"Indonesia's state sovereignty and their right to implement law?":
That ended in 1950 when Sukarno crushed the United States of Indonesia and unilaterally declared that the other 15 States had decided to abolish themselves without a vote and had decided without a vote to become part of his Republic. It is shameful that Australia and the rest of the UN stood by and did nothing to refute the dictator's claims let alone help the people who were now effectively slaves.

As for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Indonesia didn't 'ratifiy' it until 2006 so I doubt they are too serious about it. Don't forget that Saudi Arabia declared it was in violation of Sharia law and that Indonesia has imposed Sharia law on Aceh as a substitute for independence.

You seem to endorse the claim of sovereignty that Indonesia makes, you seem to be willing to accept that Indonesia has a right to kill between 100,000 to half a million people in West Papua, why?

West Papua was a Dutch colony until Australia and the General Assembly agreed to occupy and take over responsibility for it as a UN trust territory in September 1962; we then accepted the offer by Indonesia to administrate our trust territory and under our wise trusteeship hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, their Councils and other civil organisations disbanded and declared illegal, Australia deported its medical stidents to Indonesia three weeks after we allowed Indonesia to assume the administration.

What about our responsibility to those million Melanesian people? How are we fulfilling our obligations under article 76 of the UN Charter? Canberra decided to supported General Assembly res.1752 for the occupation of the colony which is a 'entitlement' we gave ourselves under article 85 part 1 of the UN Charter but we are meant to only do that in order to protect people's human rights under article 76 etc.

Why are you able to see that killing Myuran and Andrew is wrong, but are able to accept the Indonesian killing and repression of our neighbours?

It is the media and TV that continue day after day to write articles about people they think we are interested in, whether it be criminals or certain babies, they are wrong, the majority of people are not at all interested in either the predicaments of criminals or a one off birth, because of wealth, we want to hear real stories of the poverty in the world, climate change, articles of a left viewpoint as well as the right etc, which we never hear.
The writer obviously does not consider the unnecessary deaths through war, these people do not have the chance to live as they wish to live but bombed out of existence, the two mentioned knew the law of Indonesia, that should have been the end of the story, you get yourself into being shot, accept it, we can all turn ourselves into looking good if our days on earth may be numbered.

"We connected with Myuran and Andrew. We saw their stories on the news every night."

Please don't include me in your "we", I had better things to concern myself with than a couple of miscreants who should have known what the consequences of their misdeeds would be.

David

I don't know my friend ? However what does concern me, why does an individual spend all that time and money on finishing medicine and go on to create some 'trendy' hamburger store ? I would've thought his University place in Med-School, would be more productive by giving it to someone who wishes to practice, not become some popular restaurateur ? Your extravagance and prodigality is breathtaking !

Thank you for this well written post Amit! I couldn't agree more with the idea that we can do so much more in this world, for so many people, if we show more empathy :)

MinP

"Thank you for this well written post Amit! I couldn't agree more with the idea that we can do so much more in this world, for so many people, if we show more empathy :)"

We can continue to make sure that drug dealers get their just deserts.
Indonesia has the right slant on this.

MinP

I agree with you, the article was well-written, and dealt very well with some difficult issues. I particularly likely the way it addressed the inadequacies of “hierarchies of compassion” that suggest we should calibrate our empathy to human suffering according to ideas of desert or obligation. Also, its point that empathy is the basis for ethics – a fact suggested also in the occurrence of the "golden rule" in so many religious and ethical traditions.

This variation on an old joke rather sums it up:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/2pa8r9/the_most_successful_lawyer/

Hey guys - thanks for your comments. It's my first oped piece and I plan to do it more regularly so I appreciate the feedback. I'll respond to some of the comments here:

1)Daeron - you wrote:

"You seem to endorse the claim of sovereignty that Indonesia makes, you seem to be willing to accept that Indonesia has a right to kill between 100,000 to half a million people in West Papua, why?"

I am genuinely surprised at this comment. I wrote quite clearly that state sovereignty is not a concept that can trump human rights. I also wrote about the genocide in West Papua specifically to bring attention to it. I said that what is happening there matters and it is being done by an Australian-backed military.

The point I was making is this: because I, and others, empathise with the travesty of killing Myuran and Andrew, it doesn't make us moral hypocrites. Empathy in any case is a good thing, and we should use it to address other, greater injustices in the world. And because you empathise with 100,000-500,000 West Papuans who have been murdered by the Indonesian military, it doesn't make you a moral hypocrite for not instead empathising with greater causes of suffering in the world.

The point here is that anytime we empathise with people in suffering, it is a good thing. And I would hope that people who initially empathised with Myuran and Andrew, would go on and consider other causes of suffering (the horror in West Papua included)

2) Ojnab -

You seem to be criticisng the media for their coverage of Myuran and Andrew. I would object here. Ultimately, Myuran and Andrew represent something bigger. They represent the horror that capital punishment causes period. They represent an argument for rehabilitation and reform in penal systems. The story allows people to connect with the greater issues.

I believe there is a place for statistics etc. in publications. However, I also think that people tend to connect with stories that link to a greater issue. I agree that climate change is one of the world most urgent social justice issues. However, you'll notice that people in general connect far more with individual stories of humans than with barren statistics. If newspapers were to write about people kept in poverty due to climate change, it would probably have a greater effect. Ultimately, publications write about what people are interested in - so you're wrong about people "not caring" about what happened in Bali.

Also, "The writer obviously does not consider the unnecessary deaths through war"... that is completely unfounded. Just because I empathise with two reformed individuals who were taken out and shot, it doesn't mean that detracts from my empathy for others. In fact I would argue the more you get in the habit of empathising with individuals, the greater your capacity for empathy is. Can you produce any evidence that people who cared about what happened to the executed drug traffickers were more likely NOT to care about innocent people killed in war

3) David -

Noted. I didn't mean to include people such as yourself. When I said "we" I was talking about those of us that did empathise with the two condemned men during the coverage. Obviously a significant proportion of people didn't.

4) o sung wu -

This was kind of, funny? What makes you think I won't practice? I worked very hard for my medical degree and I promise if you knew the 90 hour weeks I was putting in (study + working at the restaurant) you would hardly call it extravagent.

I wonder if you also expect a person studying "commerce" to go into the field of commerce, or a person studying law to go on and be a lawyer? Medical degrees are extremely useful. There are many people who use them to go into politics, law, journalism and business. Neither me, nor anybody else studying any degree, has an obligation to you or anybody else with what we do in life.

Also in regards to the comment about the "trendy" burger store - probably the single most disgraceful aspect of humanity today is our treatment of non-human animals. I encourage you to learn about what excessive meat consumption is doing to our environment, our health and of course, to our fellow animals. I also encourage you to consider whether you should eat meat at all. We need to urgently change the way we view animals and I hope Soul Burger will be a brand that brings about some kind of revolution in thinking. I view flexitarianism as a feasible solution to the way we eat today.

FYI - I am practicing medicine next year.

5) Thanks MinP and Rhian for the kind world. I especially feel like you, Rhian, get the article! Empathy is the basis for our morality and we shouldn't make people who empathise with individual causes of suffering feel as though they are moral hypocrites. Empathy, anytime, is a good thing and as a rule, will lead to a better world.

Thanks for the comments guys

I would have been happy to do the job myself. Garbage like those two are better removed before they contaminate their surroundings, or any more people..

If you want to empathise with anyone, do it with the ambulance paramedics who have to try to salvage the drug overdose fools every weekend.

Empathise with the families of those who have lost their kids to the muck garbage like this pair were happy to bring in to the country.

Perhaps you would see things differently if you were treating the victims, rather than feeding them.

Hasbeen, if he starts practicing medicine he will surely get an opportunity to see the other side of the coin and his empathy will change as he matures.
David

FYI - I was placed at a heroin and alcohol rehabilitation centre in my 4th year for 6 months. I've also done 2 rotations on drug and alcohol addiction medicine. So yes, I've seen the other side and have worked on rehabilitation of drug addicts. In either case, that's hardly constructive criticism so I'll opt out of these responses and wait for more engaged criticism -

Amit If you write articles you must expect differences of opinions, please accept that and continue writing, we have all worked in various fields and have our own opinions of what should be or should not be.

Amit most people are saying that these two drug mules deserve their fate, read comments in daily papers, one suggested they be given a VC and Knighthoods for their role as being criminals, people go to funerals just for idle curiosity, whether it be Prime Minister Malcolm Frazer or the two drug mules, most would not even know them, death is always the biggest question mark in life so curiosity abounds, being a non believer of the soap opera of a funeral where any man can read the bull the same as a parson, it is only a man or woman with collar or no collar and really means nothing, man said only, no proof in anything said.
The media of daily newspapers should regardless of who it is give only one publicity splurge for one day only, then drop it, instead of going on day after day, most people are not interested, if you are, then buy Women's Day, New Idea etc, we the majority of the public are sick to death of reading about these two heavenly criminal guys, also most would say the same about a gold spoon baby or gun happy man of privilege just to prove he can kill people like the Indonesians can.
Perhaps tonight after the TV funeral we can at last move on until the next lot see the dollar sign in the drugs they can sell to a gullible public, even with a noose around their neck by not reading the signs "Death Sentence for Drug Smuggling" so do it cop it.

Dr Tewari
I’m at a loss to understand why you are wasting your sympathies on convicted criminals who have roped others into serious crime, irrespective of the punishment the former receive/d.

You are investing in a restaurant when your medical skills are in extremely high demand in emergency wards at hospitals all around the country. You mention domestic violence twice in your article. You mention that a woman is killed every 8 days but let’s not worry about the context in which those murders occur. The important thing is that women are queuing up at casualty and at GP reception desks sporting sun glasses covering black eyes or presenting with contusions resulting from blows with baseball bats lent to their partners by the considerate neighbours living next door. We all agree that wife battering is widespread in Australian society mainly in the cities and not in Walgett.

Battered women would just love to be attended to by an empathetic doctor such as yourself. You could supplement your income by providing counselling services like explaining how easy it is to take out an “ex parte” domestic violence order and ask to examine their children so that they can use your expert opinion when claiming their partners are child sex abusers during FC child custody hearings.

Dr Tewari has every right to pursue whatever interests he likes. Does anyone suggest that Dr Richard Di Natale should stick to curing the sick? Anyway, Amit has said he will practice medicine. Attacks on his career choices are nasty attempts to play the man, not the argument.

Onjab, you say that “most people are not interested” in the fate of the Bali 2, but the fact they attracted so much media attention and public debate suggest the opposite. You may not be interested, perhaps. Don’t project your own indifference onto others.

The Bali 2 committed a serious crime and deserved to be punished. But the cruelty and violence of their fate, the mental anguish of 10 years on death row, the torment of their families and the cynical theatre of death that the Indonesian authorities orchestrated for public consumption are saddening and sickening

Rhian,

"Dr Tewari has every right to pursue whatever interests he likes." Who said or suggested he didn't have that right? I was just pointing out cynically an inconsistency in concerns over the guilty when compared to totally innocent "battered wife" victims.

Further, your analogy with Dr Di Natale is an extremely poor one, since I understood Di Natale to say to the press, one of his main concerns at the newly elected leader of the Greens is public policy in the area of medicine.

"but the fact they attracted so much media attention and public debate suggest the opposite." That statement is a lot of nonsense. The level of media attention and public debate, per se, does nothing to inform where sympathies lie.

My sympathies go to those close to the Bali2 and the other Bali7 who were talked into the smuggling operation/s and are now serving the prime time of their lives in prison.

Rhian they knew what they all were doing in the first place, otherwise do not start something criminal, money being the object to gain by selling to fools, but it failed perhaps you can advise us all on OLO where the money has come from for all the expenses, the funeral of one was an extravaganza which would have cost plenty, crime does pay which is completely wrong.
Many feel for them as you obviously do, but the majority of people do not, out of about 100 replies to a newspaper article 99.9% were not for them and most I know say they deserve what they got, thank goodness this whole saga is hopefully over, now we have someone with ice caught on them in China, didn't know it was there, what bull, a pair of sandshoes do not weigh the weight of the ice in his case, I didn't know it was there, crap, crap and crap! you deserve your fate, you know the laws of the country before you begin, so accept those laws.

Roscop
o sung wu described the author’s decision to take a year off to open a restaurant as “extravagance and prodigality”. Seems a bit harsh to me.

Where is your evidence that Dr Tewari has less concern for battered wives than the Bali 2? Empathy is not a hoard of scarce coins, which if given to one person cannot be given to another. Quite the reverse: people who have empathy for one person or group seem to me more likely to express empathy for others. This is one of the points the article makes. And in my experience the reverse is also true – for example, a large proportion of people on these forums who have no sympathy for the Bali 2 also express no sympathy for asylum seekers, for example.

My point about media attention and public debate was not to show the level of sympathy for the Bali 2, but to show the level of public interest in the case, which Onjab denied.

Dr Di Natale may well be advocating public policy affecting heath, but he is not practicing medicine. Given the Greens’ marginal political influence it is unlikely he’ll have much success.

Onjab
Yes I know they knew what they were doing, and I am not pretending they were saints. As I have said, they committed a serious crime and deserved to be punished. But 10 years on death row followed by a bullet in the chest seems cruel and excessive.

It’s hard to tell where be balance of opinion is on this. In my daily newspaper the balance of letters is about 50-50 in sympathy with the Bali 2, but that could be an attempt at editorial “balance”.

Rhian,

"Where is your evidence that Dr Tewari has less concern for battered wives than the Bali 2?" Herein!

Dr Tewari is writing about the treatment given to criminals...he is not writing about "battered wives" who are everywhere, even on the north shore suburbs of Sydney according to survey done by Salvos some time ago(the "battered women" in the north shore suburbs don't go to refuges because refuges don't have swimming pools and tennis courts). Isn't that a ranking of the doctor's concerns?

Thanks for the responses.

In response to me prioritising the two men recently executed over battered wives, that's absolutely untrue. In fact, the point of the article is to highlight how such an accusation is inconsistent.

Roscop, I could use your comments as an example of how poor such reasoning is. You've written about battered wives (and I agree domestic violence is an enormous cultural cancer we need to address), but did you write about the 3.1 million children who die of poor nutrition every year? Does that mean you don't care about them? Should I accuse you of hypocrisy?

On the contrary, empathy is something we should all practice more. It is not of finite quantity that you should use sparingly. And I very much agree with Rhian who infers that those who tend to practice empathy less, empathise less in general. I was actually at Myuran's funeral, and almost every speaker made a note to encourage the attendees to continue fighting the death penalty. It was obvious the funeral wasn't just about Myuran, but about the cause as a whole

In regards to the comment about my career choices, I've explained earlier that I consider our treatment of animals (along with climate change and death from preventable disease) as one of the most urgent social justice issues of our time. I advise you to research factory farming, watch the countless expose on farming practices and consider the food you eat every day. If I can be part of that solution, then I consider it enormously useful. In fact, I am positive that we will have to explain to our grandchildren how we were complicit in such barbaric treatment of our fellow animals.

However, I also love medicine and I will practicing that as well. I'll reiterate though that medical degrees are used for numerous careers such as business, politics, health advisory, law etc. I wonder if you are as critical towards doctors who choose to take a gap year and travel? I know many doctors who've taken years off to pursue sporting interest, artistic interests etc. And for the main part, they are generally encouraged. Ultimately you are criticising me for how I use my time, and I think that's very, very strange. Can you actually justify how you use your time? Are you saying we are all morally obligated to try to do as much as possible every day to be of greatest benefit to humanity?

Lastly, I'll note that, contrary to what you're saying, medical graduates are in abundant supply - it is actually the training positions that are rare. There is a common term "medical student tsunami" that refers to this coming trend of an explosion of graduates without training positions.

Either way, I'd probably rather stick to a discussion about the article as opposed to whether I should defend university graduates who choose to pursue other interests (serious or recreational) in their own time.

Amit it seems strange you went to the funeral and what did you go for? was it idle curiosity like so many media funerals these days, daresay you never knew him personally so why bother going, it proves nothing, you could have prayed for him in your own backyard, which would of had the same meaning as being present there.
Having previously asked where has the money come from to afford an extravaganza funeral, with no answers, also who has been paying expensive lawyers, did it come from previous junkie trips to Indonesia? they were drug mules and knew the consequences of their actions and could make them very rich.
We only hope the taxpayer has not had to fork out for two misfits who can only blame themseves for being executed, perhaps you can enlighten us all?, perhaps all those at the funeral opened their wallets and paid for the extravaganza, but I think not, idle curiosity only.

Amit, it would have been more to the point if the speakers at the funeral service had concentrated on the reason that the two miscreants had been in the position that they found themselves. There were more lessons that could have been learned too. One would have been not to trust in a non existant god to save him.
David

Indonesia is 100% correct in proceeding with executions of the drug convicts.

Last thing Indonesia need are foreign drug cartels operating with impunity. We'd rather nip the cartel threat in the bud by shooting them dead before it grew into a cancer like what happened in Colombia or Mexico.

Proud to be Indonesian thank you for your comments, the Australian Government, Media and TV stations created a circus out of the whole thing, most Australians I know agreed that it was Indonesian law and had to be upheld, they were after all drug mules and caused pain to other members of the drug cartel which they created, their lives now ruined by being in the drug money game which never eventuated for them.
The sight of this Government lighting candles for these drug mules was sickening to say the least, other far worthy people deserve to have candles lit for them, not criminals

Amit Tewari, "Lastly, .. medical graduates are in abundant supply - it is actually the training positions that are rare"

You are raising a very sore point for Australians: that universities are in cahoots with major hospitals to reserve medical trailing vacancies for the international students they make their money from.

In turn, the federal government (both sides) doles out free citizenships to international students, including medical students. For a relatively small up-front investment the international students and their families they import through family reunion make a substantial profit.

Returning to the trafficking of dangerous, highly addictive drugs, it is unimaginable that someone who trained as a doctor would not also be appreciative of the problems faced by Second and Third World countries in stemming the supply of drugs when there are international drug cartels involved in the highly profitable trade.

There are indirect effects of the trade too, one of which in Indonesia's case is the explosion of HIV linked to drugs and the very concerning leap of HIV to young heterosexual women who are or will be having children. What about them?

Especially where commercial quantities of heroin and methamphetamine are concerned it IS a war that is being fought 24/365. The two convicted and duly executed were key figures and stand-over men who also recruited others.

The maudlin politically-correct sentimentality shown towards the executed convicts typically has no room for any consideration of the victims and over-burdened health systems.

My, "You are raising a very sore point for Australians: that universities are in cahoots with major hospitals to reserve medical trailing vacancies for the international students they make their money from",

should be,

"You are raising a very sore point for Australians: that universities are in cahoots with major hospitals to reserve medical TRAINING vacancies for the international students they make their money from".

Proud to be Indonesian
The Indonesian Government pleads for the lives of its citizens when they are sentenced to death in other countries. Seems highly hypocritical to me.

@Rhian:

Indonesian government does not plead for all Indonesians on overseas death-row, only for those with questionable guilt or other mitigating circumstances (eg Indonesian domestic worker in Saudi Arabia who killed her employer in self-defence against rape and abuse). Sometimes Indonesian govt pay blood money to save such special cases from death penalty.

For Indonesian drug dealers caught overseas, Indonesian govt only help with providing lawyer etc which is standard practice for any country's diplomatic service.