Yes that's quite true. For a bigger picture of Singapore's bilateral relations with Burma, have a read at this website
http://www.sfdonline.org/sfd/Link Pages/Link Folders/Human Rights/burmasing.html
However, I'd like to present both sides of the argument here. In my opinion, Seelan's post only seeks to influence people to support Nguyen's cause through his painting of Singapore as a two-faced negotiator giving double standards based on economic gain. For your information, Singapore was also one of the countries who opposed Burma's scheduled chairmanship in ASEAN, which was later given to the Phillipines.
Singapore's capital punishment has already been debated to death, I stand by a few points that have been made in the other thread.
1) If you can't discipline your own citizens, don't make noise when they get in trouble elsewhere and are disciplined by others.
2) It's a matter of face. Both Singapore and Australia don't want to lose faith, so it's just another game they have to play.
3) A decision based on circumstances in this case would be detrimental to Singapore's judiciary system, if clemency is given to Nguyen in this case, it would be compromising Singapore's tough stand on drug trafficking and would indirectly tell others that being in tough circumstances gives you license to traffick drugs without being subject to the death penalty. Also, who's to stop offenders faking that they too are in a bad situation and trafficking drugs is the "only way out".
Lastly, I think that politically-motivated events should not be posted on SOFT. Why? Because it only invites dissenting comments and arguments. Yes, it is only a given that there will be arguments on forums, but recent discussions about war, politics and such have only led to flamefests. Here, I'd like to mention that this is the stand many countries have taken, being a secular and neutral party, which has worked in many occasions.
