Capital punishment - state sanctioned murder

I am not a believer in capital punishment, it is nothing more than state sanctioned murder. It is vengeful, retrospective and inefficient, nor does it deter crimes. The government does not have the right to take the lives of its citizens; a government of the people by the people does not execute the people who live within its borders, that role is usually reserved for dictators or totalitarian regimes.

Neither am I a believer in soft policing or justice practices. The execution of Chan and Sukamartren was a political decision by a weak leader attempting to impose himself on a public racked with fatal reservations of his competence. Joko Widodo had the ability to grant clemency, he instead chose political gain over fair and just judgement. Not only that, the leader of the Indonesian opposition party stated there would be no political ramifications from the granting of clemency, he chose to ignore that.

I personally believe in strict penalties; for crimes such as drug smuggling, a sentence of twenty to twenty five years is appropriate. The two organisors had served nearly half of a drug smuggling sentence as it was. I was not convinced of the so-called rehabilitation of the smugglers; yes, they appeared to be repentant. I believed that had more to do with actually being caught than anything; that is not the issue though.

The Brazilian national was only aware of his fate as he was being fastened to the firing board of which he enquired "Am I being executed?" Even though he had been extensively briefed, such was the level of his schizophrenia, he was unaware of his fate. So the Indonesian government is executing the mentally ill, similar in nature to the NAZI regime of the 1930s. Significantly, Mary Jane Veleso was spared execution just minutes from facing the firing squad as a key witness came forward under the pressure of death threats.

Mary Jane had been the victim of a human trafficking ring and has been temporarily spared to testify at the investigation. So the failures of the Indonesian justice system were minutes away from sending an innocent person to execution, if a person has been falsly imprisoned, they at least have the opportunity to walk free after a judicial review - that can't happen after an execution.

The double standards of Indonesia seeking clemency for its citizens on death row overseas whilst executing foreigners smacks of political arrogance. Every aspect of this execution was stage managed for political gain, Joko Widodo is a spineless leader with no authority of a morally corrupt nation; the systemic corruption encroaching on the daily lives of Indonesian nationals is absurd. The transfer of prisoners from prison to execution island was carefully stage managed for maximum effect - this was overkill. Likewise, the treatment of the families of the executed was disgraceful, this third world nation seeking an audience on the world stage is shambolic and barbaric.

One has to remember, this is a nation supporting terrorism, the same nation that frees convicted terrorists. This pair were not the masterminds of the operation, this pair was the enforcers for the masterminds, these guys were the organisers. The Australian syndicate has never been brought to justice; likewise, the Thai prostitute who smuggled the drugs from Thailand to Indonesia escaped. So the supply chain is still intact - nothing has been properly investigated and the international drug syndicate remains operational.

Had the two governments worked together, the Indonesians would have monitored the Bali 9 through customs and allowed the Australians to follow the team through immigration with surveillance through to the syndicate running the operation with the Indonesians following up the supply end through Thailand. The Australian/Indonesian authorities then announce the joint cooperation program ushering in the new era in Australian/Indonesian policing; instead we had the Indonesians eager to make a bust of seven low-level drug mules and two mid-level organisers/enforcers with the trust and cooperation between these two organisations in tatters.

Do the people running these organisations have no strategic sense at all, do they only hold short-term thinking capabilities? They totally blew a prime opportunity to smash a international drugs syndicate, cement a joint working partnership and forge closer ties to combat terrorism, the Indonesians have proved themselves to be totally incompetent.