My Thoughts on the Death Penalty
by Aulia Masna
Ever since President Joko Widodo reinstated the death penalty at the start of his term last year I’ve been mostly quiet on the issue because the factors to consider are quite significant.
The death penalty in the context of recent events is very political but let’s set that aside for the time being.
Why the death penalty should be applied
The first and most obvious reason is it’s the law in this country and if a death sentence is given, then the public should respect that.
Willing criminals deserve the harshest punishment available to the prosecutor. The severity of the crimes coupled with their intentions and reasons when they were committed should carry more consideration especially given the effects they have on the victims and the victims’ families. The fact is, the victim’s families are also victims due to the loss.
The majority of Indonesians support death penalty. A society that regularly upholds mob rule and willing to torch or maim suspected criminals to death without allowing police involvement will not think twice about the courts handing out death sentences.
Why the death penalty should not be applied
Bringing up legal supremacy is a weak argument because Indonesia is far from a country that upholds justice. Its legal system is corrupt and broken, possibly beyond repair within this generation.
Indonesia’s courts regularly deliver sentences that don’t fit the crime, such as handing harsh punishments for petty crimes to freeing graft convicts despite mounting evidence. The courts are not the most respected institution in this country. There is a lot of hope each time a human rights issue is involved yet the hopes are often dashed.
Due to the broken legal system, the courts should not be put in a position that will allow them to make irreversible decision. When convicted individuals can be found innocent years, sometimes decades after their incarceration, due to new evidence, technologies, or shift in values, death penalty will not provide for this opportunity.
Now, in the case of the nine people waiting for execution for drug smuggling, one stands out as a potential innocent and may be key to revealing a larger ring of drug distribution network. Mary Jane Veloso, in my opinion, based on what I’ve read in the media, should be allowed to live not for humanitarian reasons but for the possibility of unveiling that larger network. Her sentence should then be commuted.
Should the President hand last minute reprieve to any one of the nine people scheduled for execution tonight, he will immediately be seen internationally as a compassionate and humanitarian president. However, domestically he will face serious political repercussions from the parliament and the majority of his people who have so far shown support for the death penalty.
The parliament, which evidently has not been cooperative on many issues will find yet another reason to vilify, castigate, rebuke, and complicate matters for the President for the rest of his term.
Almost half of the voters who did not vote for the President, will be highly empowered and feel even more justified in their decision not to elect him last year. The public in general will see him as a weak president who capitulated to foreign powers.
Should the President grant clemency, the International community may show immediate support and gratitude, but down the line, it may well be seen as proof by foreign governments that his convictions and positions can be reversed given enough pressure and therefore be used as a strategy in political negotiations.
It is for these reasons that at this point, I think the President should stand by his decision but force the parliament to debate on a legislation for the abolition of the death penalty.
Update: The executions were carried out as I was posting this and as expected, Mary Jane Veloso was spared from the firing line as she was being prepared.
For those who believe that only God has the right to take people’s lives, if God had wanted all of them to live, wouldn’t it have intervened the way it did for Veloso? Who’s to say that’s not how they were meant to die?
Also, why do humans defy God by extending lives through medicine, science, and technology? If it’s human intervention to “cut short” people’s lives, isn’t it also human intervention to keep them alive when they’re dying?
