THE CASE TO EXECUTE NGUYEN THUONG VAN

Singapore has recently courted a fair amount of controversy over its decision to hang a Vietnamese-Australian for attempting to smuggle 396g of heroin past customs officials at the airport. Even the reported firing of the 74-year old executioner (Q: if you're 74, wouldn't you want a less stressful job than one that requires you to kill people?) has made it into the pages of the Times of London.
Both PM John Howard and his counterpart in New Zealand Helen Clark have tried to plead for clemency. Howard has even taken the step of warning PM Lee Hsien Loong of "lingering resentment on the part of many Australians."

The convicted man's alibi is that he did it to help pay for his brother's debts to loan sharks. As much as I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, there is no way that he would not know of the severe consequences of his actions. Given that scenario, wouldn't it not be a more sensible option to go rob a bank in his home city of Melbourne given that whatever punishment dished out there would be far less austere than the death penalty?

2 issues come to mind for me in this case:

1. I do support the death penalty, but only in extreme cases where mass murder and terrorism are involved. I personally feel that the dude should be spared in this case. I think that even life imprisonment without parole would be a pretty harsh punishment.

2. I support our government's decision not to bow down to the demands of the Australian government. If it had done so, it would have sent the message that a larger nation could force a smaller one to change its law that has been in place for decades just to accomodate ONE citizen from the former. John Howard might have the audacity to screw around with a country of 4m but one can bet that he would have problems finding his balls if the same guy was to be executed in China instead of this "rouge Chinese port city."

Bottom line, it would have been great if our government had offered clemency but in an unperfect world, PM Lee's determination to not kowtow to the demands of the "deputy sheriff" of Asia is to be applauded.