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Big Booger wrote:I think Singapore should just stick to whipping people with canes. Perhaps 1 lash for every gram smuggled?
gboothe wrote:Big Booger wrote:I think Singapore should just stick to whipping people with canes. Perhaps 1 lash for every gram smuggled?
Nice thought. But it is heroin and that is the no-no of drugs (as if to the law in Singapore any are good). They are going to stretch this kid's neck. They are going to squeeze the dude's adam's apple until his toes wiggle. The more "well-meaning" citizens try to get involved, the more determined the Singapore government will be to do it.
The only chance he has got is the pressure and intervention that the PM is trying will have an effect with the Singapore government.
They don't see him as a poor Aussie kid of VN extract, they see him as an undesirable dude attempting to bringing in a pound of pure skag that would have been sold on their streets.
My bet is that he does the dance, if the PM can't get through!
Greener wrote:gboothe wrote:Big Booger wrote:I think Singapore should just stick to whipping people with canes. Perhaps 1 lash for every gram smuggled?
Nice thought. But it is heroin and that is the no-no of drugs (as if to the law in Singapore any are good). They are going to stretch this kid's neck. They are going to squeeze the dude's adam's apple until his toes wiggle. The more "well-meaning" citizens try to get involved, the more determined the Singapore government will be to do it.
The only chance he has got is the pressure and intervention that the PM is trying will have an effect with the Singapore government.
They don't see him as a poor Aussie kid of VN extract, they see him as an undesirable dude attempting to bringing in a pound of pure skag that would have been sold on their streets.
My bet is that he does the dance, if the PM can't get through!
This kid's got it easy, Gary Glitter is facing a date with the firing squad in Nam right now.
Papa-Lazarou wrote:I could not me more oposed to the death penalty, but in a world of injustices this case isnt exactly keeping me up at night
fatslug wrote:poor bastard
gekisou wrote:... I beleive he is getting what is deserved, and that the Singaporean Government is right in keeping to their word (unlike so many other governments!)
Imagine how many other people and their families that would be damaged if the drugs did get through? ...
Alan Jones wrote:Today Show Editorial
VAN NGUYEN 29 November 2005
... The business about the fate of Van Nguyen reached ridiculous levels yesterday with a stupid suggestion that the Prime Minister should call off the Prime Ministerial XI cricket match in Canberra on Friday because it coincided with the date of the young man's execution.
Others are saying we should boycott trade.
Both propositions border on the ludicrous.
There are two separate issues here.
One is drug running, which makes Van Nguyen neither a hero nor a martyr, but a young man wanting to make a quick quid at the expense of others whose lives would be jeopardised by buying the rubbish he would be selling.
Against that, it need be said that every drug seller would go broke if there wasn't a drug buyer.
So what is happening to the mind set of buyers is almost impossible to fathom.
The drug issue is entirely separate from what can be simply called judicial killing.
It is far too grotesque to describe here what happens when a person is hanged.
But at 6 o'clock on Friday, if this barbarism prevails, a trap door will open and this young man's body will hang until it stops writhing, with all the gruesome ramifications that that has.
It's instructive to note that the Opposition Leader in Singapore, Juan Chee Soon, has been very outspoken about this whole episode and the 400 or more which have preceded it.
As he said recently, "If there is any logic to what the government in Singapore is doing, it is that a drug courier's deed causes, or has the potential to cause, the death of a fellow human being."
Therefore the State has the right to, in return, take the life of the perpetrator.
But as he wrote recently, "If that is the reasoning, why does Singapore continue to allow the sale of cigarettes?"
Nicotine and tobacco are stimulants whose addictive properties have been likened to those of opium and heroin.
Their carcinogenic effects have caused the deaths of millions and caused hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent on health care.
So as the Opposition Leader in Singapore said, "If we don't criminalise the sale of cigarettes, much less hang the producers and sellers of nicotine, why do we execute peddlers of other types of drugs?"
The argument is that drugs are a scourge on society and authorities have a sovereign right to protect their citizens from criminals such as Nguyen.
But as the Singapore Opposition Leader said, "Singapore is the biggest business partner of Burma and the Singapore government invests in projects that involve one Han Lo Hsing, an established Burmese drug lord."
He wrote, "Singapore has been fingered in the laundering of Burma's drug money."
And argues, "While all this goes on, does anyone expect to stop the drug trade by executing a courier such as Nguyen."
As the Opposition Leader wrote, "It doesn't make much sense to keep mopping the floor while leaving the tap running."
He makes the further point that in a democracy, this barbarism would not go on.
But Singapore is not a democracy.
As he wrote, "Elections are anything but free and fair. Our ballot papers are numbered and the Elections Department works out of the Prime Minister's office."
As the Singaporean Opposition Leader wrote, "Nguyen's death, as with the death of hundreds before him, will be in vain if we, in Singapore, don't fight to change this law."
And that is the issue.
It's not even really that this bloke is an Australian.
The civilised world surely must take up arms in 2005 against such barbaric behaviour as hanging.
Punishing the drug runners comes after that.
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