Australian anger over Singapore hanging

If the compiled stats can be believed, crime in all categories, violent and property, is way lower than crime in all our major cities. Also, most crime in Singapore is committed by foreigners, according to this and other studies. I've searched online for any evidence of an "underground drug culture" in Singapore and have found none. The only people who need to fear the government in Singapore are druggies and other law breakers. IMO, that's because Singapore does not play games with them like we do.

This guy wasn't even staying in their country - he was just passing through. This is a totally gratuitous execution.

viable point...

problem smuggling dope in places like SE Asia or Pakistan is that you can still be executed for dope smuggling in totally corrupted countries possibly by the same folks you were paying before you got pinched

Singapore is not so much like that...most folks know how serious Singapore is about everything...I liked the place but it was too staid (and very humid-hot) for me did Shangr-La and Raffles....very nice

death penalty for 14oz of boy seems hard to me but it is their country...of course that logic was not applied to the Taliban or National Socialism with the same vigor

What is the extent of the "drug problem" in Singapore and what is your source for this information?

Singapore does not have an obvious drug problem, but then neither do many cities in the US where drugs are most certainly flowing pretty readily -- drugs are rarely a visible problem in affluent regions. Statistics of drug use and annual arrests in Singapore do not look terribly dissimilar to other modern countries.

Given that ~0.1% of Singapore's population gets busted for drug offenses every year, it appears that the drug trade is alive and well in that city. My source of information, other than from the statistics the government publishes, is from being there, knowing people that lived there, and even knowing a (stupid) girl whose boyfriend there was a drug dealer. While they do have harsh laws with respect to illegal drugs, it hasn't made much of a dent in usage.

"Statistics of drug use and annual arrests in Singapore do not look terribly dissimilar to other modern countries ... from the statistics the government publishes..."

From the government of Singapore -- through their delegate to the UN, just last month...

it has been the collective and concerted effort taken by both the Singapore government and the people, under the ambit of our 4-pronged strategy that has helped Singapore achieve success in controlling the drug situation in our country today. Indeed, we are pleased to note that the 2005 UN World Drug report has indicated Singapore as one of the countries with the lowest prevalence of drug abuse compared to most countries in Asia and Europe.

This comports with data for Singapore's low incidence across most all categories of crime at the link I previously posted.

There is definitely a drug sub-culture in Singapore. I lived there for most of the past three years - yes, it is clean, safe, with low crime rate. But brushing aside the very effective and tight government media / image control, one will see that

(1) there is a drug sub-culture in Singapore, it's not severe or obvious like having crack addicts on every street corner, but it's there as a real presence (you wanna see pills traded in semi-open? Go to Rave parties like Zouk-out in Sentosa, the club scene in Clarke Quay and Tanjong Pagor ... etc.)

and (2) it's an on-going, sometime uphill battle for the Singapore Central Narcotic Bureau to control the drug trade in Singapore.

In fact, one of the biggest news / scandal in Singapore last year was the bust-up of a well organized cocaine and heroine network - the CNB rounded up 23 people on suspicion of drug trafficking, possession and consumption. And the 23 included some of the biggest society names in Singapore such as the alleged ring leader Max Oh, a well known event marketing planner, Cheryl Fox, a news reader at Channel NewsAsia, Singapore Tatler magazine's then editor Nigel Bruce Simmonds; Bobby Rubino's restaurant marketing manager Guiga Lyes Ben Laroussi; and Dinesh Singh Bhatia, the son of former Judicial Commissioner Amarjeet Singh and former Nominated Member of Parliament Kanwaljit Soin.

One of the under-current of foreign protest against Singapore's supposedly zero tolerance drug policy is that while Singapore do catch and hang the foreign smugglers, they are far more tolerant of domestic offenders - especially those of more privilaged background. for example, none of the aformentioned 23 will meet the hanger's noose, some got off with a mere slap on the wrist, some got sent to treatment centers, there were prison sentences, but no hanging.

Thanks for relating your experience in Singapore. Sorry to hear those rich kids got off so easy. IMO, it sends exactly the wrong signal and virtually guarantees more of the same.

As for foreign visitors, if they don't like being executed, maybe they should stop trashing the host country. Singapore is an important transportation/financial hub. As such, it could quickly become infested with major drug trafficking and all the corruption that comes with it. They are wise to make the place as inhospitable as possible for anybody who brings drugs through it.

"...won't be a next time."

It's just as well. The article fails to mention just how Nguyen's brother incurred those debts. He was busted in Australia on drug offenses and owed his lawyer $25K. On top of that, he owed loan sharks another $12K.

Nguyen had a business school education. In Australia, he could have paid those debts off honestly in no time. Instead, he chose to bring almost a pound of uncut heroin into the society that had rescued him and his family from a life of misery in SE Asia. Had he succeeded, he would have made a very tidy profit after paying off his brother's debts. And all he had to do was poison the lives of thousands of other people in his community. I have zero sympathy for this creep.

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