One Nation In Trauma, One Nation In Denial

Everybody's Feeling it

Perhaps nothing brings us together like tragedy. On the day of execution for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, our nation is gripped by this strange hopeless grief for these people they hardly know but count as their country men. We are distraught that nothing will sway Joko Widodo, or the Indonesian justice system from the course of executing people. The Sydney Morning Herald's page  of headlines alone is like a live coverage of the execution that will come tonight. People are grieving.

Peter Hatcher wrote something rather harsh today. It was an angry article.
John Birmingham tried to put it into perspective.
Mark Kenny thinks Indonesia's credibility is somehow at stake.

It looks like President Joko Widodo is boxed in to a position where he cannot exercise clemency. His party wants the execution, his party leaders have practically ordered him to execute him; political reality in Indonesia seems to prohibit his clemency and he himself has a reason to push ahead. The protestations of other nations apart from Australia - from France, Switzerland, Philippines and Brazil have carried no weight with a government that is intent on proceeding with the executions.

Try as we might, it is hard not to see the shadow of somebody's malice. The executions will hurt us all, and this dark malice is taking joy in it.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has appointed two Indonesian spiritual counsellors to be with Sukumaran and Andrew Chan in their final hours. 

In what Chan's brother Michael described as "the last bit of dignity denied," the Attorney-General's office denied the men their choice of religious guide. 

This is despite reassuring the Australian embassy two days earlier that they would be permitted to choose who would witness their deaths.

Talk about cheap shots. The Indonesian government seems to know no act too low to be included in its procession of low acts. It's sort of pathetic we treat this neighbouring nation with the respect we afford them. Everything about their institutions reek of being a sham. All I can say is that I hope to never visit Indonesia - I've lost hope in the country; I would never feel safe or welcome or respected. Such contempt shown by Indonesia can only be returned with contempt. Really, Joke Widodo can go get fucked by an Orangutan, and it would be too good a thing to happen to him.