Play by local rules

I may not like local laws, agree with them, protest their implementation, but I do not have the right to flaunt them

I have lost count of the number of countries I have visited but it is 60-plus. Many of those countries had cultures very different from my own and one of the things I, as a traveller, always do is make myself familiar with ‘the rules of the road’ — sometimes literally — of the country I am to visit. Nowhere in the world is a professed ignorance of the law any protection from prosecution. It may be unfortunate that you are unaware that keeping goldfish in Bhutan is a capital offence (…relax…it isn’t) — but it will not protect you come a trial.

Indonesia has a major drugs problem, both in terms of the number of people who die of drug abuse every year and the vast amount of drugs that are smuggled both in an out. The entire world has been fighting a losing battle with drugs for at least half a century, and different countries have evolved a range of strategies to combat the problem. Indonesia included.

In the early hours of April 29, eight convicted drug smugglers were shot in Indonesia. They had been caught, tried and sentenced according to local law. The Australian ambassador to Indonesia has been withdrawn by his government in protest — two of those shot were Australian — and there has been much huffery-puffery from outraged human rights groups globally.

As a lifelong opponent of the death penalty — far too many wrongful convictions and corrupt justice systems — I can in no way condone the shooting of these eight people. But I do support the Indonesian government in upholding its rule of law and not caving to international pressure.

That is a position likely to make me more enemies than friends, but I make no apologies. The operative word in the above paragraph is ‘its’. I am referring to the laws of an independent sovereign state. I may not like those laws, or agree with them in any way, indeed make protests at their implementation, but I most assuredly do not have the right to flaunt them if I visit Indonesia, and would have to suffer the consequences if I did.

There was never any doubt that those convicted were guilty, though their defence in some cases was that they were pressured into doing what they did. Quite possibly. But at the end of the day they smuggled drugs into a country that has draconian penalties for so doing, and they paid the price — in which case I have no sympathy for them. There is not much sympathy among the Indonesian populace either where the death penalty is actually popular and widely supported. By the same token I am bound to support Saudi Arabia when it executes drug smugglers — and it has executed several Pakistanis over the years — because that is the law of the land, like it or not.

And what of Pakistan? With 100 men hanged since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted and thousands more waiting in the queue on death row, I am distinctly uneasy. Many of those convicted were found guilty on flimsy or circumstantial evidence at a time when police procedures were even less developed than they are today, and they are still primitive. Forensic sciences are in their infancy in Pakistan, and police procedures are lackadaisical and often whimsical.

In short, the chances of finding oneself at the end of a rope in Pakistan and not having committed the crime you are being hanged for are at least present, and it is entirely possible that out of the hundred hanged thus far innocent men are now dead.

The debate about whether capital punishment is ever a deterrent to criminal activity is endless and usually circular. There appears to be scant evidence that it does deter, and with respect to ‘crimes of passion’ it most certainly does not. It is no deterrent to crimes of ‘honour’ either as evidenced by the national figures for ‘honour’ killing annually. It is inconceivable that those executed in Indonesia were unaware of the penalty if caught. Know the local rules of the road and travel safely, Dear Reader. Tootle-pip!

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2015.

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