As the crow flies, not much separates Australia and Indonesia but a glistening stretch of ocean and the odd exposed rock in between.
It goes without saying that the joint’s been a favourite for Aussie surfers since the early seventies, primarily for the waves, but we all know someone (nudge nudge) who’s taken a hit, toke or something far more sinister in the unfounded belief that it’d be sweet.
But the definitive ruling on the fate of two convicted drug smugglers yesterday proves Australia’s largest Asian neighbour is at least twice removed from the wishy washy nature of the criminal justice system in the Land Down Under.
The convicted pair, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were part of a group of nine caught attempting to smuggle a bit over eight kilos of heroin out of Indonesia and back to Australia in 2006.
At the time, the method in which the group had tried to smuggle the hammer out of the country seemed so ridiculously simple it was almost humorous.
Four of the nine were pinged at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport as they prepared to board an Australia-bound flight.
They were paraded in front of a waiting media by jubilant Indonesian officials with bags of heroin duct-taped to their legs, arms and waist.
All aged under 25, they literally looked like kids caught stealing a bag of lollies.
A further four were arrested in a hotel room near Kuta with a little more heroin while the final member of the group was dragged kicking and screaming from a plane which was moments away from departure.
Chan and Sukumaran were found to be the group’s ringleaders and sentenced to death by firing squad while the others received life sentences.
Though he appealed the ruling, Australia’s Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, scoffed in disbelief that the group had attempted to smuggle drugs out of a country known to have absolutely no mercy towards such activities and a history of making good on the threat of death by firing squad.
“The warnings have been there for decades and how on earth any young Australian can be so stupid as to take the risk is completely beyond me,” Mr Howard said.
“Can I just say to every young Australian, please take notice of this.”
Support for the two in Australia has ramped up exponentially in the last few months with a concert for the pair, featuring a former heroin addict, held following a whipped up hash tag campaign dubbed #istandformercy.
Several high profile actors, artists and politicians threw their support behind the campaign and more candlelight vigils are planned.
Australia’s current PM Tony Abbott chimed in, saying Chan and Sukumaran “deserve mercy”, and described them as “reformed characters” who’d helped to rehabilitate other prisoners.
But, fast forward to yesterday and we find Chan and Sukurman being led out of another court room, their final plea for mercy quashed and the death sentence that has hung over them since their arrest is just weeks, or even days away.
The term being thrown around in the press is that they will be among the “next group” to be executed.
Five foreigners have already been executed this year in Indonesia for drug importation offences.
And while the feel good hash tag campaign, concerts and rhetoric continues, there is also a fair chunk of Australia that supports the execution of not just these two, but the return of capital punishment in Australia which has been outlawed since 1967.
Either way, Indonesia’s Attorney-General H.M. Prasetyo made the announcement the two would possibly be executed alongside eight other convicted felons at his preferred location, the penal island of Nusakambangan.
“We are now looking for the right place,” he told a press conference.
“We are considering if all of them could be in the same place. If not, we will have to find another field.”
