WHITLAM HITS OUT AT 'CHINESE ROGUE PORT CITY'

GOUGH Whitlam has hit out at the "Chinese rogue port city" that will
execute Nguyen Tuong Van, saying John Howard should raise the case and
capital punishment at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
Malta.

His comments came as another former Labor PM, Bob Hawke, yesterday
made a private appeal to Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong,
to spare the Melbourne man's life.

Earlier, Mr Howard said he would not lobby other Commonwealth
countries to pressure Singapore. He indicated he would not use CHOGM
to pursue the issue, believing nothing more could be done.

Mr Whitlam said he was "never surprised" at Singapore's neglect of
human rights, and various other Commonwealth nations also practised
capital punishment.

"If CHOGM is of any use then it should be raised there, because it
concerns many other countries -- some larger, some smaller than the
rogue Chinese port city," he told The Age.

Mr Hawke, who has a good relationship with Mr Lee's father, Lee Kuan
Yew, Singapore's founding prime minister, confirmed he sent a letter
but declined to elaborate on its contents. "It's not proper to say
publicly what I've said privately to the Prime Minister. It's a
private communication," he said.

Mr Hawke's public restraint is at odds with his approach as PM, when
he declared "barbaric" the execution of drug traffickers Kevin Barlow
and Brian Chambers in Malaysia in 1986.

The debate over how to deal with Singapore intensified as hope for
Nguyen evaporated. Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs
Ho Peng Kee reaffirmed at a meeting with Victoria's Attorney-General
Rob Hulls in Singapore yesterday that the Government saw no further
grounds to review Nguyen's death sentence.

Mr Howard said trying to involve Britain, Canada or other Commonwealth
countries in pleading Australia's case over Nguyen would not "be the
least bit appropriate". It would merely stiffen Singapore's resolve to
carry out the hanging, set for next Friday, he said.

"We have to give ourselves a reality check," Mr Howard said after
arriving in Malta for CHOGM. "If Australia starts running around
trying to drum up the support of other countries to change the mind of
the Singapore Government, the Singapore Government's attitude is going
to harden even more."

Mr Howard said the Singapore Government would go ahead with the
execution and "I do not believe what is now being said is going to
make any difference".

Mr Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello strongly rejected a call from
Liberal MP Bruce Baird to take the execution into account when cabinet
considers Singapore Airlines' bid to fly the lucrative Pacific route
to the US West Coast from Australia.

"I don't support linking the two things and they won't be linked," Mr
Howard said. "That would not be in Australia's interests. It would not
be good policy."

Mr Costello said airline policy should not be run "as an arm of
criminal law policy". "I do not think it would work, and at the end of
the day I do not think it would help Australia," he said.

Despite the Government thinking the end of the road had been reached,
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has written to Mr Howard proposing a
bipartisan appeal to the Singapore Government. He said Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer and Labor spokesman Kevin Rudd should visit
Singapore next week "to make one last appeal to save this young man's
life".

"A united representation from Australia will send the strongest
possible message to Singapore about the concerns of Australians that
the Singapore Government should commute the mandatory sentence," he
said.

Mr Downer said that in 1968 the Indonesians had burned down the
Singapore embassy over an execution, but "it didn't stop the execution
taking place".

Nor, in the 1990s, had the Philippines' cancelling Singapore Airlines
flights and taking other measures stopped the execution of a
Philippine citizen.