As the number of drug users rises rapidly in Indonesia, public opinion is hardening with support growing for a shoot-to-kill policy similar to the one in the Philippines.
Indonesia – one of 25 countries in the world that still carries out capital punishment – has seen an increasing use of the death penalty since president Joko Widodo took power in 2014, most of them for drug-related offences.
The courts have sentenced 35 people to death since the start of the year and has an increasingly long list of people on death row, according to the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras). The number is expected to grow as the government cracks down harder on the drugs trade.
“I believe that Indonesia should be tougher on drug dealers,” said Vandana Nanwani, a 23-year-old woman living in Jakarta.
“From the outside, we see these executions as inhuman, but what we don’t see is the people in rehabilitation centers. They are so addicted to drugs that they are not able to do anything because they can’t live without it. Is that the future of Indonesia?”
Last year, Indonesia recorded an estimated 5.9 million drug users, an increase of 64% compared to five years earlier, the global NGO network Drug Policy Consortium said. Meanwhile, 33 die daily on average because of drugs, according to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).
In Indonesia, as in the Philippines, crystalline methamphetamine is the primary drug of concern, according to a UN report about its spreading across Southeast Asia.
Other politicians just talk. He takes action. Killing bad people is good
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has executed around 4,000 people in a controversial war on drugs since taking office in June.
While the Philippine campaign has raised alarm from several Western countries, including the White House and United Nations, the president is highly popular among his own people.
“God bless him,” said Angela, a Filipino domestic helper living in Hong Kong. “Other politicians just talk. He takes action. Killing bad people is good.”
Now, Indonesia seems to be flirting with the idea of launching a similar killing spree.
The head of Indonesia’s anti-narcotics unit, Budi Waseso, recently told a press conference that he’d like to copy the Philippines’s policy in his own country. He added that Indonesia had already begun to organize heavy weapons, drug-sniffing dogs and police personnel to carry out a crackdown.
“The life of a dealer is meaningless,” Waseso said, because a dealer “carries out mass murder. How can we respect that?”
“If such a policy [as that of the Philippines] were implemented in Indonesia, we believe that the number of drug traffickers and users in our beloved country would drop drastically.”
His words echo those of Duterte who said he would be “happy to slaughter” millions of drug addicts, likening himself to Adolf Hitler and his extermination of the Jews.
Widodo and Duterte met in September and expressed optimism regarding cooperation in eliminating drug crime.
As support grows in Indonesia for a shoot-to-kill policy, an opinion piece in Asean Today said that more has to be done to battle the “endless invisible war.”
“If you are a drug dealer, you should be shot,” said Amy, an Indonesia woman living in Hong Kong. “But it has to go through the courts so no innocent people are killed.”
She added that many of her friends, however, support a Duterte-style crackdown where suspected drug traffickers are simply shot dead in the street.
Professor Tim Lindsey, director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at Melbourne Law School, said the war on drugs has become an important part of president Widodo’s agenda since he first promised “no mercy” to drug offenders in his 2014 election campaign.
A series of executions of drugs offenders, mainly foreigners, has been accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric about drug traffickers being mass murderers.
“There seems to be strong popular support for this approach, although there are civil society groups and intellectual leaders campaigning against it,” he said.
“It remains to be seen how this debate will unfold. But while the war on drugs is popular, there is little evidence of support for extra-judicial killings of drugs suspects of the kind seen in Duterte’s Philippines.”
We can’t shoot criminals just like that, we have to follow the rules
Lindsey added that memories of the 31-year dictatorship of Suharto and the killing of his opponents mean there would be widespread resistance to that level of state lawlessness in Indonesia.
It’s not the first time a Southeast Asian country has launched a widespread war on drugs. In early 2003, Thailand’s then-prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, announced a crackdown, saying: “In this war, drug dealers must die.”
A spokesperson for the National Narcotics Agency tried to play down Waseso’s pro-Duterte declarations by stating that Indonesian law forbids a Philippines-style police offensive against drugs dealers because “we can’t shoot criminals just like that, we have to follow the rules.”
Nevertheless, Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said he’s concerned over the comments by the anti-narcotics chief and the increased use of the death penalty against drug traffickers.
“We need to be vigilant to the potential threat that Duterte’s willingness to trash the concept of rule of law as part of a so-called ‘war on drugs’ might be wrongly perceived as a model by Indonesian police,” said Kine, who oversees HRW’s work in Indonesia and the Philippines.
“The fact that Jokowi has embraced the use of the death penalty as ‘shock therapy’ against drug trafficking, despite the fact that the alleged deterrence effect of the death penalty has been repeatedly debunked, underscores the danger of simple and brutal government ‘solutions’ to the very complex problems of drug use and criminality.”
More nations should copy President Duterte success in the war on drugs. More than one million drug users under rehabilitation and given a second chance for a good life. No doubt, the killing of 2500 drug dealers has become a hot issue, but is only 0,25% killed compared to those rescued from a path to drug death. Innocent victims have been caught in the crossfire and this is very regrettable. It sad that the police has been killed and injured during the shootouts with the heavily armed drug dealers.
For some reason those involved in complaining does not care about the brave men and women in uniform who risk their lives to fix the immense Filipino drug problems.
The unfortunate with the Philippine war on drugs is too much involvement from vigilantes who is sick and tired of drug dealers selling drugs to their kids in the neighborhood. So far the police (PNP} have noticed a 20% reduction in crime in the cleaned areas.
Drug smugglers, horder, sellers should be shot on the sight if they caought red handed. all these have no mercy for mankind should be executed. If they belive they have to kill our brother,sisters, childrens and destroy socity and humen generations to make money, each socity should execute these criminals at sight. west is more intrested in saving criminial indiviual right and comapre to the rights of the humanity.
Sorin Stamu of course you won’t since you are a drug addict
Sorin Stamu nobody will visit Philippines in the near future if most of the people think the way you did, so narrow.
Sorin Stamu you need to widen your horizon to understand reality.
the idea that anayone can kill anyone without any legal process is more poisonous than any drug.
Safer to visit? I will never ever go to a country where the police can kill people whenever they want. I visited Philippines before, but I will never go again there…
Do people believe that wide scale shoot to kill will never transition to political, social, ethnic or religious rivals? Anyone asking to take that authority back would be immediately accused of aiding and abetting…
If west like to use those drugs let them use it. But we can’t poıson our kıds.
Drugs and their use is rotting societies in all western styled democracies. When the rule of law does not protect the country and it´s citizens then harsher methods need to apply. The US could use just such a policy. Drugs in a society are like a canser in your body, you have to use radical methods to root it out. Dutarte is doing the right thing. Because he is interfering in the CIA sponsored drug trade he is the bad guy. But he ain´t no bad guy. He is the right guy for his times. An addicted population will never build a country.
"Lindsey added that memories of the 31-year dictatorship of Suharto and the killing of his opponents mean there would be widespread resistance to that level of state lawlessness in Indonesia."
Nonsense. Suharto overthrew the government of Sukarno, the father of the nation, destroyed the Communist Party and killed a million of its members. A real CIA operation. Drug lords are on the same side of the political fence of the coup makers in 1965.
It is so sad everyone in the media is putting out all the bad sides of President Duterte war on drugs. Even Filipino newspapers has started glorifying alleged drug lord like Mayor Espinosa, purely for political reasons.
One million Filipinios has been rescued from a miserable life as a drug addict. This is only a small part of the picture. The entire family of the drug addicts suffers, so Duterte’s war on drugs has helped many millions. Yes, 4.000 “drug dealers” have been killed, this is approximately 0,4% of the number of rescued. Some of the “drug dealers” is clearly innocent victims and this sad fact must be improved. China has pledged funds for more rehabilitation centers, the rest of the world only scream bad stuff about President Duterte. A heavy handed approached works, it will deter youth to indulge in drug crimes. I have lived in the Philippines for many years and seen local community been destroyed of drugs in a matter of years.
President Duterte do not forget the girls in the “Red Light” districts. The money the girls earn should go to their families and to create a new future for themselves. Today, more and more of the girls money ends up in the pockets of cynical drug dealers.
President Duterte war on drugs will reduce crimes and make the Philippines a safer place to live and visit. I sincerely hope the war on drugs continues, but please try to reduce the number of innocent killed. Consider to close the drug infested “Red-Light” districts if the PNP is not able to clean out the drugs, it would improve the Philippines image as a family tourist destination.
Joko, don’t be afraid. Kill them, kill them all. The West will cry it’s crocodile tears and try to condemn you but in the future you will be hailed as a hero.
"Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has executed around 4,000 people in a controversial war on drugs since taking office in June" – Do you think our President ordered them killed? If druglords were killing each other, then you put the blame to our President?