REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Australian Catholic University's (ACU's) plan to award scholarships to Indonesians in recognition of the two drug dealers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran is an inappropriate act, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated.

"It is indeed an inappropriate act. The people who have committed serious crimes in Indonesia are honored by naming a scholarship scheme after them," he informed journalists here on Monday in response to a question regarding the ACU's offer.

Kalla noted that the scholarship awards are ideally named after honorable people and not criminals who have committed heinous crimes in Indonesia.

"Indonesia will agree if the scholarship scheme is named after honorable people such as Australian scientists or heroes rather than those charged under criminal offences, which is not appropriate," he emphasized.

ACU Vice Chancellor Professor Greg Craven recently defended the plan to offer scholarships, stating that his institution will grant scholarships to two selected Indonesians in a bid to abolish capital punishment.

Craven noted in a statement published on the ACU's official website that "the scholarships will commemorate the two men, but the university has never proposed that the scholarships were to be named after them."

"In fact, they will be called the Mercy Scholarships, which is symbolic of the gesture that was so desperately denied to Chan and Sukumaran," he pointed out.

Chan and Sukumaran were executed along with Zainal Abidin of Indonesia; Rodrigo Gularte of Brazil; Martin Anderson alias Belo of Ghana; and Okwudili Oyatanze, Raheem Agbaje Salami, and Silvester Obiekwe Nwaolise alias Mustofa of Nigeria on April 29, 2015.

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