I want to share with you this article written by Mark Baker. Baker is opinion editor of the Melbourne Age. He was Asia editor, based in Singapore, from 2001 to 2004 and reported the arrest and trial of Nguyen Tuong Van. His full article titled The Death of Reason in 3 pages may be read here.
I am providing extracts of the parts he wrote scathingly of John Howard's efforts, or lack of, as follows in italics:
"John Howard and his ministers insist they did everything possible, within reason, to save Nguyen. Maybe so. Perhaps not."
See my previous posting PM's anger - Too little too late
"From the moment he first publicly declared - as he did weeks ago - that there was little more that the Government could do, while in the same breath saying that the case should not disrupt the important bilateral relationship with Singapore, John Howard may as well have been counter-signing the death warrant."
See my previous posting Nguyen Van Tuong - the Final Nail in his Coffin
"The message to the Singapore cabinet room - the real headquarters of Singapore Airlines, Optus and the rest of the big brands of Singapore Inc - was clear: the execution can proceed without any official fallout for our trade, investment and military ties."
"That message was reinforced when, after Howard was told again at a meeting with Lee Hsien Loong during the APEC summit in South Korea last month that the hanging would go ahead, he carried on with commercial talks. What more did Lee need to know that it would be business as usual up to and after the execution?"
See my previous posting Nguyen Saga - Imperatives of Cold International Politics
"Of course relationships between nations cannot be made hostage to the fate of individuals, but when others offend our standards and predominant beliefs as profoundly as this needless, pointless killing has done, then it's not good enough for our Prime Minister to wring his hands, mumble about "regret" (whatever that means) and swan off to the cricket."
See my previous posting Oz Govt in Damage Control
"Singapore should have been told from the outset and must be told now: state killing has no place in the modern world, if there are Asian values there are also Australian values, and there are many Australians who will express their sorrow and anger at this atrocity with their tourist dollars, their choice of airline and their telephone plans."
"God speed, Van. Perhaps you have, in the probable last words of your executioner, gone to a better place than this."
Read also this Melbourne Age article.
Nguyen's brother also a convicted trafficker
ReplyDeleteAussie court suppressed fact that he was a drug runner and given jail term for savage attack on teen
SYDNEY - THE brother of an Australian drug courier hanged in Singapore is a convicted drug trafficker and had been sentenced to jail for a savage samurai sword attack, but details of the case were suppressed due to fear that they could jeopardise clemency appeals.
KHOA'S CRIMINAL BACKGROUND was not publicised in Australia, in order to avoid jeopardising his twin brother's plea for clemency in Singapore. -- EPA
The Australian reported yesterday that Nguyen Tuong Van's brother, Nguyen Khoa Dang, in 1998 repeatedly slashed a teenager with a samurai sword, seriously wounding the 17-year-old's arm, buttock, ankle and left knee.
He was sentenced to three years in jail for the attack, which resulted in the victim requiring plastic surgery.
But County Court judge Meryl Sexton suspended the jail term because Khoa's 'personal situation...(had) become so traumatic because of (his) brother's situation', the newspaper reported.
The judge ordered that the sentence be suspended partly because his twin brother was awaiting execution in Singapore.
She also banned publication of case details while Australian officials repeatedly appealed to Singapore not to hang Nguyen, said The Australian.
Details of Khoa's conviction could be published yesterday for the first time after Judge Sexton lifted a publication restriction imposed to avoid jeopardising Ngu- yen's plea for clemency.
Khoa faced court in June last year, where he pleaded guilty to riotous assembly and recklessly causing serious injury.
In December 1998, Khoa was involved in a brawl between Asian and Islander youths in a park in the northern Melbourne suburb of Reservoir.
The prosecution alleged that Khoa armed himself with a samurai sword and struck Glen Kohu repeatedly, causing him serious injury.
The Australian reported Judge Sexton as saying that Kohu was confined to a wheelchair after the attack, forced to leave school and had since struggled to stay employed.
The trial took more than four years to reach the county court, partly because of concerns about the effect it would have on the Singapore trial of Nguyen, who was arrested in December 2002, according to The Australian.
In April 2003, Judge Sexton agreed to adjourn the case because of Nguyen's trial in Singapore.
'Amongst the reasons for my doing so which I can refer to was the effect on you of having your twin brother awaiting trial in Singapore for a capital offence,' The Australian quoted her as saying.
Khoa is a convicted drug trafficker.
He had also previously served time for drug-trafficking offences and was released from prison in July 2002.
Nguyen claimed in his trial that he had been trying to smuggle heroin to pay for his brother's mounting legal bills, partly incurred by the court case that followed Khoa's involvement in the brawl.
The court heard that Khoa, now 25, left home against his mother's wishes, abused drugs and alcohol and was a frequent customer of Melbourne's Crown casino.
Nguyen's arrest had resulted in 'an increase in (the) level of (Khoa's) maturity' but he had relapsed into heroin use in 2003, possibly as a result of his brother's arrest in Singapore, The Australian quoted Judge Sexton as saying.
Khoa was in Singapore last week for the execution of his brother.
Nguyen's family left last night for Australia with his body.
Mr Lex Lasry, who has been the family spokesman, addressed the media although the family members kept mum at Changi Airport yesterday evening.
Asked about Khoa's criminal record, Mr Lasry said he did not know about it and dismissed it as irrelevant.
'I don't have a view about it,' he said.
'I've got some views about Khoa and where he's going from here and I don't want to say anything about that.'
Thank goodness Australia laws do not penalised a person for his brother's misconduct. I am not sure about Singapore laws, but it certainly wouldn't have made any difference to the Sing government whether the brother was a serial killer or Mother Teresa's secret son, for the death penalty for Nguyen Tuong Van was already set in concrete.
ReplyDeleteSince Tuong Van has already been executed, and that you now raise his brother's crime (for the 3rd time?) do you think we should hang the brother too, or just shoot him?