The Bali two: deserving of a fair trial and punishment

One of the most fundamental principles of justice is that punishment must fit the crime. This principle, known as proportionality, is not a culturally relevant, provincial rule. It applies to all governments across all cultures. This applies no less in Indonesia than it does in Australia.

Excessive (or for that matter lenient) punishment is unfair and cannot be tolerated by a society that has claims to moral enlightenment. The mere fact that a person has committed a crime does not mean that anything goes as far as punishment is concerned. So, people who drink-drive are normally put off the road for a year or so, drug-takers receive a small fine and we rarely send petty thieves to jail.

Capital punishment is especially repugnant. The cold blooded execution of healthy people who have an unyielding desire to live is brutality in its most obscene form. It has no redeeming features.

It does not reduce crime. This is incontestable. The data is conclusive. When countries abolish the death sentence, the crime rate does not increase. When it is introduced, the crime rate does not fall.

There is a not a single benefit to be derived from executing Myuran and Andrew.

The reflexive approach taken by some Australians that Myuran and Andrew knew the risks and hence must pay the price for their criminal activities - even if it means that their lives are extinguished as they have barely reached adulthood - is fundamentally flawed.

As a society, we are committed to the principle that we are not required to wear the full cost of risks that we assume. We don’t refuse medical treatment to drunks who walk into the path of cars, obese people are not denied heart by-passes and ambulances don’t travel slower when calls for help are received by drug-users.

We suspect that the reason that many people cling onto this simplistic mindset is because it allows them to avoid the horror of capital punishment and to place all of the burden back on the offender. This opt-out clause doesn’t work. There is too much at stake to allow indifference to set in - indeed the stakes couldn’t be higher.

This is certainly the case for Myuran and Andrew. It is also important for the rest of the community. We would all be considerably diminished if we condoned the cold blooded pointless killing of other Australians. Their culpability is appropriately punished by a long prison term.

Myuran and Andrew displayed an appalling lack of judgment by getting involved in drugs. A mind set that condones the decision to execute them would be even more flawed.