Trung Nguyen.

The execution of the Vietnamese-born Australian trafficker Nguyen Van Tuong caused an uproar within the Australian public.However authorities from both sides of country seeks to downplay the conflicting ideas on the issue even though Australian Prime minister John Howard publicly speaks out against the sentence and issued a clemency on behalf of Nguyen van tuong. The issue threatens to engage both countries into a diplomatic row. A batch of students in which a relative of mine were part of, who recently went to Australia for hockey training were told not to wear any clothing that might symbolise their nationality as Singaporeans for fear of attacks.

This is a reminisce of the execution in 1995 of Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic worker, which led to an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Singapore and the Philippines. The aftermath of it also included some kidnappings of Singapore citizens in the Philippines.The Singapore government should always do their part in informing citizens about the dangers of travelling to areas in which a diplomatic crises might lead to kinappings, assaults etc. However I do not have any recollection of any warning given out to Singapore citizens in the aftermath of Nguyen's case. We should and we need to give out travel warnings to our citizens in the case of such incidents happening.