Singapore's Handling Of Double-Murder Case Proves Its Government Didn't Act in Haste
Singapore's Handling Of Double-Murder Case Proves Its Government Didn't Act in Haste
I would like to clarify some misperceptions in the opinion-page article ''The Unsettling 'Asian Values' of Singapore's 'Confucius' '' April 19. The author uses the case of Ms. Flor Contemplacion, who was convicted of double murder, to argue that the way the Singapore government handled the case and Singapore's judicial process reveal a potential rift within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations because of political and social differences.
In putting forward his case, the author asserts that Ms. Contemplacion was ''summarily executed'' without considering the ''new evidence,'' and that the Singapore government had acted in ''haste'' in meting out justice.
These assertions are incorrect. Contemplacion was arrested in 1991 and executed in 1995. In those four years, she was accorded due process of the law. Her case was heard twice in the high court, which found her guilty, and she made two appeals to the Court of Appeal, which confirmed the conviction. She had ample opportunity during the four years, up to the time of her execution, to recant her confession, but she did not do so.
The ''new evidence'' was statements by two Filipinos who had never come forward during the preceding four years to claim that she was innocent. The ''new evidence'' was thoroughly investigated and rejected because it was clearly inconsistent with the established facts of the case and the evidence produced in court. As such, there were no grounds to delay the execution.
The author's remarks characterizing Singapore as ''self-serving'' and the execution as ''unjust'' are totally unwarranted.
S.R. Nathan Washington
Ambassador of the Republic of Singapore
The universal language of Esperanto
The article ''As English Spreads, Speakers Morph It Into World Tongue,'' May 17, demonstrates the failure of the world community to deal with global problems in a rational way. The global community needs a nationality-neutral common language which would be used as a second language by everyone. Esperanto was invented for this purpose in 1887. In 1921 and 1922 the League of Nations considered a resolution calling for the teaching of Esperanto to all the children of the world, but it was defeated by the French.
Because the United Nations, like the League of Nations, is run by the larger national governments, each trying to promote its own national language, Esperanto as the sensible language for global communication is still being thwarted. The article demonstrates how the resulting chaos will not be helpful even to speakers of English. As we move to oral communication between humans and computers, we will be losers again because computers can learn to understand and talk Esperanto, a completely phonetic and rule-guided language, more readily than they can handle English.
Ronald J. Glossop Edwardsville, Ill.
Professor and coordinator of peace studies
Southern Illinois University
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