DEATH ROW CASE DIVIDES SINGAPORE

At dawn next Friday, a 73-year-old pensioner will put a rope around
the neck of a 25-year-old man, and open a trapdoor.

For the older man, it is a routine which he has now performed more
than 500 times.

I'm told he informs each condemned prisoner - in his final moments -
that he's being sent to a better place.

Technically the hangman, Darshan Singh, has already retired from the
prison service after a long and busy career.

But it turns out that his particular skills are in short supply and
regular demand here.

Tiny Singapore - with its zero tolerance approach to drugs - has the
highest execution rate, per capita, in the world. And so Mr Singh
keeps getting called in.

No Clemency

His latest "assignment" is a Vietnamese-born Australian called Van
Nguyen, a confessed heroin mule caught in transit at Singapore's airport.

A first-time offender, Van said he had been trying to pay off a debt
owed by his brother.

The Australian government has asked, firmly but politely, for
clemency. No deal.

The Australian media has demanded the same, rather less politely.
There have been editorials urging economic sanctions, and pointed
questions about the Singaporean government's hardline drugs policy.

Why execute the hapless couriers, but invest heavily in the repulsive
regime of Burma, where so much of the world's opium is grown?

None of this seems likely to save Van's life.

In all likelihood, on Friday morning, Van's mother and twin brother
will be invited to collect his coffin from the prison.

The hangman and the Australian journalists will go home. The 4.5bn
trading partnership between Australia and Singapore will continue as
before. And this peaceful, prosperous, strange little country will
shrug off the whole incident.

End of story? Well, maybe not.

Winds Of Change

A few miles from the prison there is a giant conference centre called
Suntec City.

Over the past few days it has been hosting something very
un-Singaporean: a sex trade exhibition. Lingerie, electric toys,
scantily clad models, and so on.

It is a bold step for a famously straight-laced country where
homosexuality and oral sex are still illegal.

And it is a sign, some claim, that this authoritarian government is
getting ready to embrace more fundamental changes, that the nanny
state plans to turn into, shall we say, a chaperone state.

A western advertising executive summed it up for me recently at a
party here. Basically, they want to re-brand Singapore, he said.

To keep the economy growing, they need a more dynamic, more creative
workforce, and they have realised that the only way to do that is to
give people more freedom.

But how much freedom?

It is hard to generalise, as the subject does not get much coverage
in the state-controlled media, but my sense is that an awful lot of
Singaporeans believe that killing Van is wrong.

It is one issue which really seems to have galvanised people.

What's more, they are starting to make their views heard. Not on the
streets. Unlicensed outdoor protests involving more than four people
are illegal here.

'Living In Fear'

But check out the internet and you will find a lively debate raging,
complete with online petitions and blogs. Sometimes it goes a bit further.

"I'm a bit scared," said a young man called Jason, in a half-whisper.
"Maybe I'm paranoid, but everyone here fears repercussions."

We were standing in a crowded hotel function room with about 100
Singaporeans who had responded to an online invitation to a meeting
in support of Van.

"Making a public stand isn't exactly part of our culture," said
Jason. "But I think in this case the death penalty is a bit extreme,
and I feel strongly about this."

Next to him, an older woman called Constance Singham let out a rich
belly laugh. She is a women's rights activist and a restaurant owner.

"Change is going to take years here," she said. "It took us 15 years
to convince people to take domestic violence seriously.

"It may sound funny," she went on. "But we're a society conditioned
to live in fear. Still, as people become more educated and start to
ask questions, our government will have to listen to us."

So much for long term.

Right now Singapore's elderly hangman has work to do. Mr Singh
doesn't give interviews to the media.

But it is understood that he is keen to retire fully as soon as
possible. The trouble is, no one else wants his job.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 26 November,
2005 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules
for World Service transmission times.