Not my two cents - more my loose change. I've got a few bits and pieces to spill out. I get short shrift from some people on here for my long posts, but if they're too much you don't have to read them, you know.
Sorry I'm such a grouch tonight, it's been a weird, sad old kind of day.
I don't know where to start with this but I'll give it a go. Firstly, this morning, when Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were taken away. I am trying to get my head around why Indonesia is so determined to carry through with these executions. I really thought that Australia’s intervention and the delayed procedures of the executions would win a stay of execution. One, because until recently, from my (admittedly limited) view, Joko Widodo appeared to be a down-to-earth, reformist, progressive person. Not necessarily someone who would put compassion ahead of law or duty, but not compassionless. When he announced that drug criminals would be executed, the general opinion in Indonesia was that it was a diversionary tactic, designed to draw attention away from the public disapproval of his close relationship with Megawati Sukarnoputri and the fact that he very nearly appointed a corrupt chief of police on her recommendation. I’m not sufficiently versed in Indonesian politics to comment on that side of things, but I did think that whatever else, Jokowi announced the executions because he genuinely believed that this was an answer to Indonesia’s drug problem. It seemed to be a strong personal conviction, at odds with other more liberal views he holds, but nevertheless genuine. But his behaviour in the last week, with the unnecessary show of military force around Kerobokan in particular, is more typical of a dictator’s personality. I wonder if he has got the potential to be a dictator. I wonder if a person could change their beliefs, scruples and politics in a short space of time. Or maybe his small-town background has something to do with it all – maybe small-town politics don’t translate very well to leadership of a whole country. He is certainly the first ‘people’s’ president of Indonesia, the first one who was not born privileged, groomed for a role in government. But even if he were the next Pol Pot he won’t last long enough to have enough of an influence – I think that Indonesia were ready for a ‘people’s’ president, but not him. And it is the executions of Chan and Sukumaran that will topple him. I think Indonesians were getting ready to forgive him for the police chief thing after he smoothed that over, but most of the educated population appear to see him as taking a ham-handed approach that has damaged Indonesia’s foreign relations – and they think he’s done it for tactical reasons rather than his own beliefs, which is probably the most damaging thing – the idea that their president is willing to play with people’s lives and their country’s reputation in that fashion.
(Please note that the above is largely speculation - I've never even been to Indonesia - I've only been reading up on their politics in the last couple of months in an effort to understand this man and whether the Aussies would stand a chance for a stay of execution under his government. I try and be objective when I read things but I'm certainly no expert.)
The editor of the Jakarta Post has made a great suggestion – it won’t happen, but oh, I wish it would. He has called for a referendum of the death penalty in Indonesia. He said that this way, executions would be halted, Indonesians would actually be able to see how many of them agree with capital punishment, instead of seeing different figures from one week to the next from various areas, and Jokowi would be able to back down on his promise to execute all drug criminals, without losing face.
Moving closer to home now, I'm going to repost something I wrote on FB this morning. I wrote it mainly in response to the fact that the first thing I saw when I opened up my newsfeed was this flog going 'Can we hurry up and execute them already, why do people care about two drug dealers so much?' He certainly wasn't the first person to express this view; I guess I was just tired and despairing after seeing that Chan and Sukumaran had been taken from Kerobokan, and look, call me names if you want because I probably deserve them for this, but I just consider the guy who wrote the post to be a total waste of space, he's unemployed and uneducated by choice, chooses to sit at home doing absolutely nothing because he thinks it's hilarious that the government gives him money to do so. Fills out a pretend job diary so he can stay on the dole. The only things he shows any interest in are trolling social media, taking selfies and chatting up teenagers. So I f***ing saw red when he wrote that, because you know, I'm judging him for judging them. Because the only reason he's even in a position to judge is because he's not a drug mule, he's just a canker sore mooching off the welfare system, and there's a law against one but not the other. But his post garnered a sh1tload of support - more than any of his awkward selfies ever get, that's for damn sure
- and just the sheer number of comments agreeing with him, and adding pearls of wisdom like 'there [sic] not even aussie' or 'f*** all dealerz think of all the ppl died from their heroin ill shoot the c**ts myself' made me think bloody hell, how many more idiots are there like this, and how do you educate them? Is it worth even trying?
Anyway, here's my take. I was out of patience.
'They should of [sic] thought about the consequences' - if I've read that once I've read it 142685862497 times. Along with 'do the crime, do the time', 'we have to respect foreign laws' and 'how many 1000s died from the drugs they brought into Australia?' (I can answer that last one: none.)
I'm tired of marshalling diplomacy and rational argument to use against these statements, which are nothing more than an abrogation of moral responsibilities - a washing of hands, if you will, and in many cases (not all; some people do genuinely believe in capital punishment as a deterrent, or that these men are little better than murderers and deserve death for their actions), a convenient reason to be glad that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be shot dead. Because you need to have a reason, otherwise it just looks bad. Voyeurism = not de rigueur.
So, in the absence of diplomacy and rational argument, the only thing I have left to say is: shut up, you smug, self-righteous, myopic SH1THEADS. Just shut the f*** up.Lastly, my thoughts on Tony Abbott and his role in this. While he’s a knob – I still cringe every time he speaks to the media, because he has no tact (this morning he was saying ‘It will not be in Indonesia’s best interests to carry out the executions’) – at least he's a humanitarian knob. I thought he would follow in Howard’s footsteps and stay out of the whole affair (as Howard and Downer did in Van Nguyen's execution in 2005). I think it’s at the point where it no longer matters what he says, because it’s not going to change the state of affairs, but I’m just glad our government’s doing something. I think Julie Bishop is doing everything possible. I couldn’t bear it if we just sat there complicitly and let it happen.
I’ve turned the news off – they keep giving ‘updates’ like it’s the f***ing Sydney to Hobart race or something. I don’t want these men to die. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want every last second of their lives to be a running tabloid show for Channel 7 or wherever.
