Blog's from the Bush

Basically the accepted public story is that Van agreed to smuggle heroin into Australia for a drug syndicate in order to pay off the debts his brother, an addict, had incurred. When he was caught, instead of denying the charges Van promptly admitted to his crime and offered information to the authorities about his case.

The only problem is that he got caught in Singapore - which has the death penalty for drug smuggling.

Now, as a father of young children and someone who has seen the result of hard drugs I find myself conflicted about his death sentence. When I first heard that an Australian was to be executed for drug smuggling my initial response was OK, well that's the law in Singapore. As more of the story became available I found myself thinking of the circumstances and wanting to change this outcome.

If Van was a dyed in the wool drug dealer/mule/criminal who had no intention of helping anyone or even admitting to his crime I don't believe I would feel conflicted. A society has to look to the realities and root causes of problems - the reality is that some people are hard core and never going to change let alone admit their guilt. The other reality is that societal failings help create such people. If such cases were put under the strictest of microscopes and assessed against some measure (that doesn't exist yet) and took into account circumstances of the instance, circumstances of the family, the social support available and the attitude of the offender and his/her's acceptance of their guilt, then, maybe, society (any not just Singapore's) would be able to make much more rational judgements. Of course I often expect to much of human societies.

The other area of conflict I suffer from is as a father, I would probably feel like taking justice into my own hands if some drug pushing low life got one of my children hooked on an illegal drug. Likewise, I would be mortified (and on some level proud of their misguided efforts) if one of my children did something illegal to try and save the other, but worse, I would be devastated if they got the death penalty for their transgression.

So, were does this leave us as an enlightened mature society... A mature society in many ways is a wealthy society both fiscally and spiritually. Execution or the death penalty in most countries that still practice it is an inheritance from a more barbaric age - usually from their days as colonial state of good old Mother England.

A mature society should be able to put such things behind it, while it may assess the chances of rehabilitation as being nil in some cases it will find hope in others. The average human can astound even those closest to them with their ability and potential, so, even the slimmest of odds must be given their go.

The oddest thing about Van's case is that Singapore has specific situations that allow the death penalty to be commuted to a jail term and he appears to meet several of them. I mean its not like running drugs through several states with the death penalty is taking the easy way out.