News from back home I’ve just read that Australian Van Tuong Nguyen was finally executed in Singapore yesterday for drug smuggling after months and moths of debate and media coverage, appeals and such although it seems that the Government didn’t really try all that hard. Perhaps they preferred to protect what is already a fairly volatile diplomatic relationship with Singapore. The argument coming from Mr Howard and co. was that they did all they could do.
Funny thing being that seems to be argument the Prime Minister see,m a little too eager to use these, except if it might put him at odds with the coalition of the willing. Strange that. He seems very willing to potentially sacrifice the lives of the innocent in an effort to win friends and influence Washington, but not fight to turn around recent harsh and life destroying sentences handed to his fellow Australians. The recent industrial relations properganda (oops I mean informative advertising) proves that money is not the issue.
Don’t get me wrong. What the guy did was at best foolish and at worst plain wrong. It needed punishment. He seems to be the first to admith that:
In a hand-written letter to be read at his funeral in Melbourne on
Wednesday, it is believed Nguyen repents for the pain he has caused,
and warns about the evil of drugs.Father Peter Hansen, who will lead a requiem mass for Nguyen at St
Patrick’s Cathedral, said he believed Nguyen wrote a statement to be
read to the congregation.Lawyer Julian McMahon said Nguyen, 25, also wrote to several prominent people and a political leader in his final days.
Asked if he penned warnings against drug use, Mr McMahon said: “I’d
have no doubt there would be such a letter. That would be in keeping
with the sorts of letters he’s been writing.”
My issue is simply this. If the reverse was true and a Singaporean had been given an Australian sentence, which are not super soft I admit; my hunch is that the Singapore Government would have fought harder to get their own kid back to be punished at home.
Some loyalty people, please
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