I Pray For Him

Van Tuong Nguyen (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Tường Vân, baptised Caleb [1], August 17, 1980) was a Vietnamese Australian convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore. Such offences carry a mandatory death sentence under the Misuse of Drugs Act, and despite pleas for clemency from the Australian government and others, he was executed by hanging at 6:07 am SGT (9 am AEDT or 10 pm UTC December 1) on December 2, 2005.

I got that blurb from Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) and after reading so much about his execution and its accompanying stories, I can't help but feel regretful about the whole mess.

In essence, although I feel capital punishment (aka. hanging) is wrong and that we mere humans should NOT take the life of another, I'm thinking more about the lives of the other 26,000 people who could have gotten into drugs and become victims if Van actually brought all 400+ grammes of the heroin home. (Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that much heroin is equal to more than 26,000 DOSES).

At the same time, couldn't both governments take advantage of this 'drug runner' and obtain more info from him to nab both the Cambodian and Australian drug trafficking rings? Reading the judgment note on his case, this Van guy was just a middle-man running drugs for both sides to help out his twin brother who was full of debts resulting from his drug-abuse (oh, the irony!).

Gee, imagine how Khou, his bro must feel right now.

Guys, check out the judgement on the case: www.geocities.com/law4u2003/nguyentuongyan.htm

And, you can read ALL about it without the nitty-gritty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Tuong_Van

I guess its pretty obvious... Don't do drugs.