Drug executions signal end of Indonesian president's honeymoon
David McRae says Indonesia's recent executions of drug traffickers highlight Widodo's short-term thinking within a corrupt system
The execution of eight narcotics convicts in Indonesia last week brings President Joko Widodo's fleeting international honeymoon to a definitive close. Fourteen drugs prisoners have now been put to death in just over six months under Widodo, 12 of them foreigners.
These killings preserve democratic Indonesia's membership of an unenviable club. Only 11, mostly authoritarian, nations have executed drugs convicts since 2004, according to comparative scholars.
Ironically, Widodo's election was seen as a clean break from an authoritarian past, as he made his name as a democratic-era mayor and governor.
That cachet has now evaporated as Indonesia faces the ire of its key international partners over the unseemly rush to execute their citizens. Brazil and the Netherlands withdrew their ambassadors when their citizens faced the firing squad in January; Australia has now recalled its envoy over the latest executions.
Intensifying international anger, some of those executed were still pursuing legal challenges to administration of the death penalty. Others had judicial reviews summarily dismissed despite uncertainty in Indonesian law over their legality.
The international scrutiny generated by the executions has also shone an unforgiving light on Indonesia's weak and graft-riddled judicial system. Clear examples have emerged of arbitrary and inconsistent application of the death penalty. Allegations of corruption have also been levelled.