REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By: Toni Ervianto*)

The government will continue to hand out the death sentence to big players in drug trafficking world despite criticism from foreign countries and human rights activists, arguing that consistency in law enforcement is the key to success in curbing the distribution of drugs. Attorney General M Prasetyo has stressed that a third round of drug convict executions would be carried out this year.  

According to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), there were 64 drug convicts on death row as of 2015. To date, 14 drug convicts have been executed in separate rounds on January 18 and April 29 last year, with six and eight people in each batch, respectively. The AGO recently confirmed that the government would continue with further executions this year, but the exact time and location have not yet been confirmed. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said implementation of the law in Indonesia, including the death penalty, does not violate any international laws. There are no restrictions on the death penalty. Indonesian law, he continued, must be respected by both national citizens and the international community, adding that the government on principle did not meddle in the application of the law in other nations, and as such did not expect other nations to interfere in the application of the law in Indonesia. The Foreign Ministry has not received any information on the date of the next executions or those to be executed, the spokesman confirmed. 

Seperately, the country manager of the UN office on drugs and crime ( UNODC ) in Indonesia, Collie F. Brown, took the opportunity to reinstate the UN's opposition to the death penalty. Brown urged countries to find an alternative punishment for drug traffickers.

According to Amnesty International reports that there was a dramatic 54 percent increase in executions globally in 2015, with Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia responsible for nearly 90 percent of the killings. The human rights organization said that the figure of at least 1,634 people executed last year — up from 1,061 in 2014 — does not include executions in China where data on the death penalty is considered a state secret. Amnesty International's Secretary General Salil Shetty told several reporters on Tuesday that for China "our estimate is that they execute as much as the rest of the world." He said China is currently reviewing crimes punishable by the death penalty so there is "a slim ray of hope" that the number of executions may be reduced. 

According to the report, the number of executions recorded in Saudi Arabia increased by 76 percent to 158. Executions in Iran rose 31 percent to 977, and the 326 executions in Pakistan were the highest ever recorded by Amnesty International.

Amnesty said it received information that both Iran and Pakistan executed people in 2015 who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed, and it said juveniles face the death sentence in several other countries. 

In the United States, 28 people were executed in 2015, nearly half in Texas, the most active death penalty state, which put 13 people to death, the report said. Missouri executed six people, Georgia five, Florida two and Oklahoma and Virginia one each. Amnesty said 60 percent of those executed were black or Hispanic, double their percentage in the population. (http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/06/rights-group-dramatic-increase-in-executions-in-2015.html)

Must Be Supported

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said that his government’s insistence on applying the death penalty is due to growing drug crimes in Indonesia, which have reached alarming levels. The President has asserted Indonesia wants every country and vested interest group to understand that the country’s stance on the death penalty is related to the emergency status of drug abuse in the country. 

“About 40 to 50 Indonesian citizens die every day from drug abuse,” Jokowi said as quoted in a statement released by the President’s communications team. This is why the death penalty remains a part of Indonesian law, he added.

Although the government maintained the existence of the death penalty, Jokowi said his administration ensured that its implementation was done carefully and legal rights were afforded to death-row convicts.

In in the line with the preparation of death penalty part 3, Cilacap Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ulung Sampurna Jaya said the third batch of executions to be carried out under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration would be conducted "in a matter of weeks". Two British people are thought to be among the group earmarked for death. Security measures around Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, have been prepared in anticipation.

However, the decision of Indonesia’s goverment to  consistence on applying the death penalty must be supported, because drug threat has been delivered by drug communities such as drug producers, drug traffickers and drug dealers was haunting Indonesia’s youth. So, these problems must handle by goverment with firmly and strictly. If the goverment is doing oblivion on these case, its be a serious law and political problem’s for Jokowi administration.

Drug problem’s must be paid a big attention because drug communities didn’t just a small and weak communities. Drug communities have a destructive efforts to make communities and countries have a murky future for their youth generation.

Essentially, drug communities are a common enemies for every countries which want to protect and to peas their ciziten from drug threats. It is a naive and dump if international NGO’s or foreign goverment which is a still revealed their support for drug communities. If its still happen, its just show their indulgence on our sorrow.

Facing drug threat, the alacrity of Jokowi’s administration to curtail and to slams drug communities with death penalty implementation should be preserved, because drug threat has been endangered our next generation. So, Jokowi and Indonesia’s Attorney General aren’t hesitate to resuming death penalty part 3 as soon as possible. These decision is a state decision to endearment and to protect our next generation from drug outrage. Hopefully.

*) The writer is a political observer. Earned his master at the Univrsity of Indonesia. Residing in East Jakarta.

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