Singaporean justice: The results speak for themselves

For those of you silly enough to believe that punishment is not a deterrent, please read this excerpt from Andrew Bolt's column in today's Herald Sun:

"A decade ago, Singapore was hanging more than 50 traffickers a year, mostly foreigners. Now the number is around single figures, and the city-state has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. You'd feel far safer walking down Orchard Rd in the evening than you would in our own Swanston St."

Andrew then goes on to say:

"Check the difference with us. If you got busted here with injection, would you reckon you were gone for sure?

Ask Nguyen's twin brother, Khoa. In 1999, Khoa was twice convicted in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court of possessing and trafficking injection. He received a sentence of just 15 months and of that served no more than nine. In 2001 he was convicted of affray over a savage gang brawl and given a suspended sentence. He's had some chances."

"According to my sources there was a violent and bloody racist incident at Reservoir railway station. Six Islander youths were at the station. Nearly twenty young Asian males ran on the platform and buttaulted them with chains, machetes and sticks. A 16-year -old boy was allegedly punched and kicked by Khoa Nguyen and two of his mates while the rest of the Asians attacked the remaining Islander boys.

Nguyen sliced the back of the teenagerÕs hamstring to stop him from running. He then held the machete in both hands swinging it at the victimÕs neck. The victim put his arm up and the machete chopped part of his bone out. Nguyen took a second swing towards the boy's torso and the victim brought his leg up to protect himself causing similar devastating injuries.

This teenage victim had life saving surgery and will feel those injuries for the rest of his life.

This is a hoodlum family. I have no sympathy for them. If Nguyen hangsÑhe hangs."

How despicable was that! So those of you pouring your hearts out over this family's grief and Nguyen's situation, think on these things. This is obviously a family involved in crime and the drug trade. They have no regard for the lives of others. How many trips has Nguyen made before? How many would he make again had he not been caught? And as for all the effort and taxpayer dollars being poured into this case by our state and federal politicians, I have to ask... why?? How many more people and how many other causes are there far more worthy of their attention, and our money, than the fate of a convicted drug smuggler? Van Nguyen is a criminal. He is not an innocent victim by any stretch of the imagination. Many of us can't get a reply to letters to our PM, yet he granted Nguyen's mother and audience! Nguyen was caught in a criminal act, tried, convicted, and sentenced in a foreign country. Now he has to pay for his crime according to the law of that country - a penalty he must have known of. So be it. If we had Singaporean justice in this country we would not have to tolerate the crimes of the likes of the Nguyens for very long!