Posted by Kevin Bates This is the same mob whose leader only two years' ago suggested that we might have a discussion on the possibility of reintroducing Captial Punishment in Australia! Drug trafficking is of course an awful crime and deserves to be punished accordingly. Nothing however is worth the deliberate taking of another person's life. The trauma experienced by the witnesses to the hanging of Ronald Ryan in Melbourne's Pentridge Gaol in 1967, and the enduring damage done to the families of at least one of the judges involved in that case, attest to the fact that it is not just the excecuted person and his or her family who suffer. The whole of society is demeaned by such barbarism, and the existence of a death penalty is surely evidence of a society that is yet to mature to the point where it can deal with serious crime with justice and with real wisdom. Eighty countries, and thirty five U.S. States still employ the death penalty, with Singapore having the highest per capita rate of executions each year. I pray that we can do better and that our leaders can somehow grasp the enormity of their mealy-mouthed excuses for not doing more to save the life of Van Nguyen.
on November 26, 2005, 7:29 pm
Today New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark had the courage and the compassion to confront Singapore's Prime Minister on the issue of Van Nguyen's upcoming execution. Our own Government has been wringing its hands in an impotent kind of impersonation of Uriah Heap as it claims that we can do nothing.
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