R.C. AndersonBali Nine
September 8th 2006 14:32
Been a little lapse with this in the past couple of days. I'd love to say that it was because I was doing something spectacular but actually Kmart had a sale on Xbox games and so I've been playing my new games. 
As a result I am a little late on this piece on the members of the Bali Nine who have had their sentences changed from life imprisonment to death.
Now I will start by saying that it is important for us in Australia to respect the decisions of the Indonesian justice system. I was really annoyed when people wanted to take back their donations to Indonesia after the Asian Tsunami or boycott Bali because Schapelle Corby was jailed for drug trafficking. I actually wrote in a letter published in the Herald Sun that maybe people should perhaps have a look at our closest ally, who has kept David Hicks in prison without the dignity of even a trial.
However, Australians (mostly) agree that the death penalty is an inappropriate punishment and oppose its use in any country's justice system. Now I am confident that the Australian Government will work hard to save the lives of the members of the Bali Nine sentenced to death, as they did in the case of Van Tuong Nguyen (I know that there are arguments on either side as to whether EVERYTHING was done for Van Tuong Nguyen, but that's not the focus of this entry).
My concern though, is that Australians as a whole are very happy to show outrage at Australian's being sentenced to death, however we are comfortable with people of other nationalities suffering the same fate. When the people behind the Bali Bombings of 2002 were sentenced to death, both members of the Liberal and Labor Parties applauded the decision. The Australian media and most Australians were united in their view that justice had been done.
Unfortunately, this has set a precedent. How do we argue that capital punishment is wrong when we have applauded these executions? Shouldn't Australia make a public stand against the use of the death penalty by asking for the lives of the men who killed 88 Australians to be spared? If nothing else, such a punishment would be humiliating for these men, who look forward to becoming martyrs for their cause. I would actually argue that life imprisonment would be a much tougher punishment.
I know no party would canvass the Indonesian Government to spare the lives of the men responsible for the Sari Nightclub Bombings, such a decision would be political suicide and I doubt that even my own party, were they in government, would do such a thing. However we have to accept that such an issue may arise again. If *touch wood* a terror attack should ever happen in Australia, would we once again see grieving relatives on the TV calling for the death penalty for those responsible? (perfectly understandable, if terrorists decide to bomb Flinders St in peak hour and kil members of my family I may be one of the ones doing it...) And if those responsible were later caught in a country that still uses the death penalty, would the Australian government look to have them return to Australia to face a fair trial or be quite happy for that country to do what they liked with them?
I am not calling for a boycott of Indonesia or anything like that, and I believe that the options open to us now are the ones which will be taken by the Austrlaian Government (though how depressing would it be, knowing your life depended on the competency of Alexander Downer?)
However, we need to remember that rejection of the death penalty is one of the ways Amnesty International judges a world on its human rights record and we should proudly oppose its use anywhere in the world, on any person.
As a result I am a little late on this piece on the members of the Bali Nine who have had their sentences changed from life imprisonment to death.
Now I will start by saying that it is important for us in Australia to respect the decisions of the Indonesian justice system. I was really annoyed when people wanted to take back their donations to Indonesia after the Asian Tsunami or boycott Bali because Schapelle Corby was jailed for drug trafficking. I actually wrote in a letter published in the Herald Sun that maybe people should perhaps have a look at our closest ally, who has kept David Hicks in prison without the dignity of even a trial.
However, Australians (mostly) agree that the death penalty is an inappropriate punishment and oppose its use in any country's justice system. Now I am confident that the Australian Government will work hard to save the lives of the members of the Bali Nine sentenced to death, as they did in the case of Van Tuong Nguyen (I know that there are arguments on either side as to whether EVERYTHING was done for Van Tuong Nguyen, but that's not the focus of this entry).
My concern though, is that Australians as a whole are very happy to show outrage at Australian's being sentenced to death, however we are comfortable with people of other nationalities suffering the same fate. When the people behind the Bali Bombings of 2002 were sentenced to death, both members of the Liberal and Labor Parties applauded the decision. The Australian media and most Australians were united in their view that justice had been done.
Unfortunately, this has set a precedent. How do we argue that capital punishment is wrong when we have applauded these executions? Shouldn't Australia make a public stand against the use of the death penalty by asking for the lives of the men who killed 88 Australians to be spared? If nothing else, such a punishment would be humiliating for these men, who look forward to becoming martyrs for their cause. I would actually argue that life imprisonment would be a much tougher punishment.
I know no party would canvass the Indonesian Government to spare the lives of the men responsible for the Sari Nightclub Bombings, such a decision would be political suicide and I doubt that even my own party, were they in government, would do such a thing. However we have to accept that such an issue may arise again. If *touch wood* a terror attack should ever happen in Australia, would we once again see grieving relatives on the TV calling for the death penalty for those responsible? (perfectly understandable, if terrorists decide to bomb Flinders St in peak hour and kil members of my family I may be one of the ones doing it...) And if those responsible were later caught in a country that still uses the death penalty, would the Australian government look to have them return to Australia to face a fair trial or be quite happy for that country to do what they liked with them?
I am not calling for a boycott of Indonesia or anything like that, and I believe that the options open to us now are the ones which will be taken by the Austrlaian Government (though how depressing would it be, knowing your life depended on the competency of Alexander Downer?)
However, we need to remember that rejection of the death penalty is one of the ways Amnesty International judges a world on its human rights record and we should proudly oppose its use anywhere in the world, on any person.
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