The Law Is The Law

I expect this article to cause as much of a commotion online as it does offline in the discussions I have had with friends, but that's life.

On Friday December 2nd, the Singaporean Government proceeded with the execution of convicted drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van despite appeals from both Australia and other nations. A lot of criticism has been leveled against the Singapore Government over Nguyen Tuong Van's execution, with many calling it inhumane, illegal etc. However, despite our own personal thoughts on executing other humans, let's step back and look at the whole situation.

Nguyen Tuong Van was caught with 400 grams of Heroin with a street value of millions of Australian dollars, and the amount he had on him apparently would have been enough for 26,000 "hits". That is a lot of heroin on the streets. The reason for carrying it, was to pay off his brother's A$30,000 debt to money lenders. It was a huge risk he took for so little debt, alternative options existed, but he chose to be a drug courier.

Singapore's laws regarding drug traffickers are well known and publicised, especially in Australia. If you are caught with drugs in Singapore, the penalty is death. No exceptions. So, by going through Singapore en route to Australia, Nguyen Tuong Van knew the risks he was taking.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a supporter of the death penalty by any stretch of the imagination. I don't approve of what Singapore did in executing Nguyen Tuong Van nor any other person - whether a foreigner or a Singaporean. The death penalty is one of the cruelest things any nation could impose on a human as punishment.

However, having said that, if one choses for whatever reason, to be a drug trafficker and to take the gamble of landing in Singapore, then Singaporean Law applies if you get caught. For us in Australia and elsewhere to try and convince the Singaporean Government to give someone clemency for breaking Singaporean Law, is something I fail to comprehend. Why? Let's take a different scenario.

Let's assume a foreigner committed a crime and broke our [Australian] Laws. That person would pay for the crime he/she committed based on Australian Law. If the criminal's home country placed pressure on us to not implement our own law, we as Australians, would object to outside interferance. We don't tolerate other countries telling us what we should and should not do, so why should Singapore be any different?

For Singapore to give Nguyen Tuong Van clemency and commute his sentence to imprisonment would also send a signal to the rest of the world that although Singaporean Law says "Drug Trafficking Carries the Death Penalty .... But if you kick up enough of a fuss, we will commute it to imprisonment". This would then see Singapore experiencing more drug trafficking through the city state than is currently happening. A precedent had to be avoided.

One thing though I did feel extremely disappointed with was the Singaporean Government's refusal to allow Nguyen Tuong Van one last chance to hug his mother. That to me, was insensitive and inconsiderate at the utmost level. The dear lady was losing her son. To allow her to hug him one last time would have been not only a very compassionate thing from the Singapore Government's side, but also a chance for her to say her final goodbye with the love that she had for him.

On that, all I can say is "Shame on you Singapore".

Finally, back to the issue of executions. As stated earlier, I am not a supporter of executing people for crimes they have committed, and the main reason is that not only is human life priceless, but there is always the chance that the wrong person is executed or not all the facts are available at the time.

Singapore is not the only country that carries out executions. The world's most powerful nation - the United States - executes people on a regular basis, as do other countries. If we are to stop Singapore from executing drug traffickers, then we need to have a global push to stop executions worldwide.

Enough said. Am off to dinner.