Death and drugs

Indonesia defied international pleas for clemency by executing seven foreigners and an Indonesian involved in running drugs. Its newly-elected President, Joko Widodo, stuck to his guns in letting the law of the land stand. In doing so he may have stepped on Australia’s toes with Tony Abbott ordering the Australian ambassador back for consultations. But Australia’s objections — two of its citizens, Andrew Chan and a person of Tamil origin, Myuran Sukuamaran, were among the eight executed — betray a double standard. The impression that citizens of the First World caught trafficking drugs in the Third World are innocent consumers rather than traders or “mules” is wrong. It was on the strength of Australian police inputs directed at stopping the drug flow from Indonesia to Australia that the “Bali Nine” were caught.

Australia dubbing the executions as “cruel and unnecessary” is a bit hypocritical because it has never objected to the death penalty in the US. 1,400 prisoners have been executed there in the last 40 years and 3,000 are on death row. There are a number of other countries, like China, where death sentences are in force. There is a larger humanitarian debate over capital punishment. There has never been a consensus on this although a majority of nations have either accepted that capital punishment should go or are veering towards that view. In the case of drugs, can anyone compensate the thousands of lives shattered by its use, which are available only because of the active drug trade?