cavinkoh,
I most dislike "nationalists" like you.
1) We have their economic trust, but social/political trust? that's
another matter. Yes, we need to enforce strict laws, but how
strict?
2) Success has many means of measure.
3) blablabla... the propagandist spout again. I have read the
Patriot Act, and estimating opinion on American newspapers and on
the BBC, have come to the conclusion that a sizeable proportion of
Americans reject the Act. Besides, we have our ISA as its
equivalent, or even as it's "big brother" of sorts.
Civil Liberties don't tear apart national fabric and/or create
chaos by themselves; Look at Scandinavia and Switzerland instead of
USA and Taiwan.
5) Agree with your points, but this has nothing to do with the
issue. Do you happen to be in the wrong thread?
6) Nobel Laureate Amaryta Sen did say that every nation should
achieve 2 pillars: liberty and economy. We have achieved economy,
but not liberty. As I said in my previous posts, our government has
achieved much in the economic field, but not in much else unrelated
to economics in other fields.
I don't see "much better" in its political attitude for instance. I
still remember that Michael Backman was sacked for making objective
comments on our local press freedom in 2003. Our government still
enjoys lambasting the reputable Amnesty International and
Reporteres Sans Frontieres, both of which are associations
recognized by the UN. I see scant consideration of public feedback
over the IR issue, again still going for money over public welfare.
MOE, as always, refuses to treat student stress as a problem, and
their recent curriculum changes have been very haphazard for the
student. Their "opening up" merely allows bar-top dancing and
bungee-jumping, which sounds more like it's meant to give
Singaporean economy a glitz, not truely open up the environment for
locals.
I accept that changes cannot be made overnight, but I'm worried
because no serious changes e.g. removal of Mandatory Death Penalty
for non-violent crime and removing the streaming system/ GEP have
not been done yet. I'm equally disturbed that some of the changes
that HAVE been done are not entirely positive, such as the adding
in clauses to attack "defamatory" online statements, the "online
equivalent of the ISA", which are just as vague as the provisions
in the parent document the ISA, even the introduction of the IP,
which is not the bed of roses ST likes to porray it as; My juniors
inform me that IP is not much different from the main curriculum,
save that it is more confusing nad has a jumble-of-somethings
called philosophy, which it appears Singaporean (or at least
Rafflesian) teachers can't teach.
7) Once again, you go out of scope. Or in fact, your entire post
has been out of scope. Ngyuen was on transit to Australia, not
intending to sell any drugs in Singapore. In this particular case,
we are not even talking about the normal (chaotic) civil liberties
such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression, or even
freedom of religion. We are talking about the most basic Right,
without which the above would be irrelevant: the Right to Life.
Everybody accepts that Ngyuen is wrong. Everybody, even the
Australian Transport Union who threatened a strike, accepts that he
should be punished for his crime, and that he should be punished by
Singapore.
However, the Australians and their Singaporean and foreign
supporters don't believe that executing him is the right way to go.
We are not here to free Ngyuen; we all understand he needs to atone
for his mistake. But does the atonement have to be his life? It's
not like he laid a knife on anybody. I bet that if drug
manufacturers were to be caught, the maximum they would face is
lifetime imprisonment for the manufacture of Harmful Substances.
Sure then, a lifetime imprisonment would be atonement enough for
Ngyuen? After all, the poor young Vietnamese immigrant just
happened to pick the wrong job to support his poor family with. We
want to become a compassionate and gracious society, so shouldn't
we show this poor kid some mercy?
Indeed, persuading the government to remove the
Mandatory Death Penalty is a citizens' service to the country, an
effort to make it a kinder place to live in.
9) I love my country, my home and family. I just don't love the
government and its laws. Is that wrong? Please don't confuse "country" with "laws" and/or
"government".
Cheers, (or rather tears for Ngyuen)
the pikamaster
P.S.: And I still don't see the rationale for the Prison Wardens
barring Ngyuen's mother from hugging him. Surely the poor woman who
flew all teh way here to witness her son's execution deserved at
least a moment of intimacy? It just shows how far we have to go to
become a gracious and compassionate society.
