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."