It’s a Dog-Eat-Dog World
December 6th, 2005 -- Posted in people | 2 Comments »Can’t help but agree with Izzy’s argument about why Singapore is so harsh with drug trafficking.
After a colleague forwarded a whole panel of reactions to NTV’s execution in Singapore, I thought to myself how narrow-minded human minds can get when they are only surrounded by the same version of the story… the popular version. I don’t get to read Australian newspapers everyday, but I had the feeling that for a week or so, most of the more popular newspapers of Melbourne city were flooded by stories of VTN told by reporters who had a singularity of thoughts on the treatments towards drug trafficking in the eyes of Singapore law, for the sake of readership. Politically correct they might be, but the mass disapproval of the fellow Melbournean on how Singapore sentenced NTV could only show the emotional triggers the media brought.
(Nevermind about the media. Modern day media industry has always a bitch anyway. It was as easy to bring a whole city to have an opinion towards a juridical system within a day, as it was to keep a whole nation convinced of a polititian’s virtues. )
But not all Aussies belong to the singularism. There have been some who open their eyes and ears wider than most and realize why Singapore government have to deal with the case without exception. (Yes, the key words are ‘without exception’.) This is not a new law and definitely neither is the crime. Some comments even stated that whilst Singaporean stay aside quietly and watch NTV, along with other offenders (including Singaporeans) down the history of drug trafficking, get the capital punishment, they do realize that it’s not the past that makes a person forgivable or not… it’s the present mistake made and the future consequence ignored that defines him/her guilty of his/her crime. There have been a great other opinions that Singapore deserve to uphold the law she has written according to her needs to maintain the tiny country compared to the rest of the world. You don’t tell a country how to write her laws… you simply respect them as written. Yes, some laws may be stupid as it sounds, but we’d just have to respect and accept them. How would you like to have your neighbor telling you how to make love to your wife run your family?
In Miss Izzy’s blog, she mentioned there are reactions addressing Singapore government as barbaric in practice. The main source of drugs around ASEAN region is itself a barbaric place, or inhabited by simple ‘mountain people’ who are forced to deal with the primitive nature of mankind to survival. Where food become scarce while the population booms, a portion of the large rural population would be making sacrifices just to feed their families. Many are forced to engage in manual labor far away from home, whole some engage in dangerous trades like drug dealing and drug trafficking. Why do you think Thailand uphold such primitive laws such as capital punishment in the modern world today? It’s only inevitable that only the primitive ways can be used to deal with such crimes. It’s only through the primal fear of death that can control the uncontrollable. Sure, killing a drug trafficker by hanging him is old-fashion and outdated, but how can we be baised towards a modern man when most of his kind are from the lower educated rural countries?
So why should NTV’s case be an exceptional? If it is his good intention to save his brother, there are other crimes so much safer to commit… such as armed robbery, fraud and scam. Why pick one that only bring you closer to the brink of death? If ampathy for NTV’s mother is good enough to save him from the sentence, try asking her to face mothers of dead drug abusers. Not that I don’t sympathize with her plight, it’s just the reason of her grieve that I don’t agree with those who think we should consider making NVT an exceptional case. It is not he Singapore rigid law that killed NVT… he just chose to attempt a suicidal trafficking mission well knowing the consequence of being caught. Homosexuals have insurance of condoms to protect themselves from getting HIV, but there is none in drug trafficking. So why do it???
Just a little thought of this before bedtime…
