Dec 2, 2005.
On that fateful day, Vietnamese-descended Nguyen Tuong Van was hung in Changi Prison for carrying 14 ounces of heroin travelling from Cambodia to Australia, despite repeat pleas of clemency from the Australian government.
Australian PM John Howard said that the execution would harm ties between
Singapour and
Australie. Indeed, there was a newspaper report that told of Australian students threatening to boycott Singapore products. Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock had earlier condemned the execution as "barbaric". But that was probably just because he comes from a country where there is no capital punishment, not even for the deadliest of criminals.
So, was S'pore "barbaric" in its decision to hang Nguyen? He was, after all, carrying enough of the vile, addictive, analgesic drug to supply tens of thousands of individual doses. It would totally ruin countless families, or even a small country like S'pore. Also, Nguyen was aware that S'pore punishes drug smugglers severely. Announcements are made on the PA system of all planes bound for us. Nguyen took the gamble, so he had to pay.
But I still feel a pang of pity for the poor guy - don't we all? To die so horribly at the age of 25. And imagine how he must have felt when the sentence had been read out 3 years ago. Imagine the fear, the loneliness, and the regret, guilt, and anguish, of being put on death row, stuck in a cell with others of your kind. I'm sure that if you were to visit these prisoners, you could practically
taste the tangible feelings in the air. No words could describe that.
It's even worse for Nguyen. He had probably gotten his hopes up when his countrymen were all praying for him to be spared of the gallows. Even his prime minister made plea
s of clemency to President S R Nathan. The whole thing was even more heated up when his case hogged the headlines for days. But still, the Singapore Government was adamant in its decision to hang Nguyen. It does not make special allowances just because it has close ties with the country in question. If it did, how is it supposed to explain other hangings of foreign criminals? There would be an uproar.
Nguyen had claimed to be helping his brother ease his backlog of debts. How must his bro feel, knowing that his own kin risked - and ended up sacrificing - his life to help him? Would he comtemplate suicide? We hope not - in fact, he should make a U-turn in his life and start anew, afresh, so that Nguyen would not die in vain.
What about Mrs Kim Nguyen? As a mother, she must feel terrible to watch her son suffering, knowing full well that she could only give emotional support all through to the end and nothing else. Singapore had made a small concession in this case - Nguyen's mom was allowed to touch him before he was executed, although a "farewell hug" that had been requested wasn't pemmitted.
Well, let's hope that late Mr Nguyen's family survive this ordeal well through their bereavement stage and that the world will learn not to bring drugs to Singapore.
May he RIP.