Note: the signs are in English. Why? The trial was conducted in Indonesian. The two hour verdict was read in Indonesian. Schapelle had to listen to her fate as a translater haltingly related only portions of it, because the judges were screaming so loud and talking so fast no one could humanly perform simultaneous translation. The prison guards and inmates don't speak English. This was a ploy by some fascist group for media attention. We're happy to oblige and expose their barbarism.
Would I let my kid visit Bali? Over my dead body.
If you need another reason to cancel your trip to Indonesia, consider that the U.S. and Australia have warned in recent days that real terrorists (not Schapelle Corby supporters) have promised an attack on Jakarta hotels in early June.
Update: At least one snarky Indonesian columnist would welcome the boycott.
Indonesians shouldn't be upset either about Australians boycotting Bali. Giving the island a bit of a break from rowdy backpackers is not necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, it would give more room for those nouveaux riches from mainland China and Taiwan who actually seem to enjoy spending their dollars more than sunbathing on the beach, or for the real Europeans from the West who display by far better appreciation of the local culture and possessing finer sensibilities than their more uncouth counterparts from down under.
This letter to the editor of the Jakarta Post lays out some of the failings of the Indonesian legal system and the Australian Government in Schapelle's case.
Many Aussies are upset about the way the Corby trial has progressed, but that anger is as much about our government's handling of the case as it is about Indonesia's judiciary. Our federal police chief sent a letter to the court stating that there was no corruption at our airports, a fact that has been found to be totally false. Check-in film and baggage weight information was not made available; no baggage handlers have been interviewed and no expert legal counsel was made available to Corby's defense team until the very last minute.
Another matter that worries Australians is Bali's judicial system. The police did not fingerprint the bag, they did not check for the origin of the cannabis, they did not film the opening of the bags. And why they did not look into possible baggage tampering at the Bali airport? The prosecution boasted publicly that they only prosecuted guilty people.
Where is the presumption of innocence?
And why, as the writer asks, is there no transcript of the shout fest that was the verdict, "so anyone can look at all the evidence and the background to the verdict at a later date?"
