21 Jul 2006

Germans to help campaign against mandatory death sentence in Singapore

From the Singapore Democrats

20 Jul 06

Mr M Ravi is currently visiting Europe to publicise human rights abuses in Singapore and to alert Europe of the dubious practice of mandatory execution of small-time drug peddlers by the Government.

Mr Ravi was interviewed by Frankfurter Allegemeine, Germany’s leading national daily, regarding the impending execution of two African men for drug smuggling. The interview will be posted on this website when it becomes available. He was interviewed by Dr Peter Sturm who had also interviewed Mr Lee Hsien Loong when the Prime Minister visited Germany several months ago.

Dr Sturm’s interview of PM Lee took place on the day Nguyen Van Tuong was executed. Nguyen, an Australian, was executed for smuggling narcotics and was arrested while he was in transit at Changi Airport.

The journalist had asked Mr Lee questions about the death penalty in Singapore which the PM said was an internal matter and added abruptly that this was how the Government managed the system. Dr Sturm was stunned by the PM’s response which did not give any room for a rational discussion on Nguyen's matter or the mandatory death sentence. It is obvious that the new PM is adamant about not discussing human rights issues both in Singapore as well as internationally.

Mr Ravi also met a prominent lawyer in Heidelberg who will ask German Members of Parliament to table a question about executions in Singapore as well as to table a Motion calling on the Singapore Government to stop the imminent execution of the African men as well as the use of the mandatory death penalty. A petition will also be launched over the next couple of weeks to support the Motion.

Mr Ravi’s work in Germany is coordinated by German citizens who have shown concern about the death penalty in Singapore since the infamous execution of Shanmugam, a Singaporeans who was hanged in May 2005 for smuggling 1 kg of marijuana into Singapore.

Germans have taken an interest in the death penalty in Singapore because a German national, Ms Julia Bohl, was spared the gallows in 2001 after German authorities leaned on the Singapore Government not to execute her when she was caught for trafficking heroin. Ms Bohl served a three-year jail term.

A German publisher will translate Hung At Dawn, a book written by Mr Ravi about the death penalty in Singapore, and will publish it in Germany. Proceeds from the sales will go towards future campaigns and assistance for families of those executed in Singapore.

Mr Ravi’s campaign in Germany is fueled by private German citizens, an example of how individual citizens can take the initiative instead of relying on the government for everything.

Following his visit to Germany, Mr Ravi will travel to Sweden to highlight the lack of democracy in Singapore. Prior to his German trip, he attended a course of human rights at Central Europe University in Budapest, Hungary and was in Hong Kong to take part in Amnesty International’s conference on the death penalty. While there, Mr Ravi had met with leading democrats including Mr Martin Lee, QC.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow.. we need more folks like M. Ravi.

Anonymous said...

It brought tears to my eyes to see that when things are down, there are people who have a conscience and who really want to help.

These are the people who are so much richer in their souls than all the material but meaningless wealth some people may have but nothing else. (Read the Bible, Koran, the Gita, etc,, for inspiration and confirmation that truth will always prevail).

Just observe some people and their hypocritical behaviour esp those in the establishment. These 'souless' ones are the ones who will be leaving 'naked' with no soul when they meet their creator.

May God Bless the souls of the concerned and the public-spirited citizens of our country.

Anonymous said...

Hurray, fully support such good cause!

Thanks to the kindness of Mr Ravi and all supporters of human rights who are taking on a good course to create great amount of good karma because we are actually killing two birds with one stone. This will not only be able to help and save others' lives, it will also
prevent those executioners or the heartless ppl from falling into the HELL REALM. Isn't this marvellous??

Well, according to Buddhism,
to save the precious lives of others, it will lead oneself to have a long life.

Rejoice, rejoice!

Hope LHL and all the judges of Sg will wake up to their senses. We are doing them a BIG FAVOUR!

Anonymous said...

Why don't we hear about this news in the so-called main- stream (longkang) papers (maybe they meant the longkang papers) ?

Someone wrote somewhere about the hypocrisy of the Straits Times.

Agree they (the newspapers) r fork-tongued and doublespeak.

No guts to take the moral ground. No one is asking them to go 'into politics' (but we know they do, and will not get into trouble if their politics is for the govt). We are asking them to atleast give a sincere alternative opinion which may help some myopic govt people to see 'light' and redeem their soul.

I believe in Karma and if you have the privilege of meeting enlightened spiritual people, you will learn much more about living life. May the Almighty be with the righteous.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Gee I hope they don't get rid of the death penalty entirely... we may need it in the future to execute public officials for treason, and possibly "crimes against humanity" ;-)

Anonymous said...

You are right. Matilah.
I can see your point about 'double standards'.

But perhaps we should allow the power of Karma do the job. Just pray and your (and everyone's - most at least)wishes will be made true by divine grace.

We have seen the likes of Marcos, Suharto, etc.. who were championed and feted during their heydays.

And when they are gone, everybody plays a different song.
Notice that ? Happens everytime in world history.

Do we think that the Pol Pots, the Maos, etc... will have a good after-life and see what happens to their future generations. In this life (not after-life), their names are already associated with barbarism, murders of millions; keeping harem (Mao); territorial occupation, ..

The 'payback' can happen to children of any leaders, though it is no fault of the poor kids, I feel.

Compare their names with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and you see that they are poles apart.

The Divine will take care of retribution. Maybe I am idealistic.

Some thoughts.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

>>"The Divine will take care of retribution. Maybe I am idealistic."<<

I'm an idealist too. I believe that we are here to give "The Divine" a helping hand.

Some people are alive because it is illegal to kill them :-)