Friday, December 02, 2005

Nyugen's Hanging

I received an email from some friends today, who said that they had given the Singapore owned Optus the flick in light of Van Nyugen's hanging. Nguyen claimed he was trafficking heroin to help pay off legal fees incurred by his twin brother Khoa. According to the news, the Prime Minister John Howard said he hoped the strongest message from the death would be to convince other young Australians not to get involved in drug offences in Asia.

I felt a deep sadness and distress when I saw Nguyen's mum on TV, after she had seen her son for the last time a few days ago, having held his hands. Today was a tragic and miserable day for Australia and the world, yet seriously I feel very ambivalent about it. I agree that the anti-drugs message and the anti-capital punishment measure are both important issues. The Australian government called Singapore's plan to hang Nyugen "barbaric". Many think it's a needless death, but don't we all need to be responsible for what we do? I am puzzled!

What do you think? Should Nyugen have been hanged or not?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Surely he should be responsible for what he did.

Whether you like it or not, according to Singapore Law, there's no doubt Nyugen should be hanged.

Anyone has to obey the local law as long as he or she chooses to stay there.

An Ordinary Christian said...

I don't know. Probably shouldn't be hanged, but then again, they won't have the drug problem we have in America, which has hanged countless victims...especially children.

Curious Servant said...

Sometime within the next few days the United States will have the execution of its 1,000 prisoner since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

Anonymous said...

Let's just imagine for a moment that Nguyen was able to complete his task uncaught. 14 ounces of heroin would have landed on Australia's streets. 26,000 doses? Maybe. 2,600 doses? At least. How many Australian mothers would be attending funerals of their children because of those thousands of doses on the streets?

All those lives that would have been destroyed would not have bothered him. All those lives were worth less to him than the $30,000 or $40,000 of his brother's debt.

Kitty Cheng said...

anonymous, that's true! hearing about the stories of drug addict in the streets of Melbourne really pains my heart.

Keasty said...

Maybe not hung, but as you say, we have to be responsible for our actions... and also face the consequences.
There are less barbaric ways to execute people I believe.
It appears he may have accepted Christ prior to his death. If that's the case.... hallelujah!

Kitty Cheng said...

I hope he did accept Christ prior to his death.