Keep perspective on execution
I’m sorry that Nguyen Tuong Van will be executed today. I don’t support capital punishment. I wouldn’t care if a mass murderer was executed, but I do care that a young man who made some mistakes is paying for them with his life.
It’s important to keep some perspective though. The candlelight vigils and apparent national obsession with this case is over the top.
The Singapore High Commissioner made some telling comments yesterday about the lives that Nguyen would have harmed if the heroin he was carrying had reached its destination. Some 26,000 hits was the amount that he held.
Drugs are evil and Nguyen was part of an evil system. The penalty doesn’t fit the crime, but we shouldn’t portray him as a victim.
The media interest is just because he’s Australian. Think of all the people executed each week in China, the United States and elsewhere. Some of them may be innocent. I weep more for them.
Tags: Australia, crime, life, media, murder
Socially, exaggeration is often whimsical. But when a government dramatically inflates numbers to help justify a death sentence, the integrity of both the trial and its governing body becomes questionable. In this case, the government is Singapore, the trial was for Van Tuong Nguyen, and the bloated number is 26,000.
Press from around the world quotes Abdullah Tarmugi, the Speaker of Singapore Parliament, in writing about the potential consequences of Van’s actions, “almost 400 grams of pure heroin, enough for more than 26,000 doses.”
But how was 26,000 doses (or “hits”) derived?
It turns out that what constitutes a hit of heroin is not an easy thing to count. There are dozens of factors to consider; contact your local Needle Exchange for a comprehensive list. However, after collecting statistics from over a dozen sources (including police reports, narcotics web sites, health information, and workers from needle exchanges), the number of hits from a gram of pure heroin averages out to little more than 14.
Van Tuong Nguyen trafficked 396.2 grams of heroin into Singapore. This is approximately 5,600 doses.
The numbers 5,600 and 26,000 are obviously incongruous, as are reports that 400 grams of heroin would “ruin 26,000 lives”. In fact, 400 grams of heroin would not come close to ruining even 5,600 lives. Rather, the heroin would most likely supply people already abusing it. With a little more research, we can estimate how many lives would be adversely affected by 400 grams of heroin during one year:
As many as 67, and as few as 6.
Van Tuong Nguyen would not have sent 26,000 people to their deaths from 400 grams of heroin. Nor would the lives of 26,000 people have been ruined. Far more likely is that six people would get a year’s worth of hits. And for this he was executed?
Call it dreadful, call it dense, call it incomprehensible … but do not call it justice.
I’m not sure we need to rationalise the potential damage of the heroin he carried because I don’t think that’s the point.
Singapore puts itself in some pretty ordinary company when it comes to meeting out justice. Regardless of what people think of him (and from all accounts he was far from the worst kind of person and criminal) he simply didn’t deserve to be executed for this crime.
Think of this: He’d already served three years in gaol. If it had happened in Australia he’d be at least halfway through his term. He’d be released aged 28 or so with every prospect of reform.
Putting it in that context, Howard’s half-hearted attempts to have him spared were insipid.
I would further more like to add that regardless of the amount of doses in 400 grams of heroin that no single user is forced to take these drugs they do so of their own free will. Van Nguyen was a naive misguided young man looking for a quick fix to slove his twin brother’s financial problems his crime was stupidity and no one deserves to die for that. I doubt if he even gave anything else a thought and feel certain that there was no malice intended towasrds anyone, what he did was stupid but what the Singapore Government did was incomprehensible. Nguyen Van’s death is not likely to make the slightest bit of difference, drugs are here and sadkly probably here to stay so instead of blaming it on people like Van we should be looking at other ways to minimize drug use by stepping up our education campaign and by encouraging young people to stay at school, provide them with ample job opportunites, instill in them a sense of pride, give them an incentive to work, encourage them to live worthwhile lives so that they won’t want to blunt their minds with the use of drugs and encourage them to become useful members of society. There was no justice in the hanging of Nguyen Tuong Van. All I can say to the Singapore Governemnt is “God forgive them for they know not what they do”
I was only 10 when Barlow & Chambers found themselves at the hands of the hangman. Was there such a media frenzy over the execution of these two men at the time. Do the crime in that country you pay the ultimate price….
As I recall the media frenzy over Barlow & Chambers was actually far greater than the recent case. Maybe that’s because they weren’t of Asian origin. I get the impression that some of the rednecks writing into the papers expressing “hang-him-high” views on Nguyen are basically racists in disguise.
Singapore murdered Van. Malaysia murdered Barlow and Chambers. For those of you who think killing people helps to restrict the activities of the criminal who gets wealthy via drug dealing ……… well, perhaps you should learn to think.
I hope we go to war with Singapore – and I have lived in a war so I dont make this statement lightly. My contempt for Singapore knows no bounds!
Dazz, your simplistic argument showns that what you write is a waste of bandwidth – talk when you have something to say, otherwise please shut-up!