Indonesia must not execute Chan & Sukumaran - the Australian Government must stop their executions

It's been a while since I've written a blog involving Indonesia and asylum seekers.  There hasn't been much activity in either until recently.

Today in Manus Island some detainees have sown their lips together and are on a hunger strike because they don't agree with the Liberal Government's policy on NEVER resettling them in Australia.  The bleeding heart lefties like Senator Sarah Hanson Young as you can imagine are waxing lyrical about how it's inhumane and they must be released into the community in Australia.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has made it very clear that will NEVER happen and that the Government's policy position has not changed.

Surely we would have learned our lesson on allowing Man Haron Monis into the country where he held Martin Place's Lindt Cafe staff and customers hostage on the 15th of December, eventuating in the death of two well loved and successful people, Tori Johnston and Katrina Dawson.  He claimed he was a refugee, yet it later emerged he had sucked in Amnesty International and the Government.  We must be choosy about who we let into the country or this will happen again.  We already have allowed others into the country.  Today it came to light that there are more young "Australian" (inverted commas because of the treason involved in betraying Australian values) Jihadists are fighting in Syria.  Often these "men" are the children of immigrant parents. 

When you agree to become an Australian citizen you agree to uphold Australian values.  Going to Syria to murder people and behead them is NOT what an Australian citizen would do and contradicts Australian values.  So were these people lying when they took the citizenship pledge?

Some say that drug smugglers should receive the same punishment as those who commit treason do.  I raise this point because two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are facing the firing squad in Indonesia later this year.  As it stands Andrew Chan is awaiting his clemency bid and he, and Sukamaran will be executed together.

The Indonesian government has said they will not grant clemency.  One has to wonder two things.  Are they doing this because of Australia's hard line approach on asylum seekers?  And why did they grant Schapelle Corby not only clemency, but parole?  Was it because she was a woman?  Did gender favouritism come into the equation?  I would hope not.

Some say that when people do the crime they must serve the time, and that's absolutely the case, but they've more than done that.  They've repented.  They've contributed to art works and they have helped the prison population with rehabilitation.  Surely those good deeds negate the mistake they made. 

It's one thing to kill people because they commit an act of terrorism, but that isn't what Chan and Sukumaran did.  They made the bad decision of trying to smuggle drugs into the country.  The two aren't comparable.  Incidentally Indonesia didn't come down as hard on the Bali nightclub bombers, so why the Australians?  Is it because they're foreigners?  Or is it an attack on Australia?

In an ideal outcome the Australian government would come to an agreement with the Indonesian government where either the Indonesian Government agrees to deport the men and they serve the rest of their natural lives in an Australian prison or they give Chan and Sukumaran back under the Prisoner Exchange Agreement (where Indonesia would also get back some of its citizens).

Whatever happens, the Australian Government must stop the execution of Chan and Sukumaran.  The crime does not warrant the punishment.  The Indonesian Government must also consider the effect on fellow inmates and how many future inmates may suffer without Chan and Sukumaran.