You'd have to be on drugs to go to Bali, the Indonesian Animal Farm!

You'd have to be on drugs to go to Bali, the Indonesian Animal Farm!
By Eric Arthur Blair
Aug 17, 2007, 06:13

Bali Judge Martin Bidara, Indonesian pig

Where do we begin? OK, first a well documented fact list about narcotics in Bali and Indonesia. The Indonesian police work with and make money from the narcotics rings operated by the Golkar party youth wing called "Laskar Bali" (the main drugs operation on the island). An EU consul in Bali recently warned foreigners that Balinese police were planting drugs on westerners in order to be able to extort money from them. The cheapest place to buy narcotics in Bali is in jail, where cell bosses actually demand you take and become addicted to drugs; a recent example of this was Michelle Leslie’s first blood sample proved negative for narcotics, her second test just days after being jailed proved positive, so it was either spiked or she took drugs while in jail. Muslims receive lighter jail sentences than non-Muslims in Indonesia; a documented fact and probably why Michelle Leslie wore Muslim robes and claimed to have converted to Islam.

When the Balinese mafia police are ordered by Jakarta to crack down on narcotics they either target drug rings / customers outside Laskar or get one of their street dealers to nail a customer; the dealer indicates to waiting police when a westerner has bought drugs from them and walks away with the police always claiming the dealer could not be caught as he ran or sped away on a motorbike. The Indonesians generally only close down narcotics manufacturers and smugglers when the Australian Federal Police tip them off; vis a vis the Bali 9.

Yet more Indonesian narcotics disgraces come from the fact a foreigner caught with personal use quantities of drugs in Bali will typically get two years in jail, unless they can convince the judge they are addicts in which case they typically will get 3 months. Hence the plethora of charged westerners all claiming to be in rehab; narcotics rehab in Indonesia?! So a western tourist who goes to Bali and decides to smoke a joint based on the fact there are so many street dealers around it must be tolerated, gets a longer sentence than a foreigner who goes to Bali with the intention of taking drugs while they are there. Forget the fact the large number of street dealers makes you feel it is OK which, as they are there with the consent and protection of the police constitutes entrapment, it is mighty odd to say the least that a premeditated crime carries a lesser sentence than an un-meditated crime for the same act. Also of course comes the fact that criminal investigations which should fail because the evidence is compromised, as with Schapelle Corby, go on to prosecution in Bali. Plus the police can detain you for up to 60 days (90 days with extension), during which time you will probably be required to take narcotics by the cell boss. Plus the fact Human Rights Watch states the Indonesian police use rape against their victims. Plus the fact the legal basis of innocence until proven guilty is often ignored by Indonesian judges. Then you can see it is very easy to be falsely accused and then convicted or extorted for alleged narcotics offences in Bali. So now onto recent narcotics cases in Bali which makes this even worse, when you though that is not possible.

Italian Andrea Baldini, Belgium chef Jean Francois Brouck and English / Australian DJ Nicholas Bernard Taylor are all being charged with narcotics possession in Bali after a police raid in June. What makes this case interesting, apart from the fact this year’s preferred legal hack (Balinese lawyer) Erwin Siregar, accused by many to be as bent as they come, is the defending lawyer yet again after last year’s favorites, the Lubis sisters (see: Bali lawyers) fell out of favour with the police and judiciary over comments they made which showed large sums of money were needed for corruption in the Schapelle Corby case; the irony being they were working on the case with Erwin Siregar of course. Anyway, what makes the above trio’s case interesting is that they clearly never had the chance to buy their way out of trouble, as most people do when they are accused of such things on the “paradise” island. You see, the police are not that clever and blurted out the fact they had been following Andrea Baldini for two weeks before making the bust. They also proudly stated that Baldini had offered them lots of money to make the problem go away, as it normally would in Bali. The fact the police made a point of trumpeting they would not accept a bribe plus the fact Baldini was followed for 14 days likely means just one thing; the police had been paid by the Italian’s enemies to put him in jail. Unlucky for the chef and DJ who were both it seems working unlawfully in Bali, without permits, but deportation is the least of their worries right now!

Speaking of money, Bali’s narcotics police, chefs and Erwin Siregar, let us now ponder the plight of poor Ronald Ramsay, brother of immensely wealthy Gordon Ramsay, the world’s favorite TV chef and cookery book writer. Poor Ronald got busted for narcotics possession in February this year and is now being charged for drugs possession. Hmmmmm, Ramsay was arrested in February while Baldini (above) was arrested in June but they both come to trial at the same time; seems Baldini was put on the fast-track! Anyway this is a story about how obviously corrupt Erwin Siregar and the police are in Bali, because of what Siregar recently said. You see Siregar is defending Ronald Ramsay, of course, and is on record as publicly pleading through the media for brother Gordon Ramsay to come to Bali as his brother, arrested Ronald, “needed him”. Such compassion you might think, but then ask yourself what the hell Ronald’s lawyer is doing making such a request. Surely, if Ronald was in a poor state and Ramsey was being urged to come to Bali to see him, the British Foreign Office would have made that request in private right? So why then was Erwin Siregar pleading for Ramsey to come to Bali? We are sure the same reason Ronald is not now getting off lightly, because the plea was for Ramsey’s wallet to come to his brother’s aid, not the famous chef himself. And now because Ramsey’s wallet did not come, Ronald is now going to jail for longer then he might.

Erwin Siregar, police station bound, with some “publicity” and “lobbying” budget?

Shame for Erwin of course as well as some “publicity” and “lobbying” budget (memories of unaccounted for thousands in the Michelle Leslie case and the reasons given by the Lister cronies for wanting hundreds of thousands dollars from the Australian Government in the Schapelle Corby case) would have made him an even wealthier man. Before the advent of western media interest requiring “lawyer” involvement pushing narcotics bribe prices up, Erwin was just a humble lawyer in a humble office in a not so nice area of Denpasar. Now Siregar can take expensive holidays abroad to Japan (big $ and please note, not Australia) and afford many other luxuries in life. But wealthy Gordon Ramsay’s refusal to come and “bail” his brother out in Bali with some significant lawyer’s expenses must have burst Erwin’s recent hopes! Although Erwin we are told is onto a good earner with some dodgy dealings with the German consul for Bali; if anyone has information on this, we would love to do a story on the unsavory foreign consuls that operate in Bali one day soon.

Now onto the disgusting and all telling recent events connected with Erwin Siregar’s other famous clients, some of the so called “Bali Nine” who are on death row. You may recall the Australian authorities are taking some deserved criticism over this case because they disclosed the details of the drugs operation to the Indonesians, who “knew nothing” about it previously of course, rather than arrest the Bali 9 when they arrived in Australia. Why is that so bad? Because Indonesia has the death penalty for narcotics smuggling, Australia does not, but by doing it this way the Australian authorities have basically broken their own and the International agreements on human rights. Anyway, six members of the Bali Nine are on death row and three of them are Siregar’s clients, although our story now is about the other three ring members on death row who have a different lawyer, Farhat Abbas; Australians Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen. You see, Farhat Abbas had made an appeal to the Supreme Court in Jakarta via the Denpasar District Court in Bali for the death penalty to be commuted on constitutional grounds; that their execution would be unconstitutional because there is no proof anyone would have died as a result of the drugs the Bali Nine were carrying and therefore executing them would be unlawful.

This week a Denpasar court official let it slip to the media that the three judges in Bali have denied the appeal, although it now is the decision of the Jakarta Supreme Court to decide if these three men get murdered by the state or not. Were the Balinese judges and Indonesian authorities sorry about the immense premature grief and suffering this leak means to the condemned and their friend and families? Why no, they are very, very angry that the news got out! Chief judge in this case in Bali Martin Bidara, who clearly by token of his own name is not Balinese, is furious. But why is Judge Bidara so angry? The answer has nothing to do about security or the emotional effect on Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, it because it shows the three Bali judges, with Martin Bidara at the helm considers the Indonesian constitution and protections thereof do not apply to foreigners; Indonesians are more equal than foreigners in Bali. That’s right, Bali’s senior most judiciary have been caught committing discrimination, racism; that is why they are so angry.

Normally the matter (the 3 Bali judge’s decision) would just stay in a sealed envelope for Jakarta to ultimately review and decide, without implicating the judges in Bali in their ultimate decision. However, this leak now shows all foreigners that the highest court in Bali considers them to have less human rights then Indonesians, official. We suspect the pressure being put on Indonesian president “SBY” that death sentences would be bad for business, will or rather has already been relayed to the Supreme Court, but it is too late for the courts in Bali, this is absolute proof that they discriminate racially against westerners. Bali is a modern day Animal Farm and the Indonesians are, well, pigs.

So, if you are an occasional drug user, become an addict before you go to Bali. If you do not take drugs and therefore can think a little bit more clearly, ask yourself why in hell you would want to go to an island where you are beneath the Indonesian pigs. Please, these events prove foreigners are nothing but wallet carriers to be abused out of jealousy whenever circumstances permit; please, do not go to Bali / Indonesia, do not invest in Bali / Indonesia and do not buy Indonesian goods until the 3 Bali judges are themselves in jail for racism.