As
Indonesia’s government pushes forward with the planned executions of convicted
drug smugglers, including two Australians, there are also sharply differing
opinions on capital punishment among the public.
On the
streets of the capital some residents interviewed offered support for President
Joko Widodo’s tough stance against leniency for drug criminals, while others
believed Indonesia’s renewed pursuit of capital punishment reflected poorly on
his administration.
“I support
the death penalty,” said Sukirman, a 43-year-old food seller in Central
Jakarta.
Sukirman
said the son of a friend of his died of an accidental drug overdose.
“He was
just 20 years old,” said the father of three teenagers. “Because of drugs, he
died at a very young age.”
Eeng, 56, sells
chips at a traditional market in Jakarta. She said she believed drug users
caused problems for their families and friends.
“What they
do is too risky,” she said. “So it’s OK if drug smugglers are sentenced to
death.”
Like many
who support the death penalty here, 26-year-old Riska Martina Sitepu said she
believed the severity of the punishment served as a deterrent to would-be drug
offenders.
“Drug
smugglers deserve the death penalty,” said the office worker. “Life
imprisonment doesn’t suit them.”
She said
Joko’s stance on the death penalty, so far refusing to offer clemency to
convicted drug offenders since taking office last year, was the right move.
Even if
someone in her own family was facing the death penalty for drug crimes, she
said, she would agree with it.
“Those drug
convicts on death row have destroyed the lives of so many people,” she said.
Too harsh
Other
Indonesians, however, believe capital punishment is too harsh a penalty for
convicted drug smugglers.
“The death
penalty is inhumane. I prefer life imprisonment,” said Fransiska Happy, a
36-year-old homemaker.
Sigit
Wibowo, a 27-year-old teacher, said he believed the death penalty was wrong in
all cases.
“No one has
the right to take away someone’s life, no matter what,” he said.
For
24-year-old student Bernadina Cisasiandri Wersun, capital punishment ignored
the possibility that people convicted of drug crimes could reform.
“Why
doesn’t the government give them a more humane punishment, like life imprisonment?
My point is to give people the time to change,” she said. “I believe that they
can change if they are given life imprisonment.”
Muliawan
Margadana, a mining company director, called the death penalty “a shortcut”
that failed to address the root problems of drugs in Indonesia.
“Such
issues can actually be addressed by enlivening social infrastructure like
schools,” he said. “Religions also have a big role in making sure that young
people don’t use drugs.”
Margadana,
who is also chairman of the Jakarta-based Association of Catholic Graduates and
Intellectuals in Indonesia, said Joko’s recent pursuit of the death penalty
reflected poorly on his administration and the country as a whole.
“I think
this is a bad policy of the president. He should be able to cancel the death
penalty for the sake of humanity,” Margadana said. “By implementing the death
penalty, he violates human rights and shows how uncivilized we are as a
nation.”
‘Zero
political gain’
Joko
announced last year that he would not be lenient when dealing with drug-related
crimes.
In January,
Indonesia went ahead with the executions of six convicted drug traffickers,
five of them foreigners. Since then, preparations have moved forward for other
executions, including those of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australian
nationals convicted for their roles in the so-called “Bali Nine” drug-smuggling
operation.
Authorities
last week announced that the pair had been transferred to an island prison
where their executions appear to be imminent. This comes despite the Australian
government’s repeated requests for leniency.
Some
analysts have attempted to explain why Joko has pushed forward with carrying
out the death penalty so early in his term.
Some have
argued that it is part of an attempt by Joko to show “decisiveness,” one of his
perceived weaknesses among critics during the lead-up to his July election
victory.
Yet it is
also likely that there is no public consensus on capital punishment in
Indonesia.
Political
analyst Yohanes Sulaiman says there are no reliable public opinion surveys on
the issue, and he believes answers to such a poll would swing wildly depending
on how one frames the question.
For now, he
said, the Indonesian media have framed it as a question of stemming drug abuse
and standing up for Indonesian nationalism — most of the next round of planned
executions involve foreigners, while Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s
suggestion of foreign policy repercussions should the executions proceed have
galvanized supporters of the death penalty.
Combined
with frequent statements of support for the death penalty from Indonesia’s
political elite, it has created an environment where Joko believes it is
important to show decisiveness on this issue, Yohanes says.
“I tend to
think that Jokowi wants to forge an image of himself as a leader and a father
of a nation,” said Yohanes, who is a lecturer at the Indonesian National
Defense University.
However, he
also believes the death penalty is not a key issue for most Indonesians, who
may be more interested in the anti-corruption platform on which Joko ran, and
was elected, last year. That may mean Joko has little to gain, politically, by
proceeding with the executions, yet much to lose if he does not.
“I don’t
think Jokowi is going to get any popularity boost by executing the Bali Nine
suspects,” he said. “But if he doesn’t execute them, people will say he’s weak,
he’s not as strong. So basically, Jokowi is painting himself into a corner.
This has zero political gain for him.”
Religious
views
The death
penalty has also proved divisive among religious groups.
Said Aqil
Siradj, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization in
Indonesia, said in an interview that drug smugglers should be sentenced to
death.
“The impact
of such a crime is very massive,” he said. “That’s why we choose to support the
heaviest punishment against drug smugglers as it can decrease the number of
people getting addicted to drugs.”
Philip K.
Widjaya, secretary general of the Indonesian Council of Buddhist Communities,
said his organization believed the death penalty was an appropriate punishment
for drug crimes.
“We don’t
want a small group of people to harm a big number of others,” he said. “That’s
why we don’t mind the death penalty being implemented.”
Other
religious leaders, however, are strongly opposed.
“The death
penalty violates the right of a criminal to have repentance and to change,”
said Fr. Peter C. Aman, a moral theology lecturer at the Jakarta-based
Driyarkara School of Philosophy.
Fr. Paulus
C. Siswantoko, secretary of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for
Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant-Itinerant People, said that the
Catholic Church opposed the death penalty.
“No one,
including the state, has the right to take someone else’s life,” he said. “It
is hoped that the state plays its role of education for criminals. We
believe that people can change.”
UCA News
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