unless you have been sleeping under a rock or have been living in Singapore (there seems to be little reporting of the case in the Singapore press), Singapore is about to execute Nyugen Thuong Van this friday because he smuggled drugs into Singapore en route to Melbourne. The Australians are very angry that they are killing one of their own while the Singaporeans are rather blase about it, as usual in fact.
I myself don't have an opinion on the death sentence. It's good and bad .. yet seriously, if you are going to traffic drugs, WHY did you choose to use Singapore as a stopover from Cambodia, my dear Van? You could have gone to Malaysia, or Thailand (two very popular stopover destinations) and if caught, at least there might be a saving chance that the Australian people and government might "persuade" the Malaysian or Thai government to commute the sentence to life instead of death, right??
Instead, you chose Singapore. The country that refused to commute your sentence to life despite pleas from the Australian people and government. The country that did not reduce the sentence for Michael McFay in the 1990s, despite pleas from the Untied States (the super-power at that time). The country that does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International courts.
To change the sentence would reverse decades of policies.
It would signal to the people that the government is amenable to pressure (get ready all you civil society people!!).
It would basically signal to the people that the government is fallible. (Shock!! 4 decades of party rule and socialisation down the drain).
I seriously doubt the Singapore government will change their stance in this matter.
So pray for Van .. cos there is really nothing else we can do.
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