The death penalty was abolished in Australia in the mid 1960's, so many Australians have never confronted its unforgiving reality. This morning Nyugen Van was executed, for reasons related in my previous post. Its important, I think, that any debate about capital punishment be free of nationalist or racist arguments or imputations, so those opposing Nyugen's execution would be well advised to steer clear of attacks on Singapore. At some stage or other, most countries have practised execution as a legal punishment, so really, no one nation can have a clear conscience in this matter.
Proponents of Nyugen's slaying (surely, 'serving of sentence', -ed) have offered very little to justify themselves. Most stand behind glib maxims (such as 'You do the crime, you do the time') or point, somewhat unconvincingly, to the problems that drugs bring. The first is too stupid to really respond to (Nobody is arguing against 'doing time', just against state sanctioned murder). The second invites us to look at the drug problem as if it were as simple matter that a few bullet points could deal with. Kill the drug mules and you will stop the problem. (Perhaps the problem started when individuals decided to become drug users.) And, look at all the suffering. Well, of course, but the causes are far more complex that those offered, and are hardly solved by killing a few low level couriers.
The arguments are largely irrelevant anyway. Nobody has argued that drug mules shouldn't get a long time in prison. Nobody has argued that they shouldn't be punished. We are simply arguing that the death penalty is an immoral and outdated act. It deters no-one. It diminishes everyone. It makes the state equally criminal and perhaps more so, since the balance of power between the individual and thre machinery of legal systems is totally unequal. It is anti-human.
To cite the Bible again, 'Thou shalt not kill'.
Nyugen Van, Rest in Peace.
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