Editorial: Good riddance

Mon, 11/10/2008 11:16 AM  |  Opinion

The Amrozi Circus has left town. The three terrorists most responsible for the carnage in Bali in October 2002 have finally been executed after months of uncertainty that turned the waiting into a public spectacle that only upset and infuriated relatives of the victims and prolonged their pain.

Imam Samudra and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron were executed by a firing squad not far from their Nusakambangan Island high security prison in Central Java. Even until their last moments, they never publicly expressed remorse for planning and executing the bomb attacks on two discos in Bali that left more than 200 people dead, mostly foreign tourists, more than six years ago.

Even as they stared death in the face, the terrorists still bragged of their imminent executions as an act of martyrdom. Now with their deaths, they get half of what they wished for. Since they never believed in the man-made judiciary, they have to deal with God's law. Now they have to answer for themselves, without the aid of lawyers, for their heinous and brutal crime.

All these years, instead of remorse, the public was given a sickening display of how these three men made a mockery of the Indonesian judiciary and the legal process they were going through, every step of the way.

There was the constant shouting of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) in the Bali courthouse as they were being tried; there was the intimidation of witnesses and relatives of the foreign victims who came all the way to see that justice was being done; and there was the theatrical behavior that turned their trial into a farce. Adding insult to injury, there was Amrozi's famous broad smile as the court sentenced him to death, earning him the nickname "The Smiling Bomber" in the Australian press.

Even on death row, they continued to make news, obviously aided by the prison authorities. There were the media interviews they gave, always using the opportunity to justify their acts in the name of Islam and not for once showing any sign of regret; one of them even got married while on death row; and they were constantly in contact with the outside world with easy access to telephones and the Internet. So much for Indonesia's high security prison system.

The media, particularly television, seemed to be a willing partner throughout this whole spectacle, especially during the last four weeks while the authorities hesitated in carrying out the execution order.

Almost every day for the past month Amrozi and friends received extensive media coverage normally reserved for celebrities facing marital problems or sex scandals. They have in fact become instant celebrities in their own right. Only in Indonesia can a convicted terrorist awaiting execution become a media darling.

Now that they have been executed, we hope there will be some soul-searching by those who run our prisons about the concept of high security prisons, and by those who run the national media about their complicity, deliberate or not, in this whole fiasco.

Many people in this country and outside oppose the death penalty, so it came as no surprise that some of the 11th hour appeals to spare the lives of Amrozi and friends came from the relatives of the victims in Australia.

Perhaps they can make an exception just this once. If humanity is the ground for rejecting capital punishment, there is almost nothing human about these three men. If evil had a face, theirs are samples of it.

Good riddance. The world is so much better without them. The pain and suffering they have caused many people all these years can only begin to heal now.

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