The road to Bali | Wednesday, February 15, 2006 |
Bali. What little I know of the Island comes from the 1952 Bob Hope/Bing Crosby/Dorothy Lamour movie of the same name. Grass skirts, priceless jewels, Princess Lala all served up after our heroes flee Melbourne.I suspect that even if this fifty year old depiction were true then, it's probably changed somewhat.
Right now I can think of 9 people that would almost certainly agree. Yesterday the two ringleaders of the so-called "Bali 9" were sentanced to death by firing squad.
Once again, the media and government are up in arms that a neighbouring country exercises the right to apply the death penalty to people it finds guilty of certain crimes.
Probably the best quote I've seen on the matter is
The AFP Commissioner, Mick Keelty, refused to apologise, saying: "We'd do the same thing again and we're doing it each and every day." He added: "We trust the Indonesian justice system to deal with the terrorists who were responsible for the Bali bombing. It's the same system that's dealing with narcotics trafficking."
So far this doesn't seem to have caught the public attention in quite the same way as the case of Nguyen Tuong Van back in November but there seems to be a kind of fascination with the death penalty here. I suspect that this won't be the last we hear on the matter.
