The world imposes morals on Singapore

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/59cc2f50-5cdb-11da-a749-0000779e2340.html

I've yet to see such clear cut inter-national racism in my life. Declared independent only 40 years ago, Singapore is one of the finest economic superpowers in the world, with a government that acts on behalf of its people and a legitimate desire to participate in the world economy. Unfortunately, they still have a huge amount of trouble preventing drug trafficking as being part of the Golden Triangle and also a major transportation hub.

They try to combat the growing issue by adding such a deterrent as the death penalty to trafficking- which seems to be the only thing that works, and suddenly the church, Australia, and every newspaper in the world is calling out "hey that's not right he's an Australian he has rights!"

Would this have played out differently if Australia were not bent over the bench to their economic ties? Does the World have a right to impose its double-standard morals on an entire population of people in consensus on their own land?

Nguyen Tuong Van, a 25-year-old Australian, was executed in Singapore’s Changi Prison at 6 a.m. yesterday morning, local time. The state murder stands as an indictment not just of the dictatorial Singaporean regime, but of the entire Australian political establishment as well. The Howard government and the Labor Party opposition closed ranks in the weeks leading up to the hanging to ensure that the outrage of ordinary people did not undermine Canberra’s tacit agreement with the killing. Above all else, no harm was to be done to any aspect of Australia’s commercial and political ties with Singapore.

In the aftermath of Nguyen’s killing, various politicians have issued sickeningly hypocritical statements of sympathy for the man’s family and friends, and wept crocodile tears over Singapore’s enforcement of the death penalty.

The calculated and cynical position of both the government and the Labor Party has sharply contrasted with the genuine revulsion and anger felt by millions of ordinary Australians—and Singaporeans—over Nguyen’s state-sanctioned murder. Thousands of people participated in protests and vigils to mark his death.

Nguyen had been sentenced to die by hanging after his conviction on charges of transporting 396 grams of heroin through Singapore airport in December 2002, en route from Cambodia to Australia. The young man was desperate to raise money for his twin brother, Khoa, who was in serious financial trouble, pending criminal charges, over drug problems. For this tragic mistake, Nguyen, the son of a Vietnamese refugee who had never had any previous trouble with the law, paid with his life.

Nguyen’s killing was an act of unmitigated barbarism. Every aspect of his treatment—by the Singaporean government, Australian politicians, and the media—reeks of hypocrisy, cynicism, and cruelty.

On Thursday, Nguyen was weighed and measured by the Singaporean prison authorities, in order to gauge the length of rope required for a “successful” hanging. This calculation relied on the “Official Table of Drops”, first published by the British Home Office in 1913. After being granted independence, Singapore maintained a series of repressive laws previously enforced by the British colonial authorities, including capital punishment. The island-state also retained the British Empire’s macabre preparations for death by hanging.

If the hangman’s rope is too long, the victim’s falling body weight can result in death by decapitation. If too short, death by strangulation can take as long as 45 minutes. When the rope is correctly measured, the victim loses consciousness when his or her neck is broken in the fall. Brain death then takes about six minutes, while full body death takes a further ten minutes. According to the US-based Death Penalty Information Center: “If the inmate has strong neck muscles ... or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur.”

Underscoring the inhumanity of Nguyen’s hanging, Singaporean authorities rejected a plea by the young man’s mother that she be allowed a final embrace with her son. The government conceded what it termed “limited physical contact ... agreed on an exceptional basis”; Nguyen was only permitted to hold hands with his mother and brother through a metal grille in the moments before his death.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/nguy-d03.shtml