CAPITAL PUNISHMENT MUST BE ABOLISHED

Few will dispute that drug abuse, if allowed to continue, poses a menace to
the welfare of society. Most agree that those who break the law on drugs
deserve harsh punishment. Those in possession of ecstasy pills, for
instance, have often been arrested and put in jail. Sometimes, drug
addicts, people who are really sick, both physically and mentally, have
faced the same fate.

The law on drugs is directed particularly against the producers,
distributors and sellers of drugs. This is also true of foreigners visiting
this country, when found guilty of drug trafficking.

The prevailing law stipulates, as far as I know, that any visitor to this
country found in possession of more than 12 kilograms of narcotics will not
only risk arrest, but could also face the death penalty.

I am intrigued by the question of why Indonesia still uses capital
punishment in sentencing drug traffickers, while many countries in Europe
have abolished the death penalty for criminal violations.

To be precise, I am in principle against capital punishment, as it is
against the spirit of the state philosophy Pancasila. At any rate, the law
allowing capital punishment should be revoked. Or the courts should show
more leniency in meting out sentences relating to drugs.

The president has the power and responsibility to commute a death sentence
to life imprisonment, especially when it concerns foreign nationals. They
should be expelled from the country instead of killing them by firing squad
in the name of justice. Do not we get rid of them this way, too?

This is a controversial issue that needs to be addressed by lawmakers.
Following three recent executions (one Indian, two Thai nationals), I was
deeply moved and experienced a sense of guilt, wondering why their lives
could not have been spared. Strangely enough, indeed, as if I had the right
to revolt against such an universal injustice.

Gandhi Sukardi, Jakarta