In fact, I wondered beforehand if I was alone in finding the whole Bali saga nauseating — especially the media’s elevation of Chan and Sukumaran to the status of undeserving victimhood.

As revealed in the Daily Mail story linked below, the executed duo were not gullible mules, but centrepins of a a long-running, far-reaching international syndicate — the Crescent Moon.  Chan, for example, had used the Bali 9 Renae Lawrence to smuggle heroin to Australia on two previous runs.  On his behalf, 17 other young Australians (beside the 9) ended up rotting their young lives away in Asian jails.

I am unequivocally against all capital punishment on principle, but I believe that if anyone deserved it, it would have been those two, cynical low-lifes.  As for their much-touted change of character after apprehension, I find that opportunistic and unconvincing.  Why didn’t they offer to testify against their syndicate’s local drug lord boss — who is known to police and media and lives in grand style and quite untroubled in Australia?

There is nothing about their past to suggest that, had they never been caught, the two would not today be gliding around Double Bay in Ferraris, smugly flashing their bling and feeling like masters of the universe!  And, as before their capture, utterly uncaring about the deaths and human wreckage that was subsidising their lifestyle.

Good riddance!

Turning homewards, I am deeply disturbed that Scott Rush’s father had voluntarily approached the Australian Federal Police to voice his worries that his 17-year-old son was about to do a drug run and could they prevent him (and the others) from facing the possibility of an Indonesian firing squad.  Instead of just waiting for them at Sydney Airport and nabbing them there (including, if necessary, cutting a deal with the Indonesian Police to that end), the AFP simply tipped off the Indonesians and let them sort it out themselves.  I cannot imagine what Rush Senior feels about this callous betrayal of his trust — and its consequences.

In any case, Chan’s and Sukumaran’s fate was sealed by Abbott’s bombastic finger-wagging and use of previous aid as leverage.  South-East Asians with still-fresh memories of their former colonial masters react very badly and predictably to bullying Westerners!

Finally, the Indonesians must be aware that Australia has never uttered a cheep of censure about the American states that execute people (after decades on death row) whose offence was committed while juvenile, or were certifiably raving mad or who had such a disablingly low intelligence that they couldn’t understand what was happening to them even while being strapped to the death room gurney.  Or those whose court-appointed defense counsel had been manifestly incompetent, drunk or had slept through much of their trial!

I agree, there is much to be angry about here…