REMEMBER NGUYEN TUONG VAN?

Days to Execution: Unknown

As far as I know, 24-year-old Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van is still in a
cell at Singapore's Changi Prison facing execution. He will be given less
than 24 hours notice of his hanging; and we won't be told until it is done.
The Australian Government and our media are failing him miserably. After
ten months on death row, Nguyen Tuong Van should be a household name.

I remember back when I was eleven years old. I was at a friend's place and
like most Australian homes the television was blaring constantly in the
background. I vividly remember stopping to watch a report that Kevin Barlow
and Brian Chambers had been executed and I remember a horrible feeling as I
tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Barlow and Chambers were hanged in Malaysia on July 07, 1986 for the
alleged trafficking of 141.9 grams of heroin. Back then, I didn't really
know what heroin was, but I knew who Barlow and Chambers were.

The Australian media lapped up the Barlow and Chambers case, using it to
sell more and more newspapers and to increase the ratings on their news and
current affairs programs. Australia's press gallery went into a frenzy in
an attempt to save the men.

For political reasons, this media pressure backfired. Rajendran Kuppusamy,
the Malaysian hangman who performed the executions, told the Sydney Daily
Telegraph newspaper in 1996 that the case was rushed through the Malaysian
legal system.

"The Attorney-General wanted us to make it fast, he didn't want to delay
the case," said Kuppusamy. "It was really fast because they were getting
pressure from all over."

Facing an election, Malaysian President Dr Mahathir Mohamad was under
immense pressure to show that he was the man prepared to stand-up against
the West - against White people.

Once the executions had happened the Australian news barons dropped the
story as quickly as the two young Australians had dropped through the
trapdoor in Pudu Prison.

The journalists returned to their usual mundane reporting and the issue was
dead. They might have failed to prevent the executions, and possibly even
contributed to the executions being rushed, but Australia's press gallery
had succeeded in imprinting the names Barlow and Chambers firmly in the
Australian psyche.

Almost twenty years after the deaths of Barlow and Chambers, Nguyen Tuong
Van, on his first trip overseas from Australia, was arrested at Singapore
airport. Police alleged that Nguyen was in possession of 400g of heroin. A
Singapore court sentenced him to death for this crime in March 2004.

In stark contrast to events in 1986, Nguyen Tuong Van has been virtually
ignored by the Australian Government and the media. Michael Fay, the white
American kid who damaged a car or two and was flogged by the Singapore
Government with the rattan cane, received more attention from the
Australian media than this young Aussie from Melbourne. Nguyen Tuong Van
is definitely not a household name!

Why are the media ignoring Nguyen? Is it because they can't pronounce his
name or is the real reason a little more insidious than that? I mean,
Schapelle Corby doesn't exactly roll off the tongue and she has been turned
into a media celebrity, not to mention the millionaire Aussie yachtsman
Chris Packer, recently released from an Indonesian jail after serving three
months for failing to declare firearms.

I don't want to take away from the seriousness of Schapelle's
situation. This young woman may also face the death penalty if she is
found guilty of her alleged crime. Her trial has even been invaded by an
Indonesian anti-drugs group demanding her execution.

With regards to media reporting though, there is obviously some sort of
double standard happening.

Brian Chambers, Kevin Barlow, Schapelle Corby and Chris Packer all have one
thing in common. They are all white Australians. Nguyen Tuong Van's crime
is that he is an Australian of Vietnamese origin. Australia's predominantly
white journalists (and our white Prime Minister) have written him off as
just another Viet boy dealing smack, just like they write off the residents
of the Block in Redfern and Cabramatta in Sydney.

Like Singapore's judiciary, they ignore Nguyen's claims that he was only
carrying the drugs in a desperate bid to pay off legal fees owed by his
twin brother to a Sydney-based drugs syndicate.

During a recent visit to Singapore, Australian Prime Minister John Howard
held a meeting with his counterpart Lee Hsien Loong where he put forward a
half-hearted request for clemency. Mr Howard told the Melbourne Age; "I
believe there's a very good case for clemency but people must understand
that the laws of Singapore are well known and I think we'll leave it at that."

Responding to the Age reporters question on whether the execution of Nguyen
would have an impact on bilateral relations between the two countries,
Howard said: "Look, I think we have to keep a balance here."

What he is saying is that Australia's military relationship with Singapore
is worth more to us economically than Nguyen Tuong Van. The Republic of
Singapore Air Force has aircraft and personnel permanently stationed at the
Pearce air force base north of Perth and Singaporean fighter jets and naval
vessels are regularly in and out of the Northern Australian city of Darwin.
Australian military personnel provide ongoing training to Singapore's
soldiers, sailors and airmen and Australian naval vessels are often in
Singapore undergoing repairs that would cost ten times as much back home.

Our military alliance and the subsequent boost to the Australian economy is
not the only reason Howard is dragging his feet on this case. Singapore
isn't in the midst of an election and there doesn't seem to be too much
pressure from Singaporeans for Nguyen to be put to death. Sadly it looks
like race is a factor in Howard's laissez faire approach to Nguyen's
pending execution. Surely little Johnny wouldn't let a white boy hang so
easily? If Nguyen was called Barry and he was from Vaucluse or Sydney's
North Shore, Howard would be doing everything in his power to stop the hanging.

The Australian Prime Minister is acutely aware that the island nation has
executed more than four hundred people since 1991, mostly for drug
trafficking, giving Singapore the dubious distinction of having the highest
execution rate in the world relative to population. If Nguyen hangs, Howard
will have the dubious distinction of being the Prime Minister who sat by
while a young Australian went to the gallows, just like he sat by while 353
asylum seekers drowned in the SievX disaster.

Nguyen awaits the results of John Howard's request for clemency. We can
only hope and pray that 81-year-old Singaporean President, Sellapan
Ramanathan Nathan, will find it in his heart to call off the execution. In
the meantime, you might want to contact your local media and ask them one
question; do they remember Nguyen Tuong Van?

As for Schapelle, we train Indonesia's troops too. This could be a sticky
one for the Australian Prime Minister. Let's just hope that she gets a fair
trial and that some sanity prevails in Bali.