In Reply to: Drug charges posted by Stephen on Wednesday, 26. January 2005 at 08:43 Bali Time:
According to Indonesian Health Authority figures, 57,000 people die in Indonesia every year from tobacco-related illness. But they have yet to apply a fine for those who transgress the recent laws regarding smoking in public buildings and on public transport (there was a story in today's Jakarta post about how they are trying to get a one million Rp fine through parliament).
As a smoker, I love Indonesia. You can do it anywhere, so long as it's ok with those around you (which I believe should be the law in every country -- do we really need statutes on consideration to others?).
Marijuana is a problem (even though the effects are much less harmful than tobacco), because it might make people think other drugs are ok... Like a pot smoker might try ecstacy, and that could lead to dancing... which might lead to sex... which makes baby Jesus cry.
If virtue is its own reward, isn't vice its own punishment? If you smoke or drink, you die sooner and your quality of life is (according to "experts") diminished. Isn't that enough? Do we need to be penalised further through excessive taxes and fines?
Ok, so some will argue that this chick was bringing drugs into Indonesia to diminish the life of others. Fair enough. But shouldn't the CEO of British American Tobacco also be facing the firing squad? (Apart from BAT's role in the death of a million alleged communists in the 1960's -- that's another story that no-one is interested in.) And Sampoerna used to sponser golf tournaments in Bali. Surely that's tantamount to pushing dangerous drugs.
Even ironicer (which isn't even a word), the Sampoerna company was started by a guy who found that smoking tobacco with cloves helped his asthma. It was originally advertised as a health product.
Anyway... if she's guilty, she's stupid, and stupid people should be killed (coz they're responsible for more deaths and problems than tobacco). If she's innocent, I can't see why the Indo Government would be part of the conspiracy, coz it's costing them money and her corpse won't be worth much. Every dodgy thing they do is geared towards making money.
In which case, if she's innocent, it was a private set-up, which should easily be proved with fingerprints and pollen counts. Have these things been done? They seem to be standard issue on TV.
And if airlines are so finicky about weighing our bags, and if they have computers (which I'm fairly certain they do), yet they don't know if her boogie board weighed the same on the way in as it did on the way out, then why are they weighing our bags? For security? Nope. For easy money. So screw them.
On the upside... if Indonesian prosecuters secure a win in this case, they'll be doing a hell of a lot better than they've done when they were trying to prosecute anyone convicted of corruption charges (from Suharto down). Maybe it will be good for their morale.