Yong Vui Kong is a 22 year old Sabah youth, who was caught carrying 47g of heroin into Singapore. He was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death. He is currently currently awaiting the decision of the Court Of Appeal on his appeal against the death sentence.
A friend of mine was uncomfortable with the fact that Singaporean Opposition camp and activists going so far in stirring emotions with Vui Kong's case. He felt also that their pursuit of abolishing mandatory death penalty are impractical. Most of contents here are part of the messages we exchanged regarding to this issue.
I think nobody can argue Vui Kong did know that he was carrying an amount of drugs that could possibly lead to death sentence. By Singapore standards, Vui Kong had been a given a transparent and unbiased trial. Therefore we must accept the fact that he is going to be hanged like the many drug mules before him. We cannot let sentimentality obscure the devastation that drug abuse brings. To let drug traffickers or drug mules off with life jail sentence would be inviting chaos to a small island like Singapore. Why make such a big fuss?
There is a piece by Andrew Loh of The Online Citizen that really moved me. It can be read here "Story Of A Boy". After reading the piece, I realized something must be done not only to saved Vui Kong. But to free the people minds from the fixation that legal punisments are supreme, unevolvable and detached from our humanity. Vui Kong's lawyer M Ravi summed it up best that death sentencing should not be automated and robotic.
I was truly touched by Choon Hiong, Khalis and active SG citizens who supported Vui Kong and his family. It is their efforts that pressured the court to gentlemanly allow for his final appeal to be heard. He would have been executed by now if not for them. 2 weeks ago, The Court of Appeal has reserved for the judgement, until they can thoroughly study the case again. This is a great victory for Singaporeans because the small voice(opposition and activists) have been taken into consideration. Singapore is not a so sterile place after all.
I do not want to question Choon Hiong, Khalis, SDP and TheOnlineCitizen motives in going all out to support Vui Kong.Yes they are anti- PAP, it is their right to do so. Yes they try to get emotional. And they probably hate me because I am one of those Singdollar digger from JB. But because of them I knew of Vui Kong plight and it made more human than before.
To tell you the truth, I feel that I am not fit to question them. I am a Malaysian who was in a situation where I could have offered some support to Vui Kong and family. But I did absolutely nothing other than being busy earning my Singdollar. When Choon Hiong and friends organized a photo taking session to support Vui Kong, all I could do was to send my thank you. Because I need to feed a family. I fear for my work permit renewal and will not take a remote risk of taking pictures with some SDP fellas.
As a Malaysian I am glad that there Singaporeans in spite of their anti-foreigner stance, can put aside their prejudices and fight for a troubled youth from a terrible country like ours.
In Part 2, I will try to explore more on drug trafficking and its mandatory death sentence.
Regards,
Kaki Tambak
No comments:
Post a Comment