Gallows grandstanding

Why all the fuss over the hanging last week of a drug smuggler in Singapore?

The Singaporean government continually hangs drug traffickers but all of a sudden if it is an Australian citizen the country gets all worked up.

Where are the bleeding hearts the rest of the time?

Singapore has been hanging people since World War II without a peep from Amnesty International or anyone else.

But as soon as it is an Australian, politics takes over.

Why don't Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, NT Chief Minister Clare Martin and Victorian Premier Steve Bracks continually complain about thhis barbaric treatment? They don't believe there is no political capital to be made unless - horror of all horrors - it happens to an Aussie.

It's grandstanding but very little commitment.

Name and address withheld by request.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tues, 6 December 2005
Source: The Northern Territory News(Australia Web)
Author: Letter to the Editor
Website: http://www.ntnews.news.com.au