Australians remain worked up about the Shapelle Corby verdict - in which the Australian native was give a 20-year sentence for smuggling drugs to Bali. While there is debate over her guilt or innocence, there is a general consensus in the English-language blogosphere that the sentence was far too harsh.
Fabian thinks Indonesians should be also be upset about disproportionate administration of justice within their country, and not just when it comes to Corby.:
Indonesia has two main anti-drugs laws, which were introduced in 1997 to replace a 1976 law on narcotics offenses….
Critics claim that former president Suharto’s regime passed the separate law on psychotropic substances - with the lighter penalty - because children of certain powerful members of the ruling elite were allegedly involved in the ecstasy trade.
Following the fall of Suharto in May 1998, some of the elite’s children were no longer immune to prosecution for possession of narcotics, although they received more lenient sentences than other offenders.
