Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia Melanjutkan Kehidupan Islam
Muhammad Ismail Yusanto, the spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia
As reported, President SBY has approved sentence reduction to a number of death convicts in drug cases. Among them are Deni Setia Maharwan alias Rafi and Merika Pranola Ola known as Tania, whose sentences were changed to life imprisonment. Earlier, on the 26th of September 2011, President SBY also issued clemency which changed the death row of the drug convicts on behalf of Ola from death penalty to life imprisonment.
The decision to grant the clemency or sentence reduction by the president to a number of death convicts in drug cases is questionable. If the clemency is issued based on humanitarian grounds, does the President forget that drugs have now become a very serious threat to the safety of the people in this country, especially the younger generation? The number of drug-related crimes increased from 26,000 cases in 2010 to 29,000 cases in 2011, together with the increase in the number of addicts year to year. According to the Secretary of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Inspector General Police Bambang Abhimanyu, the number of drug addicts in Indonesia has reached 3.8 million, while the socio-economic losses are more than Rp 50 trillion per year due to its social impacts; decline in the quality of the human resources; because of suffering from permanent disability; and the side effects in the form of thefts or violent crimes; as well as the rehabilitation costs to be incurred. Every day 50 people die from drugs directly or contract HIV / AIDS through injection. Not only the consumers, but also their families and people in general suffer. This happened in the case of Afriyani recently, who hit 12 pedestrians, nine of whom died. On 22nd of January, she drove her car under the influence of the ecstasy in Ridwan Rais Street, Gambir, Central Jakarta, and hit those victims.
This is the result when the laws of jahiliyah (secular laws) are used as the basis for regulating the social life and the state. Such laws are so flexible that these laws become the objects of various vested interests, and as a consequence such laws never generate legal certainty. With the pretexts of having the prerogative rights, in this case the president pays more attention to the humanity of the defendants, while ignoring the interests of the people who become the victims and are threatened by drug crimes. This legal uncertainty would ultimately harm the life of common people because the existing laws are unable to resolve the problems faced by the community, for example, the drug crimes.
Thus, granting clemency shows that the president is no longer concerned about the safety of his people. Moreover, his decisions turned out to be more concerned with the image and praise from outsiders. According to Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, granting clemency follows the international trends as practiced in many countries to reduce the death penalty. According to Marty, 140 out of the 193 UN member states have abolished death penalty or imposed moratorium. Granting clemency, SBY also had received praise from Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
