http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GF04Ae02.html Jun 4, 2005
Indonesian trial for Australia By Alan Boyd SYDNEY - "Twelve brutal Indonesian troopers armed with high-caliber rifles. Schapelle Corby, 27, an innocent and defenseless girl from Queensland, Australia, shackled to a pole. This is Indonesia's concept of a 'justice' system. Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. Don't shoot Corby!" Days after this shrill appeal appeared on a website last month, 60,000 people had signed a petition seeking clemency for the young beauty student, who has become a perplexing symbol of the vexed relationship between Australia and its closest Asian neighbor, Indonesia. "Be as disruptive as possible without hurting anyone," advises the website, outlining a plan of action that ranges from mass protests outside Indonesian consulates to boycotting firms that do business in that country and canceling holidays to Bali, the beach resort where Corby was caught in October with 4.1 kilograms of marijuana. The noise levels have risen steadily since she was sentenced last week to 20 years in jail. Travel agencies have reported a holiday backlash. Charity drives for aid to tsunami-struck Indonesia are coming up short because donors no longer want their hard-earned cash going to that country. On Tuesday, someone sent a suspicious white powder, thought to contain toxic spores, to Jakarta's embassy in Canberra, forcing its evacuation. Another packet of powder arrived on Friday at the office of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. There are scores of largely anonymous Australians awaiting trial on drug offences in Asian jails, including 11 more in Bali and two on death row in Singapore. On Wednesday, a Sydney man of Vietnamese origin was given the same sentence as Corby in Vietnam for sending heroin back home through the post; the story barely made the evening news. So why the obsession with Corby? She is young, beautiful and charismatic. Her cell is dark, foul-smelling and overcrowded, a forbidding place in a land that few Australians understand. The language swirling around her is impenetrable, the judiciary difficult to comprehend. For many it is a simple case of good against evil, of supporting the underdog, the innocent victim of a corrupt and untrustworthy system. It's black and white. And there is the crunch. Are Australians, with a predominantly European heritage and Western outlook, letting their latent fear of being swamped by populous Asia rule their emotions over what should have been a routine court verdict? Opinion polls suggest that the main issue is not Corby's guilt but her perceived inability to get a fair trial in a country that is still associated, in the minds of many Australians, with the excesses of the Suharto era, human-rights abuses in East Timor and West Papua, crooked police and banana-state politics. One survey, conducted over two days by a radio station in Corby's home state of Queensland, found that almost half of the respondents believed the court verdict was an injustice; yet less than a quarter were convinced of her innocence and believed she should be freed. The credibility gap with the legal proceedings began to emerge during the media frenzy that accompanied Corby's initial arrest, when Australia's lively tabloids gained unusually open access to the evidence that was being assembled against her - a point that itself tends to undermine allegations of a conspiracy to have her convicted. It was revealed that the package containing the marijuana, hidden inside a boogie board bag that she admitted owning, had not been finger-printed, a move that might have supported the defense's contention that the drugs had been planted - probably by baggage handlers who were part of a smuggling syndicate - while she was in transit from the Gold Coast. Later, the panel of three judges refused to accept testimony from several defense witnesses who claimed to have knowledge of the smuggling ring, which the Australian police have since acknowledged has been under investigation for more than 12 months. Newspapers were quick to seize on rumors that bribes had been offered to influence the trial's outcome. Although these were never substantiated, the lonely ordeal of a young woman away from home, in essence, a human interest story that should quickly have faded from the public consciousness, was transformed into a tale of Third World oppression. After she was sentenced, comparisons were made with the light penalties handed out to the perpetrators of the Bali bombings, which killed more than 80 Australians. And some elements of the media alluded to a betrayal of trust by Indonesia after Australia's magnanimous gesture in donating more than A$1 billion (US$756 million) to help the victims of the December 26 tsunami in Aceh. There were emotive headlines such as "Nation's Fury", "Alone and Afraid", "Indonesia Must Look At Grotesque Anomalies", "Horrors Await in Jail Hellhole" and "Share of Hell in Grotty Jail". When prosecutors announced they would appeal for a tougher sentence - the maximum term is execution - things began to turn nasty. "Day of Outrage to Show Our Disgust", screamed one banner. Another called for a "Day of Hate", and a third, demanding a business boycott of Indonesia, trumpheted: "Let's Hurt Bali In The pocket". Away from the hysterics, it has been accepted by diplomats and lawyers familiar with the Indonesian legal system, both in Australia and Indonesia, that Corby did get a fair trial, even though it followed a pattern that would have been unfamiliar to most Australians. Unlike Australia's British tradition of common law, the Indonesian judiciary uses a civil law inherited from former colonial ruler Holland, with its roots in French and German legal statutes, that does not use a jury system and encourages a more active involvement by judges in proceedings. According to Associate Professor Tim Lindsey, director of the Asian Law Center at the University of Melbourne, civil law systems are regarded as "inquisitorial" in nature, while common law is "adversarial", a distinction that may have confused observers of the Corby case. "This means that in common law systems the judge acts as an impartial referee while the parties present their witnesses in an attempt to convince a jury or, in most cases, the judge," said Lindsey. "The judge generally does not ask questions of witnesses and is usually active only in enforcing the rules of evidence and procedure. "In an inquisitorial system, however, the judges conduct an enquiry into the truth of what occurred - that is, the facts behind the legal issues in dispute. In some civil law systems, the judges may even dominate the hearing to such an extent that lawyers are left with few questions to ask at all," he said. Hence, the judges in the Corby case were able to make rulings on the admission of evidence that probably could not have occurred in an Australian court. They were empowered to decide which witnesses would be called, and could even call for outside testimony that had not been requested by either side. There is little doubt that the Indonesian judiciary has an image problem: it was rated the most corrupt of 12 Asian countries in a survey of expatriate businessmen released by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy just as the trial was concluding. But most Indonesian corruption occurs in commercial rather than criminal cases, and has more to do with the business mentality of gaining an advantage in markets or contracts than any widespread effort to influence judgments. Yet, even with the different judicial approach, it is unlikely the outcome would have been fundamentally different if the trial had been held in Australia. The bag containing the marijuana might have been fingerprinted, but the result would hardly have been conclusive: any self-respecting smuggler knows the value of using gloves. Criminal lawyers have said that no Australian court would have agreed to admit evidence on hearsay regarding the alleged airport baggage handlers syndicate. The chief defense witness was a convicted rapist who overheard a conversation between two fellow inmates while in a remand cell. In any case, police have said the smuggling ring was dealing in heroin, not marijuana, which has long been considered too bulky to move in large shipments. (Heroin, which can easily be diluted, brings far greater rewards for a fraction of the quantity.) As with any trial of this nature, Corby's prospects of avoiding a conviction rested on her ability to distance herself from the boogie board bag and its contents; she was unable to do so. The police account of her arrest even has Corby confessing at one point to having brought in the marijuana for her own use, though she later denied having made such an admission. None of this is likely to assuage the outpouring of anger among her supporters as the judiciary meets again to consider Corby's appeal against her sentence, or weaken the resolve of the Indonesian police, who believe it was too lenient. If their appeal is successful, Corby could face a life term, or even be executed. On the protest agenda are a national campaign to coincide with Corby's birthday next month and a more vigorous assault on business and tourism links, including a publicity blitz to encourage the 300,000 Australians who travel to Bali each year to stay home. Bookings for Bali have already fallen by 20% since the trial build-up began, according to trade magazines. While many expect this to be only a temporary trend, the drawn-out nature of the appeals process means relations between the two countries will not settle down for months, possibly even years. Ironically, the Australian government is currently providing funding for the retraining of Indonesian judges as part of a program of "democratizing" the judicial system that is intended to make it more accountable and independent, a process it is keen to see continued. Canberra might also want to devote some resources to making its own countrymen more aware of the big archipelago that lies just to the north, before a catalogue of misconceptions and media intrigue becomes a real diplomatic albatross. An opinion survey published by the respected Lowy Institute earlier this year found a level of alienation between Australians and Indonesians that is extraordinary for two neighbors with so many shared security and economic interests. Asked to rate how they felt about various countries within Asia and in other regions, only 52% of respondents said they felt positive toward Indonesia, and 42% were negative. They ranked Indonesia just above a host of unstable Middle East nations, including Iraq and Iran, which suggests it may not be just one person who is on trial in this case. (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) Alan Boyd, now based in Sydney, has reported on Asia for more than two decades. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Ever feel sad or cry for no reason at all? Depression. Narrated by Kate Hudson. http://us.click.yahoo.com/LLQ_sC/esnJAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppi-india.org *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru; 4. 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