Jayapura, Jubi/Antara – Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno remarked that Indonesian youths may launch a cyber attack on Australia in retaliation for the Tony Abbott government’s threat.
“Some time ago, Australians hit Indonesia through a cyber attack. Now, Indonesian youths might retaliate in the same way,” Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno said while attending the 14th congress of the National Committee of Indonesian Youth (KNPI) here on Thursday (26/2/2015).
He delivered his statement in front of a thousand Indonesian youths who were attending the congress in Papua. He was explaining the government’s stance on foreign pressure to cancel the death penalty.
According to the minister, President Joko Widodo is committed to combating drug abuse and trafficking. The policy of death sentence for drug dealers is not negotiable.
“The President is not going to pardon drug offenses,” he added.
Therefore, the Indonesian government is not afraid of threats related to the execution of foreign drug dealers. Australia, he noted, will issue four threats if the Indonesian government executes two Australian drug smugglers, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. The four threats will be withdrawal of ambassadors, boycott of Indonesia’s tourism destinations, withdrawal of aid to Indonesia and its citizens overseas.
Last week, while making a plea for two Australian drug traffickers on death row, Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott mentioned the country’s relief aid to Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami disaster.
“Abbott’s comments hurt Indonesia’s people,” he pointed out.
In response to Abbott’s comments, a group of people in Jakarta collected coins to raise funds to symbolically return Australia’s financial aid for the tsunami disaster in Aceh in 2004. The move was in protest against Abbott reminding Indonesia about his country’s humanitarian aid while he was making a plea for the lives of Andrew Chan and Sukumaran.
A similar action was launched by Muslim students in Aceh, saying they felt insulted by Abbott’s statement.
Earlier, an academic from the University of Pelangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Prof. Dr. HM Norsanie Darlan said the death penalty will serve as a deterrent.
Drug abuse causes death; therefore, drug dealers deserve death,” Prof. Darlan noted here on Sunday night.
“We hope that death sentence, in addition to serving as a deterrent, would be a lesson that will stop other people from smuggling drugs into the country,” he remarked.
He stressed Indonesia should not be bothered by protests from other countries, such as Australia and Brazil, and even the United Nations Secretary-General.
According to him, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s statement, which reminded Indonesia about its humanitarian aid while attempting to save two Australians from execution, reflected his frustration.
“He (Abbott) is not aware that two of his people have caused much damage to the Indonesian people, mainly young boys and girls,” he pointed out.
Earlier, the Indonesian government stated that drugs claimed at least 50 Indonesians daily.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said he will turn down all clemency appeals from drug convicts.
According to the government, the country is in a state of emergency and that it has the third largest number of drug addicts in the world and has become a major centre of international drug syndicates.
The government’s decision to issue the harshest punishment to drug dealers has received wide support, including from religious organizations and parliament.
The General chairman of the country’s largest non-political Islamic organization Nahdatul Ulama, Said Aqil Siradj, stated, “we should not waste time listening to protests from other countries.” “We should execute drug criminals to save our 240 million people,” Aqil added.
A lawmaker from the Commission III, Asrukl Sani, observed that Abbott was capitalizing on the death sentence issue to prop up his declining popularity.
The Attorney General’s Office is preparing to execute 8 drug convicts and three prisoners convicted of premeditated murders whose appeals for clemency have been turned down by the President.
Besides Myuran Sukumaran and Andre Chan from Australia, the other convicts are from the Philippines, France, Ghana, Spain, Brazil, and Indonesia.
The three convicts facing execution for premeditated murders are all Indonesians.
Sukamaran and Chan were arrested in April 2006 for attempting to smuggle in 8.3 kilograms of heroin to Bali. (*)
