Drying seaweed in Lembongan

Photo by Phil Deschamp

New posts: Why do some states have the death penalty and others do not? Jokowi is getting more polarising as time goes on - saint or sinner? Home grown heroes in East Java and more

Selamat datang,

Tolong menikmati artikel di dalam blog resmi Indonesia Institute.

Recently the Perth US Asia Centre, with the support of the Indonesia Institute (Inc) has decided to set up a Joint Working Group of non-political people, to address the issues of rebuilding - and adding value to - the Indonesia-Australia relationship following the recent execution of the Bali Nine duo.

Members will be selected from academics, business, NGO's  and past senior public servants. We hope to form a similar group in Indonesia as well and keep the people to people ties strong.

Editor 

Please enjoy these new posts:

Why Indonesia kills - part one, by Lauren Gumbs, May 2015.

Member comment - reply to 'Joko Widodo's intense nationalism stalls regional leadership', by Doug Cole, May 2015.

Joko Widodo's intense nationalism stalls regional leadership, by Rowan Callick, May 2015.

The sacred legacy of Surabaya's heroes, by Duncan Graham, May 2015.

Former Ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty, named new anti-terror co-ordinator, by James Bennett, May 2015.

Risky business, in Asian Business Traveller, April 2015.

Extra reading:

After threatening (once again) to ban Indonesia's professional league because of the government's meddling, FIFA's own corruption has caught up with it. Indonesia is watching carefully as it hopes to get out of the ban.

But nobody really believes they will be sanctioned. After all FIFA is more corrupt than Football Indonesia. Right?

But in true Jokowi style the president isn't worried if Indonesia has some 'time off' from international football. In fact he thinks it will do a world of good.

Blink and you could miss it, until it takes effect; the encroaching military presence in politics.

Deforestation issue still unmet by extension to partial-clearing moratorium. Civil society groups say it's not good enough.

Why Indonesia kills - part one

By Lauren Gumbs

“Doubt should always be resolved on the side of life” Ronald Reagan

The Indonesian legal system does not inspire much trust, but it is a system with the power to make life and death decisions.

It is a system that routinely fails its own, plagued by corruption and extra judicial killings.

The justice system does not have the integrity to make general, let alone life and death decisions, yet many Indonesians still support judicially sanctioned executions.

Not only are countries with fewer political rights, less developed economies and lower literacy rates more likely to have the death penalty, but countries that convict and lock up more criminals are also more likely to kill them.

Indonesia has vastly overcrowded prisons and despite the advent of democracy, access to civil and political rights is often insecure and there is little recourse for those dealt with unfairly.

Research has found that religious and political systems are a significant factor in whether a country employs the death penalty or has moved away from it.

Law and order in countries with the death penalty are more punitive and less likely to see reform as the main objective to serving time.

In Indonesia prison is punitive, it is meant for punishment not change.

It is a means to purge the unwanted in society.

That is one of the reasons why it was difficult to use Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran’s reform in the legal team’s appeals for clemency.

In Indonesia the idea that morally ‘stained’ convicts could reform to an extent that they become useful and valued again in society has not made its way into solid legal defences.

It meant virtually nothing that two narcotics convicts were able to reform, even when the odds were so stacked against them in Indonesia’s notorious drug riddled jails.

In fact the courts seemed almost unconvinced that they had indeed reformed and that it was possible to remove the stain of their crimes and at each appeal the death sentence was upheld.

Even the president did not bother to consider their individual cases for clemency and was unconcerned in taking evidence of reform into account.

If the death penalty is a product of Indonesia’s political and legal systems, how was this shaped and is there a possibility of change?

More to come next week…