No. I do not believe in execution for drug offenses, if at all. I have known drug users and I have seen some die of them. That does not alter my opinion.
I think that what they did is a bit irrelevant to the outcome, though.
This issue was milked for the political winner that it was by the Australian and Indonesian governments both. It was the gift that kept on giving. They both managed this well and got decent bumps in the approval polls out of it. That the outcome was execution was always going to be the case and I doubt that either lost sleep over that part.
Abbott and Bishop got to look important and presidential making a fuss about someone they did not give a rat's arse over and it helped distract from the series of disasters and incompetence at home. It's as good a distraction as playing the terrorist card and sending troops/planes to the middle east.
A newly minted Widodo got to increase his support by firmly resisting pressure from rich countries who are seen over there as patronising and bullying. The theatre of their transfer to the prison island said it all. Four naval ships. Armoured vehicles. Commandos. For what? In case someone tried something? Please. That was just an exercise in Indonesian national pride. It will have played very well on TV. As good as the ANZAC crap we have been rehashing endlessly for the last weeks.
I think the Federal Police have some responsibility here, as they shopped those guys. I would like to know whose decision that was. I would like to know what they or the Australian government got in return. I am certain they got something.
I'd really like to know why noone further up the supply chain was caught or charged. Surely this would have been a golden opportunity to do something other than stop a few bottom level mules and enforcer thugs. No?
Lastly, given the amount of consular assistance and pressure the Australian government has expended on these guys, who are (or perhaps were) essentially scum and thugs, why do they not exert similar pressure to try and help guys like Julian Assange, who performed some serious public service to us all, and is not yet charged with a crime. He has languished a prisoner in a small room in London for some years now and must live with the distinct likelihood that he will end up in an American prison for decades at the least and might well be subject to torture by that regime, should he get there.
I want to know why they aren't helping that guy.
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i think crime was down but deaths have risen, however lots of people choose to ignore the kill rate of alcohol,tobacco and regular pharmaceutical drugs or to discuss that some people may choose to euthanise/suicide and so skew the figures.
