Monday, October 15, 2012

Are We Serious in Fighting Illegal Drugs ?

I always think that the circulation of Illegal Drugs in Indonesia has reached a very dangerous level, that our country has been dubbed by some news media as a haven for illegal drugs.

Those who have members of families and/or friends who are Drug Addicts/Junkies would know for sure that they would would do anything to satisfy their needs for illegal drugs, including lie, steal or even kill.

For that reason I always hope that the Courts of Justice in Indonesia would pass heavy punishments to anyone involved in the trade of illegal drugs as stipulated  by the Anti Narcotics Law No 22/1997 Article 80 i.e maximum Death Sentence, and the Anti Psychoactive Drugs Law No. 5/1997 Article 60 i.e maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Please read here for details.

Unfortunately, the facts show that the above laws have not been implemented properly. Those who were involved in Illegal Drug trades have been punished lighter than they supposed to be.

For example, last Friday President Susilo Yudoyono (SBY) granted Clemency to an Indonesian drug trafficker that has been sentenced to death by the District Court of Tangerang, Banten, the High Court and the Supreme Court. And last May, President SBY trimmed five years off Australian drug convict Schapelle Corby's 2 years prison sentence. Please read here for details.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court revoked the punishment of an Illegal Drug Lord i.e. Hengky Gunawan, from Death Sentence into a 15 years Prison Sentence. Please read here for details.

The saddest thing is that the above lightening of punishments were done based on the reason to upheld human rights of those Drug Traders/Dealers. I wonder whether the human rights of the Drug Addicts/Junkies and their families and friends have been forgotten.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Deadly Student Fightings in Jakarta

On Monday 24 September, two groups of students from two neighboring high schools in South Jakarta, i.e. SMA 6 and SMA 70, fought against each other using knives and other sharp weapons, causing the death of a student of SMA 6, Alawy Yusianto Putra.

Two days later on Wednesday 26 September, two other groups of high school students i.e. SMA Yayasan Karya 66 and SMK Kartika Zeni in Manggarai, South Jakarta, causing the death of Deni Yanuar of SMA YK 66.

On the same day, Susilo, a student of SMK Mahardika, East Jakarta, was stabbed by two students of another high school, luckily he was able to be brought to the hospital on time so his life has been saved.

The above three fighting were parts of many decades of fighting among students of high schools in Jakarta that seemingly cannot be prevented by the schools' management, students' parents and the Police.

In this connection I would like to quote an interesting opinion of blogger Unspun as follows :

School violence has been around in Jakarta for the better part of at least the past 25 years. Each time there is an intensifying of violence, the Government and others make the appropriate concerned voices and vow to put it to an end.
Then the problem ebbs from the headlines and everyone forgets about it…until the next spate of violence. This is a big pity because the ways of combating the violence have been discovered and even applied to at least one school. The solution is there but it’s all forgotten.

Considering that the student fighting is getting more deadly and regular every day, I hope that the government, the school management and parents of students would be more serious in finding ways to end such fighting.