SE Asia watching Australia's response to drug execution
SE Asia watching Australia's response to drug execution
Roberto Coloma, Agence France-Presse/Singapore
Southeast Asian nations are closely watching Australia's reaction to the imminent hanging of one of its citizens in Singapore ahead of a key regional summit, diplomats and analysts said.
The scheduled execution on Dec. 2 of heroin runner Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, has become a highly charged issue in Australia, triggering calls for retaliation including economic sanctions and a boycott of Singapore firms.
Singapore has been branded an "island of death" and a "rogue Chinese port city" by Australian critics for rejecting clemency for the former Vietnamese refugee and maintaining a hardline stance on capital punishment.
But Australian officials led by Prime Minister John Howard have adopted a more measured approach, preferring to focus on pleas to commute Nguyen's death sentence while admitting that only a miracle could save his life.
Australia is set to join next month's inaugural East Asia Summit in Malaysia, thanks in part to strong lobbying by Singapore despite reservations in other participating countries about Australia's role in the region.
Rodolfo Severino, the former secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said Australian reactions to the hanging "could cast some shadows on the Australian participation" in the summit.
But he told AFP that other summit participants "are aware of the position of the Australian prime minister."
A veteran Singaporean diplomat, asked to comment on the hammering his country was getting in Australia, said that "I do not, at this stage, see any serious damage to bilateral relations at all."
"That is partly because Singapore leaders have chosen to be extremely level-headed about the issue and have taken pains, at the very highest levels, to explain the Singapore position and the constraints Singapore faces."
There is also a "general awareness" in Singapore that it is the Australian opposition that is "deliberately exploiting the issue to serve its narrow ends," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said Southeast Asian nations "are generally not impressed by this kind of robust criticism" but "it is important that the situation is managed properly, otherwise peoples of both countries will be the losers."
Nguyen was arrested at Changi airport three years ago while in transit from Cambodia to Australia with 400 grams of heroin in his possession. The death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking in Singapore.
The furor over his case follows similar denunciations of Indonesia's justice system after two Australian women were found guilty of drug offenses in Bali.
Severino pointed out that Singapore and Indonesia were "the most public in advocating the inclusion of Australia" in next month's East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur, which has ASEAN at its core.
Singapore and Indonesia are among ASEAN's most influential members.
Severino, a former Philippine diplomat who is currently a visiting senior research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, does not expect serious damage to Singapore-Australia relations.
He cited the 1995 hanging of a Filipina maid in Singapore, Flor Contemplacion, which sparked popular indignation in her home country but "did not permanently harm Philippines-Singapore relations."
Singapore's Minister for Community Development Vivian Balakrishnan told the Australian business community here last week that their country has "a special place in our hearts."
Some 250,000 Singaporeans visited Australia last year, the Singapore Armed Forces trains in Australia and many Singaporeans, including several cabinet ministers, were educated there, he pointed out.
Singapore is Australia's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia and eighth largest trading partner globally, with bilateral trade in 2005 expected to surpass last year's total of US$8.8 billion. State-linked Singaporean companies have also invested heavily in Australia.
Even the Singaporean diplomat who was critical of the "bullying" going on in Australia said bilateral relations "are both strong and deep".
"Thousands of our students, for example, have studied in Australia -- as have both my children -- and love the country. What is happening now is an aberration."