A tale of two people. Different cities. Injustice and Justice.
I don't know what annoys me more. The fact that Michelle Leslie walked free or that Van Tuong Nguyen kid will die in 12 days. Wait, scratch that. Michelle deserved to walk and Van deserves to live. Sure, Michelle pretended she was a Muslim, tried to sell her story to the media. But she shouldn't go to jail over two ecstasy tablets. She did what she had to do to get free - she played the system that tried to bring her down. I can't blame her for trying to take advantage from the situation either. But dang, at least lay low for a while.
Now Nguyen shouldn't get off scott free but he should face the consequences of his actions. To me drugs are the scourge of our society and people should be punished accordingly. But death ain't one of them. He was a mere drug courier but the difference is in the commerical quantity. Its the drug dealer king pins that should face death for getting organized and peddling that stuff. He made a mistake and facing 20 years incarceration would surely make him realise what he did was wrong. protect society, rehabilitae him and all that other junk. Just because he doens't model Antsy Pants underwear, have the money to bankroll a legal team that can outwit the legal system AND the media. That's some injustice right there.
But that's my opinon according to the society, the laws and the legal training that I was given in Australia. It's different in some Asian countries. There's zero tolerance for drugs. You can't even chew gum in Singapore or even spit on the ground. But its one of the safest cities in the world. And supposedly one of the cleanest. I couldn't live in a society like that. Not one that executes people for being drug couriers or would jail people for having two eckies on them.
Damn, I don't know what its like to have freedom. I think its only when its taken away from you like Michelle or Van that you really appreciate what you have. Being able to hang out with friends, feel the sun beat down on you, the freedom to travel overseas, or simply going to the shops to buy a pair of stilhettos.
4 comments:
For a long time back in high school I was very 'for' the death penalty to me it seemed that if we were the victims to something horrible no other penalty seemed fair.
Then one year I did this big research paper outlining the arguments for and against the death penalty and my whole thinking and perspective changed. I am very glad that I live in a country where the death penalty doesn’t exist. I feel badly for Van Tuong Nguyen’s family but I guess it’s a big wake up call for many people out there.
Personally I'm pretty disgusted at what Michelle Leslie did, the whole Islam thing, the whole she's got a medical problem thing...
As for Van, to apply the death penalty is definately too harsh. There's no buts about it.
Reading Ace's latest post, there's still things we can do.
Bosco - I had a read of the letter on Ace's site. but i doubt there is much we can do. It's gonna take some serious political pressure as well as taking them to the international court. Also, Ace's post about a month ago was my inspiration for this plus I stole the pic off his website!
I was shocked with the quick turnaround from being a so called "devout muslim" to basically throwing it all away in a matter of days. But I like I said, she did what she had to do to get her "jail free card".
Pickles - I actually think its much harsher to make someone think about what they did for the rest of their lives than to execute them. I recally briefly doing a paper on why sentencing doesn't work for my criminal law class. As you can see, I quite a liberal thinker!
Post a Comment