The execution of eight convicted drug traffickers may have satisfied the Indonesian public, but Asia expert and Professor of Government Thomas Pepinsky says that the executions have harmed relations with an important neighbor: Australia.
Pepinsky says:
“Indonesia executed eight men convicted of trafficking in narcotics yesterday. Although the death penalty remains quite popular in Indonesia in cases of drug trafficking – seen by many Indonesians to be a scourge that plagues the country – President Joko Widodo has disappointed many Indonesians who had hoped that he might have spared the lives of the convicted. It represents yet another indication that Jokowi's administration has pursued hardly any fundamental reforms to Indonesian politics and governance, yet another blow to those progressives who so strongly supported him.
“The executions have also soured relations with Indonesia's neighbor Australia; two of the executed were Australian citizens. In all, the recent executions have harmed the administration's status abroad with few if any tangible benefits at home. “
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