their previous iron-fist Premiere, Lee Kuan Yew. However many demonstrations they might decide to throw outside the Singapore embassy in Canberra, they have to understand the little or no authority they have over Singapore’s final decision, as the crime was not commited in Australia in the first place.
There was no need for Melbourne lawyer Robert Richter to emotionally lash out at Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, now that the execution has ended. The dead can’t walk. Scrutinies and arguments, hence are not needed.
Some poor sods protesting outside Singapore’s High Commission in Canberra yesterday.
Courtesy of Reuters
In other words, get over it!
The Australians should know that they have a high number of drug smugglers coming out from their country and going into other countries. A death penalty would serve as a deterrence to others.
Comment by S-Kay — December 3, 2005 @ 1:00 pm
Murder = Hang = Yes.
Drug trafficking = Hang = No
Why? Becoz it takes 2 to tango in the latter. Nobody forced drug users to inject themselves with that crap. Therefore, drug traffickers should be sentences to long jail terms , but not death
Comment by cyrix — December 3, 2005 @ 3:09 pm
Cyrix: Interesting perspective. Another way to look at this:
No drug traffickers = No drug users = No unnecessary problems. In my very humble opinion, if Lee Hsien Loong didn’t enforce the 1975 law yesterday, the endless stream of drug pushers in Asia will not be fearful. In regards to life long imprisonment, we all know that the court allows jail time to be shortened on the basis of good behavior; but that does not stop the drug pusher from returning to his old job once he’s out. He might even find ways to be more careful of not being caught!
Comment by Darryl — December 3, 2005 @ 3:17 pm
darryl: But that also goes the same for all the other type of crimes! Rapist may also get parole. It’s in their hands after that how they wanna behave after that. But are drug traffickers seriously more dangerous than rapists? Rape victims can’t say no to it and walk away, drug users can.
I feel that Malaysia and Singapore should amend that law now. It’s just too harsh in view of the crime. And plus, shouldn’t a more humane execution method such as lethal injection be used instead of hanging? Breaking necks sounds very grotesque to me man.
Comment by cyrix — December 3, 2005 @ 4:26 pm
what is done is done..i wonder what happend if Nguen is white? not vietnamise origin?
Comment by cynthia — December 3, 2005 @ 4:38 pm
Cyrix: Thanks for dropping by again! :) In my opinion, hanging and lethal injection are both as inhumane. According to Singapore’s former chief executioner Darshan Singh, execution by hanging gives the inmate a chance to repent by donating his/her organs, while lethal injection would render them useless. He, in fact hoped to have the chance to perform Nguyen’s execution as his 48 years experience allows him to perform the hanging without any struggling on Nguyen’s part. But oh well… every capital punishment is grotesque: Be it hanging, lethal injection or the electric chair.
Cynthia: Interesting question. It is notable that trafficking drugs in Malaysia, like Singapore, carries a mandatory death sentence. Remember Barlow-Chambers execution in 1986? They were two white Australian men. The Australian PM then, Bob Hawke also made a passionate plea to our former Dr. Mahathir; and Hawke made a cynical remark that the execution style was “barbaric”, which made Dr. Mahathir pissed and later led an aggressive Anti-Australian sentiment which almost harmed bilateral ties between the two countries.
Comment by Darryl — December 3, 2005 @ 7:13 pm
If a person dies because of the drug which was distributed by a drug trafficker..isn’t that murder (although it constitutes more to manslaughter) The drug traffickers are the main source of the problem hence their punishment is the heaviest among all.
Rapist rape ppl and cause unwanted pregnancy and further social problems but drug trafficking leads to robbery, murder, theft, rape, and loads of other crimes. So weighing all the consequences caused by drug trafficking, I think the punishment is justified as appropriate. In fact, if they were given life sentence, they might use the prison officers as their middle person to keep in contact with other drug lords. I mean, c’mon..you think those prison officers won’t forego the benefits? I doubt so =)
But I do agree that lethal injections should be used instead. It is definitely more humane. Hanging is a wee bit too old fashion and horrible.
Comment by S-Kay — December 3, 2005 @ 8:23 pm
S-Kay: I like your views. Well done. :)
Comment by Darryl — December 4, 2005 @ 1:11 am
Thanks =)
Comment by S-Kay — December 4, 2005 @ 6:23 am
yeah.. shit does happen right.
Comment by cynthia — December 4, 2005 @ 3:05 pm
S-Kay - “If a person dies because of the drug which was distributed by a drug trafficker..isn’t that murder (although it constitutes more to manslaughter)”
Who’s forcing the drug users to buy the drugs from them? If I was approached by a drug seller in a party, and I declined, nothing’s gonna happen to me. I can opt out. But it’s different if a guy with a butcher knife comes after me just because I insulted his taste in clothes. He didn’t give me the option to opt out. He’s stabbing is the direct result of my death. A drug trafficker/seller isn’t, if I didn’t opt to buy it from them.
Comment by cyrix — December 4, 2005 @ 5:55 pm
Cyrix : Ok, if you put it that way…
Well, usually you can escape bearing the full responsibility of a person’s death but would still be partially responsible. For example, the trafficker would not sell the drug to the addict as he has no money and hence, the addict robbed and killed someone to pay for his drugs. Although the drug trafficker was not directly involved in the murder and robbery, he was the indirect cause to why the addict did what he did. If he did not approach or allow himself to be approached by the addict, none of these would have happened. But bear in mind that this a very subjective matter. The degree to which a defendant (the trafficker for example) is responsible depends on how heavy the consequences of his action is.
Comment by S-Kay — December 5, 2005 @ 12:29 am
But of course, it is very rare that this kind of argument would survive in court and the drug trafficker would escape easily as it is a two-way voluntary decision - the trafficker was not forced to sell (because he wants to make money too) and the addict was not forced to buy (because he went looking for the trafficker), which was why I said that it is a very subjective matter and it depends alot on the intention and the evidence they have.
Comment by S-Kay — December 5, 2005 @ 12:34 am
We should all blame the Pharmaceutical Chemists for concocting these drugs to begin with!!
Hang them ALLLL!!!!!!
Okay no seriously… dont hang them…
We’re really all not that bad…
Honestly though…
Its human nature to walk the line between certain chaos and order…
between what’s extremely psycho and seemingly cool…
Do one thing that scares you every day of your life…
That’s the way to live your life… and some ppl take it a step too far by doing things that are indeed scary and in fact dangerously harmful!
So where does that leave the drug traffickers and the drug users…?
Drug users should be institutionalised… in a VERY high security institution, and should be treated for their addiction…
Drug traffickers should be put in jailed and have all their wealth (gained from trafficking) taken from them… if and when they are release they should have their assets watched by someone…
And there should be a world unified effort to find out WHERE the hell and WHO the hell is producing these drugs…
find them…
shut them down….
Problem solved!
Easier said than done though huh?
Comment by ninja-l- — December 6, 2005 @ 11:22 pm