Singapore - The Rogue Chinese Port City?

rogue: a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel

So rude. The guy who said that reminds me of some other world-reknowned political leader which I'd rather not mention here. Maybe I'll tell you over coffee ;)

The lowdown: This guy Van Tuong Nguyen was caught in Changi airport for being a cocain mule. His twin brother, Khoa, racked up debts of A$ 30,000 in legal fees. Khoa is a drug addict and has been convicted twice. So Mr Nguyen decides to do some drug mule work to bail his brother out. It's quite weird the way he gets caught. Check it out here.

So anyway, his story's getting some media attention. Two former prime ministers are trying to help him out. One of them, Gough Whitlam, hasn't been very nice:

"If CHOGM is any use then it should be raised there, because it concerns many other countries, some larger, some smaller than the rogue Chinese port city," Mr Whitlam said.

CHOGM stands for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Mr Whitlam wants current prime minister, John Howard to bring up the matter during this meeting. More on this here.

I don't think anything's going to be done, unfortunately. Mr Howard doesn't seem to be doing anything much to help. Mr Nguyen was born in a Thai refugee camp to a Vietnamese refugee and is currently an Australian national. I'm no expert on Australia, but I'd make a guess that the absence of an immigrant past would have greatly aided Mr Nguyen's plight in terms of political influence and attention.

And as far as I know, the Singaporean government is tough enough on crime to not give in to international pressure. According to The Times, they didn't give in to the US in a previous incident so why Australia.