The
president must be aware that routine executions of criminals are not a
characteristic of democratic countries
Jakarta Globe, Johannes Nugroho, Jan 28, 2015
 |
| A picture taken on Jan. 26, 2015 in the coastal seaport City of Jeddah shows a Saudi man carrying his baby to pose for a picture in front of a mural dedicated to late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz with a slogan in Arabic reading: ‘Where are you going? Look back and say hello. We didn’t get enough of you’. (AFP Photo) |
In a eulogy
of recently deceased King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, former President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono said: “At my request, the late king pardoned many Indonesian
citizens who had been sentenced to death by Saudi courts.”
His remark
is a timely reminder that attempts made by any government to prevent the
execution of its citizens in a foreign nation are part of routine diplomacy.
And apparently neither Yudhoyono nor the Saudi government saw the request as an
intrusion into Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty. By contrast, a great portion of
local media has portrayed attempts made by various foreign governments to plead
clemency for their citizens on death row as an outlandish attack on Indonesia’s
sovereignty.
Egged on by
the media frenzy over threats to our “judicial sovereignty,” most Indonesian
social media users have applauded the government’s adamant stance on denying
clemency to those sentenced to death in our courts. The subsequent recalls of
the Dutch and Brazilian ambassadors following the execution of six drug
traffickers swung the Indonesian public opinion further into the government’s
camp.
As common
sense gives way to emotions, many of us have evidently forgotten that we
ourselves take umbrage every time we learn an Indonesian national has been
sentenced to death abroad.
It is
surprising that the Dutch government decided to recall its ambassador from
Jakarta, considering it did not take such action when Dutch engineer Johannes
van Damme was hanged for heroin smuggling in 1994 by the Singaporean
government. But over 20 years have passed since van Damme’s execution, and so
the sociopolitical circumstances in the Netherlands today cannot possibly be
compared to those in the recent past.
We should
also understand that, although Singapore is widely admired for its order-liness
and world-class standards of public service, it is not perceived as a working
democracy. Despite the existence of elections in the small republic, the
results have always been predictable. Civil liberties are also highly regulated
there, effectively making freedom of speech something arbitrated by the
government.
By
juxtaposition, Indonesia’s democracy — flawed as it may be — is seen as the
most robust in Southeast Asia. More importantly, President Joko Widodo at first
managed to generate a worldwide image as a leader with a strong commitment to
democracy and human rights. Arguably, much of Joko’s image as a defender of
human rights is based on hope rather than on scrutiny of his performance in
office.
The
international media was also guilty of promoting this perception of Joko by
portraying him as a man of the people and democracy. TIME magazine, placing
Joko on its front cover last October, described the new president as “the new face
of Indonesian democracy” and “the world’s most modest national leader.”
So, it was
no wonder that most Western governments, perhaps rather naively, assumed that
he was a leader who shared their values. Seen in this context, Joko’s seemingly
inhumane refusal to grant clemency to drug offenders on death row was something
contrary to what people expected of him. His attitude towards capital
punishment was likely formed long ago, but attracted no attention.
While wrong
on human rights, the foreign media was accurate in predicting the Joko
government’s insularity, which is evident not just in its indifference to, if
not anger at, foreign protests over the death penalty, but also in its foreign
affairs directives. But the president must be aware that routine executions of
criminals are not a characteristic of democratic countries.
Though
Yudhoyono may not have had the prisoners on Indonesia’s own death row in mind
at the time, his praise of King Abdullah’s mercifulness is indeed a potent
reminder that mercy can legitimately be shown to people condemned to death.
Moreover,
if an autocracy like Saudi Arabia can show mercy, why can’t a beacon of
democracy like Indonesia?
Johannes
Nugroho, a writer from Surabaya, can be contacted at johannes@nonacris.com.
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