Schapelle Corby: Prison Sentence Reduction

Schapelle Leigh Corby (born 10 July 1977) is an Australian woman serving a 20 years sentence in Kerobokan Jail, the Island of Bali, for Smuggling 4.2 Kilogram Marijuana into the island on 8 October 2008 (click here for details)

At the time of her arrest, Corby said that the drugs were planted in her body board bag and that she didn't know about them. Her trial was a major focus of attention for the Australian media.

The District Court of Denpasar, Bali, found her guilty on 27 May 2005 and sentenced her to twenty years in Jail and Fined her Rp 100 Million with an additional six months in Jail if unpaid.

On October 2005, the Bali High Court reduced the Sentence to 15 years, but the Supreme Court overturned the 5 years sentence reduction and re-instated the 20-years Prison term on 19 January 2006.

On August 2006, Corby and her lawyers requested for an extraordinary appeal with the Supreme Court but was rejected on March 2008.

In 2010, Corby and her lawyers made a Clemency Appeal for full remission on Humanitarian grounds to President SBY, and on May 2012 she was granted a five-year reduction of the sentence.

The granting of Sentence Reduction to a Illegal Drugs Smuggler like Schapelle Corby was strongly protested by the public (click here) because it shows the government's failure to implement its own policy to stop giving remission to Illegal Drug dealers.

Besides, it shows that the government is not serious in eradicating  Illegal Drugs problems in Indonesia, and that it is weak in facing pressures from Australian government.


Photo: Courtesy of 3 News

Treatment of Human Beings and Cattle in Australia

Last week the Australian government banned export of live Cattle to Indonesia, because they accused our slaughter houses have been treating those animals brutally.

Yesterday, I read on The Jakarta Globe that three boys that were snatched by people smugglers from a poor Indonesian village have been held for months in an Australian jail together with hardened criminals.

The Australian Federal police had ignored the Immigration Department's assessments and extracts of birth certificates showing that the boys were under 18, contravening federal government policy to return children apprehended on asylum seeker boats.

Instead, the boys — aged 15 and 16 who were cooks and deck hands on an asylum-seeker boat — face five years’ jail in a high security adult jail under harsh mandatory sentencing laws.

I hope that the Australian government would treat human beings from other countries better than they treat their animals.

Australia banned export of Live Cattle to Indonesia

On May 30 2011, Australian ABC television broadcast footage from Indonesian slaughterhouses that showed live cattle being whipped and left to die after their throats were cut.

This has sparked very strong protests from animal lovers in Australia who demand that their government stop the export of live cattle to Indonesia.

In order to calm down the protests, on 31 May the Australian government banned 12 abattoirs in Indonesia from slaughtering Australian live cattle.

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But the protests never stop, so the Australian government on Tuesday totally banned export of US$ 330 Million/a year worth of live cattle to Indonesia.

Live Australian cattle account for up to 40 percent of Indonesia's beef consumption, while Indonesia buys 60% of Australia's live cattle export worth US$ 330 Million per year.

About 770 slaughterhouses operate in Indonesia and only five use the stun-gun method, according to the animal welfare group Animals Australia, which filmed the footage.

I believe that Australia's ban on live cattle export is some sort of a blessing in disguise, in the sense that it could make us consume local cattle meat, and/or eat more chicken and/or goat and/or fishes/sea food.

Who must be responsible for the death of asylum-seekers ?

Since Iraq and Afghanistan were invaded by the United States and its allies several years ago, their people have been facing never ending problems forcing many of them to seek asylum in other countries..

One of the destination for the asylum-seekers is Australia, a country with a land area of more than three times the size of Indonesia yet with a population of less than one tenth of Indonesia.

Unfortunately, in spite of its full support for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the government of Australia has been very reluctant to receive those asylum-seekers. This has caused some tragic accidents..

According to The Australian, there were at least five asylum seekers' boats sailing from Indonesia to Australia that were missing since 2008.

And last week, a boat carrying 90 asylum-seekers from Iran, Iraq and Kurdistan crash landed on the rocks of Christmas Island,  Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was quoted by ABC as saying that the number of dead people could hit 50.

Considering the above, I wonder who should be responsible for those tragic accidents and deaths :
1)  The asylum seekers themselves ? who insisted on going to Australia although they know they were not wanted there. Or
2)  The Indonesian government ? who have let those people sail to Australia although they know that they were not wanted there. Or
3)  The Australian government ? who always refused to receive them and always drove them away.

Photo :  Courtesy of ABC.

Guest Writer: Rob Baiton

When I started this blog on October 2007, my intention was to write about matters related to the laws in Indonesia.

But considering the "very complicated characteristics" of the implementation of laws in Indonesia, after some time I get bored with disappointment. In order to keep on blogging, I write about other matters i.e. Politics and Nature in Indonesia.

One of the blogger who inspired me to keep on writing is Rob Baiton, who at that time lived in Jakarta and worked as English Editor of the Indonesian legal website: www.hukumonline.com. Besides, he has also mentored and lead Indonesian law students compete in international Law Speech Contests.

I learned a lot from Rob's blog i.e. therabexperience.blogspot.com, which muse about the Laws, Politics, Culture in Indonesia and Australia.

Today Rob is living in Sydney, Australia, with his Indonesian wife and a handsome young son.

Please find below one of Rob's latest post about a case which has been highly exposed by the Indonesian media for the last couple of weeks.

Ariel, Luna Maya, + Cut Tari ...

Indonesia and porn, porn and Indonesia seem to go hand-in-hand, don't they? It never ceases to amaze me the level of hypocrisy that exists on this single issue. There are those jumping up and down waving the morality flag demanding that long jail sentences be handed down to people who find the need to film themselves doing the deed and then have this very deed find its way into the public domain. Yet, most surveys and other statistical data pegs Indonesia as one of the biggest consumers of porn on our little globe called earth.

I think Desi Anwar says it best in her opinion piece on the matter when she talks about moral censure, peeping toms and playing god. It is worth a read and you can find it here.

The realities here are that it is against the law, people know it is against the law, and they must certainly know that if they get caught then there is a pretty good chance that the relevant law enforcement agencies will go the whole nine yards to get a conviction. This seems particularly so if you happen to be a celebrity. Ariel, Luna Maya, and Cut Tari are going to find this out in the most public of ways. One arrest has been made and another two seem imminent. The Porn Law and the Criminal Code are destined to get a work out on this one.

It really is sad that this is being played out in the way that it is. There are just so many more important things that politicians could be doing rather than legislating morality. There is in a similar vein so many more important things that the police and other law enforcement agencies could be dealing with rather than a couple of starlets getting the once over by a singer who seems to be afflicted with a little bit of the "Don Juanism" condition.

However, it must be noted that none of this is surprising on any front. All of us who are either Indonesian or who have long associations with the place understand that Indonesians have an insatiable appetite for gossip, particularly celebrity gossip. Indonesian TV is testament to that. We also know that the politicians and law enforcement people often look for any good gossip in order to deflect attention from real issues that need real work and real responses to see them resolved.

Yes, the reality here is that you have a couple of sex videos, pretty tame by most accounts, and nothing to write home about. Yet, it is news that has diverted the attention of a nation, and seen the story picked up by the international press. On the importance scale, the size of Ariel's penis, his sexual prowess, or the preferred methods associated with any climax activity, ranks, at least in my opinion, a very distant last on a long line of really important issues such as the systematic attempts to dissolve the KPK from its current form, the failure of parliament to speed up the legislative process, or myriad of other issues. Then again, I am sure that it will not be too long before we are hearing that Ariel's escapades have directly contributed to an earthquake or a tsunami or some other natural disaster that befalls the innocent in Indonesia. Sad!

As a matter of priority, it is time that people thought about the things that are really important and worked towards resolutions on those fronts.

Then again, good gossip and a sex video is something that most people just need to talk about!

SBY in Australia

President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono arrived in Canbera on  Tuesday, 9 March, greeted by a 21-guns and a military band with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce waiting on the red carpet.

Later, Quentin Bryce presented SBY with an honorary Order of Australia for his works after the 2002 Bali Bombing that killed 88 Australians.

On Wednesday, SBY became the first Indonesian President and the Fifth foreign president to address a join sitting of Australia's Parliament.

Further, President SBY and PM Rudd have reached an agreement to combat the smuggling of people to Australia through Indonesia, and agreed to eradicate terrorist network.
Afterward, SBY flew to Sydney to meet with businessmen before leaving on Thursday.

For detailed media reports, please click here, here and here.

Considering that Indonesia and Australia are neighbors, I hope that relationship between both governments, parliaments and the people would always be well maintained based on mutual respect and understanding.
Like it or not, we have no other choice, we have to like each other. 

Photo : Courtesy of AFP/Yahoo.

Australian Travel Warning

The Australian government has warned its citizens who wish to travel to Bali during the Hindu Nyepi New Year on 16 March to respect local laws and regulations.

Stay Indoors, Respect Traditions in Bali
Thursday, 21 January 2010 | 14:49 WIB

KOMPAS.com - Australians traveling to Bali in March have been warned to respect strict laws surrounding the local new year. Custom requires that all people in Bali observe a day of silence from 6am on Tuesday, March 16 until 6am Wednesday, March 17 - the Balinese New Year.

Authorities require that all people in Bali stay indoors, make no noise and switch off all lights for the duration of this period. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs says tourists must remain in their hotels during this 24-hour period and seek the advice of hotel management regarding movement around the hotel grounds.

Balinese across the island strictly observe this tradition and people leaving their homes or hotels between between these times risk being forcibly returned to their homes or hotels by Balinese traditional village level security personnel.

DFAT says this is an important cultural event for the people of Bali and Australians are urged to be sensitive and strictly observe local custom to avoid giving offense. The Australian Consulate-General in Bali will be closed on Tuesday, March 16 and reopen at 8am on Wednesday, March 17, 2010

DFAT's general travel advice for Indonesia remains unchanged and includes a warning of the possibility of terror attacks. Three Australians were among the nine people killed in the suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta last July.

I hope that all foreigners, not just Australians, who are traveling to Bali and other regions in Indonesia would always respect local laws, regulations, religious rituals and customary traditions. That way their stay here would be safe and joyful.

Balibo

The Indonesian Film Censor Board (LSF) has banned the screening of Australian movie " Balibo " in Indonesia.

According to LSF, the movie was banned because it tells about the killing of five Australian journalists by Indonesian soldiers during the invasion of Dili, East Timor, in 1975. This is contradictory to the Indonesian government’s version of the journalists being killed in a crossfire.

However, the banning of the movie does not mean that Indonesians cannot watch it. On the contrary, many people are watching the pirate DVDs of the movie which can be found easily in Jakarta, although not in cinemas but at their own premises.

Further, the movie became much more popular after a retired Colonel in the Indonesian Army suddenly appeared and informed journalists that he is a witness to the killings of the 5 journalists by the Indonesian Army.

For detailed media reports on the above, please click here and here.

Considering the above, I felt that the banning of the movie would not be effective in the present age of transparency whereby lots of information including movies can be easily accessed through the internet.
Rather then banning, it would be better if the Indonesian government make a movie that tells about its own version of the Balibo incident.

Indonesia & Australia

A few days ago Indonesian Navy has captured a boat packed with 260 people from war torn Srilanka heading to Australia to seek political assylum.

Later on, it was revealed that the Indonesian Navy took the action based on the instruction of President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY), who was doing a favour for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Ruud.
Rudd said he phoned President SBY after receiving intelligence reports about the boat passing through the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra islands.

For detailed media reports on the above, please click here, here, here, here and here.

I hope that the above help PLUS Indonesia's efforts to eliminate anti-western terrorists would assure the Australian government and its people that Indonesia is a friendly country that is willing to help its neighbor. I also hope that we can also rely on them to help return Indonesian fugetives who have been hiding in Australia.

Indonesia & Australia Extradition Exchange

On 26 May 2009, the Indonesian government has extradited Hadi Ahmadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi citizen, to Australia.

According to Bloomberg, Hadi Ahmadi has been wanted and named as a suspect of Human Smuggling by the Interpol since 7 September 2007. The Australian government accused him of 21 people smuggling offences. He allegedly helped bring illegally people from the Middle East into Australia. He was arrested by our Police on June 2008, and last month Presidernt Susilo Bambang Yudoyono agreed to extradite to Austrlia where he will face Human Smuggling charges with a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.

Earlier, ICW mentioned in its website that on 10 december 2008, President SBY and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have reached an agreement on the extradition of Hadi Ahmadi in exchange with Australia's extradition of Adrian Kiki Aryawan to Indonesia. Adrian, former President Director of Bank Surya, was tried at the District Court of Central Jakarta on July 2002 for missapropriation of debt given by the Indonesian Central Bank (Bank Indonesia). During process of trial, he ran away to Australia. So, on 28 November the Court passed an In Absentia verdict sentensing Kiki with Life imprisonment and Fine of Rp 1.5 Trillion.
However, Tempointeraktif reported that Adrian's extradition shall be decided by a Court in Perth, Western Australia on August 2009.

I hope that Indonesia's extradition of Hadi Ahmadi to Australia will soon be followed by Australia's extradition of Adrian Kiki Aryawan to Indonesia.