The debate has been opened up.And the gaffes have been
committed, first with PM Lee and PM Howard 's clash over the
execution date, then with the hangman's dismissal or not, it
seemed.The man's guilty, that's for sure.But we still hold the
right to either hang him or commute him etc..
What's wrong here is that if the whole process was transparent, and
if the Aussies had not jumped up and down and waved a empty beer
bottle in our faces, we might actually have commuted the sentence
ourselves and yet not be seen to have yielded to pressure.
Some of the politicians there have to go for Cultural Studies,
because they gambled too hard that external loudhailer pressure
might work on us, when it clearly won't, due to all the "face" that
the big honchos always care about.
Anyway, I personally think the mandatory portion is flawed, but if
there's one good thing to come out of this huge farce and circus,
it's that much more Singaporeans are aware of the issues, pros and
cons surrounding the penalty.But it's sad that we had to resort to
reading Aussie newspapers to read up on them.
