Despite a strong public opinion against the execution of Nguyen Tuong Van by the Singaporean government, the Howard government and the opposition have washed their hands clean. Their hands are now clean so they can pursue further the business interests of Australian companies, with their Singaporean counterpart, ready to shake hands to close some deals.
From the very outset of the looming death penalty situation facing Mr Nguyen, both sides of the official government have refused to do more than just making empty promises and saying that they do not have jurisdiction. They have even refused to make a statement to the Singaporean government to denounce the carrying out of what is a very barbaric form of punishment.
By the end of Friday this week, Nguyen Tuong Van will be no more and the Howard government and the opposition can move on to do business as usual with their Singaporean counterpart. They can continue to hold talks about a possible merger between Qantas and Singapore Airlines and investments by Singaporean companies in Australia, such as SingTel (Optus).
That day should be a day of mourning, a day of sadness for a lot of people, most of all the unfortunate young man’s parents. It is a day that should be remembered as the day a government clearly refuses to save the life of a young man (misguided as he may be) from the hands of a government which believes that a narcotic-related crime is a lot worse than murder, or even mass murder, that it should attract an automatic death penalty without any means of pardon or clemency.