Firing Squad could wound Australia-Indonesia ties Duncan Graham  ;   A New Zealand journalist who lives in Malang, East Java

JAKARTA POST, 21 Januari 2015

                                                                                                                       

The sometimes strained bonds between Indonesia and its southern neighbor have been relaxed since the election of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. He has visited Australia, met Prime Minister Tony Abbott — who also attended the presidential inauguration — and seems to have been well received. The last major dispute followed the 2013 revelation that Australian spies had bugged the phones of then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Ani. Indonesia’s ambassador in Canberra was recalled and it took almost a year to get back to normal. However, all could turn turtle if Indonesia puts two Australian drug traffickers before a firing squad this year — as promised. The men are little known in Indonesia, but big news in Australia. Andrew Chan, 30, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, alleged ringleaders of the Bali Nine drug syndicate, were caught in 2005 and sentenced in 2006. Last year they appealed to Yudhoyono. He stayed silent. Last month, Jokowi proclaimed his abhorrence of drug traffickers and determination not to interfere in court decisions, saying: “I guarantee that there will be no clemency for convicts who commit narcotics-related crimes.” This week he kept his word as six criminals, five of them foreigners, met their maker. Reaction was swift, with the Netherlands and Brazil recalling their ambassadors. Indonesians may be applauding a president with resolve, but the republic is marching on the wrong side of history. More than half of the world’s nations have abolished capital punishment, accepting the philosophy that it’s a cruel penalty, has no deterrent effect and the risks of wrong convictions are too great. Abbott has already told the Australian media that he hopes Chan and Sukumaran’s executions will not go ahead. “We oppose the death penalty for Australians at home and abroad,” he said. “We obviously respect the legal systems of other countries but where there is an attempt to impose the death penalty on an Australian we make the strongest possible diplomatic representations.” The PM’s comments spotlight the verbal acrobatics politicians perform on this emotional issue. Abbott says he respects Indonesia’s legal system — but then condemns its application. To be consistent, abolitionists should express the same dismay whatever the nationality of the condemned. When Indonesia puts criminals before a dozen M16s, appeals to other nations to spare the lives of the republic’s citizens abroad carry little weight. Indonesia has more than 4 million workers overseas, with 280 reportedly on death rows in countries like Saudi Arabia where the legal systems are not known for being open, fair and just. Although Abbott has said the executions will not affect international relations — meaning he’ll speak strongly but won’t carry a big stick — that hasn’t been the case in the past. In 1986, Malaysia ignored Australian government appeals and dropped two Australian drug runners, Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, through a prison trapdoor. The then Australian PM, Bob Hawke, described the hangings as “barbaric”. His comment inflamed Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad and set back relations between the two nations several years. In 2005, Singapore executed Australian student Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, for drug trafficking, rejecting Australian government pleas to stay the noose. Abbott, who was then health minister, said Singapore’s determination was wrong and that the punishment “certainly did not fit the crime”. There were allegations of retaliatory business sanctions, but these were denied and unproven. Even if Abbott is right about no official impact, the legal procedures and manner of the men’s deaths will color public perceptions. Greg Craven, vice chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, is already predicting “a wave of revulsion” if the executions proceed. Prof. Craven heads the Mercy Campaign to try and stop the shootings. As a lawyer he measures his words. However, inflammatory comments by less cautious abolitionists could arouse the anger of Indonesian nationalists and further damage links. The other problem is that news featuring Chan and Sukumaran will swamp the Australian media, drowning positive stories about the people next door. This is already happening. On Monday, all major news services ran heavily on the upcoming executions, some focusing on Sukumaran’s maturing artistic abilities and rehabilitation. Editorials have all condemned the death penalty. Despite Prof. Craven’s predictions, there will be limited applause for Jokowi’s determination from a few Australian hard-line anti-drug campaigners. This will get highlighted by sections of the Indonesian media to prove dissent Down Under. The truth is that public support for capital punishment in Australia is low, though it rises after particularly savage crimes like the Bali bombings of 2002 that killed 202 — including 88 Australians. Recent polls show only about 23 percent want the death penalty reinstated. The last judicial killing was in 1967. So far Chan and Sukumaran, both alleged to be professional drug traders, have not aroused the same level of public sympathy shown toward blue-eyed beautician Schapelle Corby. The so-called “Marijuana Queen” was jailed in 2005 for 20 years for smuggling 4.2 kilos of dried marijuana into Bali. Her story became a media staple, spawning books and documentaries. A determined support network was set up and backed even by those who doubted her innocence because the sentence was considered excessively harsh. Corby, 37, was paroled last year by Yudhoyono, a gesture that improved Indonesia’s standing in Australia but damaged the president’s credibility in his homeland. Other international bonds will be tested when Indonesia’s firing squads get to work on British grandma Lindsay Sandiford, 58, convicted last year for carrying cocaine into Bali. Like Australia, the UK has scrapped the death penalty. More recently, New Zealander Antony de Malmanche, 53, was caught at Ngurah Rai allegedly with 1.7 kilograms of methamphetamine. He too could be shot if convicted. New Zealand’s last hangman hung up his rope in 1957. What Abbott calls “a strong and constructive relationship” with Indonesia is best built on positive projects like academic and journalistic exchange programs, aid and financial investments, skill sharing and security cooperation. Capital punishment destroys more than lives. It demeans the state, wounds international friendships and damages respect. Life imprisonment does not. ●

The passion of Easter   Duncan Graham  ;   A journalist based in Malang, East Java

JAKARTA POST, 17 April 2014

                                      

                                                                                         

                                                             

This coming weekend, expect church pews to be packed. Congregations will spill into parking lots, sometimes even the street. Laggards will have to make do with closed-circuit telecasts, bottom-pinching metal chairs and maybe a slither of shade under blue plastic For many Westerners, especially from Australasia, Easter in Indonesia is an extraordinary experience. We know the population is overwhelmingly Islamic so are astonished to find the principal event in the Christian calendar treated with respect and celebrated with passion almost everywhere. It’s not like that Down Under. Population differences aren’t the only factor. Religion is on the way out according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In 1911 only one person in every 250 put “no religion” on their census forms; now the ratio is one in five. The non-religious tend to be under 30 and better educated. More than 8 percent even refused to answer the question about religion, as they’re entitled to do though all other questions are compulsory. That’s because the state is legally prohibited from getting involved in religion, although parliaments still start with prayers. No Religious Affairs Ministry, no ID cards stamped with a faith approved by politicians. It’s the same next door in New Zealand, a country settled in the 19th century by the fervent faithful from the United Kingdom. The mainly Protestant migrants held beach services on arrival before seeking food and shelter — then set about building churches. Last year’s census shows that less than half the NZ population claims to be Christian, while 40 per cent say they don’t follow any faith. Catholics have now overtaken Protestants for the first time. This makes the South Pacific nation one of the most secular countries in the world — but all this discarding of religion doesn’t seem to correlate to wrongdoing: NZ is the least corrupt nation in the world. (Indonesia ranks 114 on the international Corruption Perception Index.) It doesn’t need spreadsheets of statistics to prove the social shifts. Just a peep inside most churches on a Sunday (don’t linger lest you get kidnapped by an eager pastor) shows a flock of few, mainly elderly women. Multiple services have shrunk to just one, and many parishes have to share ministers. In Indonesia churches are being built. In the country next door they’re being closed. The upside is that poor attendances and limited funds have encouraged ecumenism. Smaller towns often share a worship center — as the Catholics enter the Presbyterians depart. Bucking this trend are the charismatic evangelical denominations that attract young people with rock music and churches catering for Maori and Pacific Islanders. Other faiths are faring better; there are now more Buddhists than Baptists in both countries. Islam is also rising, mainly through immigration. Numbers are small – Australia has about half a million Muslims and NZ 50,000. The faith isn’t monocultural as in Indonesia because adherents come from multiple traditions, liberal Europeans through to conservative Arabs. As in Indonesia, some are only nominally religious, agreeing to worship occasionally to satisfy their families. Living in the Southern Hemisphere may also be a factor in the decline because so many references are irrelevant. Easter pre-dates Christianity, a festival to herald spring as snows melt, soils defrost and dormant seeds sprout. But in Australasia it’s autumn and a time of death and decay, a hunkering down — not an opening out. Eostre was a pagan German goddess, usually portrayed as a virginal nymph frolicking in a cornucopia. An appropriate symbol for the carnival of commerce that Easter has become with eggs and chocolate rabbits (representing fertility) hopping onto shop shelves soon after the Christmas baubles are packed away and nary a sight of a crucifix. In southern Australia Easter offers the last chance to get away before winter hits and head for the coast with rod and line. Even on Good Friday the fish keep biting. Easter Monday isn’t a religious day but it’s still a holiday. The kids are on their two-week term break, and the weather is usually mild enough for camping. At this time the Great Northern Highway leading out of Perth is like the Puncak Pass on a long weekend. Yet here in the sweltering archipelago straddling the equator millions will don their best clothes and head for church where they will freely and joyously worship, even if that means enduring prolix sermons and hard pews. There are worrying pockets of intolerance and rejections of plurality in Indonesia, but what nation doesn’t have its bigots? You seldom hear of Australia’s Abu Bakar Bashirs because they’re usually ignored by the mainstream media or treated with derision, often by their own congregations. The standout reality is that so many Indonesians will openly and abundantly celebrate their Christianity in a sea of Islam during a national holiday enjoyed by all. This has to be a fact worthy of national pride and international applause. ●

PT Schapelle : Making crime pay Duncan Graham ;  A Journalist based in Malang, East Java

                                                JAKARTA POST,  11 Februari 2014                

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                         

                                                      

First, an apology to the Indonesian people. Regret for the way some sections of the Australian media are giving the impression that paroled prisoner Schapelle Corby, 36, is a heroine deserving fame and worthy of respect.  She’s not a splendid athlete who’s won gold at the Sochi Winter Olympics after years of grueling training. Nor is she a humanitarian aid worker awarded for rescuing refugees.  Goodness, she’s not even a sinetron (TV soap opera) star heading for another divorce, just one more convicted drug smuggler with no known laudable qualities. Hardly the ideal role model most families want for their daughters. Yet after almost 10 years inside Bali’s Kerobokan jail for trying to import more than 4 kilograms of marijuana into Indonesia, the high school dropout reportedly stands to collect up to A$3 million (US$2.67 million) — the windfall for exclusive interviews with women’s magazines and tabloid television programs. This is twice the amount she’d have got by winning a Nobel prize after a lifetime jiggling test tubes in a cramped laboratory seeking a cure for cancer. The amount of A$3 million is more than double the annual salary of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. While she marked time he ran the world’s fourth most populous nation. Even if Corby had stayed out of strife, got some qualifications and moved beyond working as a part-time “beauty therapist” in Queensland, it would have taken the rest of her adult life to garner such money. No one would wish to be banged up in the overcrowded Hotel K with people you’d never want to meet again. There are reports she suffered mentally, as do many prisoners who get no compensation for their misery. If Corby stays in Bali she’ll probably keep the cash. Australia has proceeds of crime legislation to stop prisoners making money from their misdeeds, but similar laws don’t exist in Indonesia. If this indicates a society with no appetite for criminals’ sob stories then Indonesia is far more mature than its southern neighbor.  Not all Australian journalists are slathering to learn about Corby’s nasi goreng diet and encounters with cockroaches, both six and two-legged. Having continually claimed innocence, it’s unlikely the Ganja Queen will now confess to being a drug runner and dob in her gang. Now that would be a real scoop. Serious commentators (those who don’t have checkbooks) have been using Corby’s parole as an opportunity to take a hard look at Australia’s relationship with its northern neighbor and the national obsession with the story. Compare the media’s response toward that of another Australian, Renae Lawrence.  She’s Corby’s age, also got 20 years for carrying drugs into Bali, but gets little attention.  On the surface the former panel beater seems more deserving of concern because of her tough childhood in an allegedly dysfunctional family.  When she was arrested her father told reporters that Lawrence was “gullible, naïve and bloody stupid [though] not a bad kid” who got caught up with the wrong crowd. Maybe — but to do victimhood well it helps to be telegenic. The plain-faced convict lacks the feminine figure of her better-groomed cellmate, a woman oozing innocence. Who needs alibis when you’ve got glittering blue eyes? Corby looks like the standard Aussie surf-chick preening at Ngurah Rai’s baggage carousel, thirsting for a good time on paradise island, ready to let it all hang out. Even her name evokes mystery; who’d show interest in a Mabel or Enid? The commentariat observes Corby represents every Aussie’s daughter, sister or girlfriend, an innocent abroad unaware (or unconcerned) that foreign nations have different laws. But for the grace of God there goes someone we know. In any case, so the thinking runs, “everyone knows” Indonesian authorities are lax and corrupt, more likely to focus on a blonde’s cleavage than her boogie board.  Corby’s sentencing, streamed live on TV, a practice not allowed in Australian courts, opened the rusty can of racism.  The Indonesian judges were abused and the legal process shamefully slammed because proceedings weren’t in English. Lobby groups convinced of Corby’s innocence have campaigned with savage intensity. Supporters and conspiracy theorists argue no one would take marijuana to Bali when it’s far cheaper than in Australia. They claim criminal baggage handlers put the drug in Corby’s bag, and that this evidence was ignored for sinister reasons. Despite this, polls show most Australians now think the Indonesian court probably got the verdict right but the sentence wrong. There have been several books on the Corby case and now a telemovie. Her family has scored some wins against the media, getting handsome payouts for copyright infringements and defamation. There’s no sign PT Schapelle will be out of business anytime soon, meaning less space for stories of worth that impact the lives of millions. Sorry. ●