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ould Ruyati Binti Sapubi have been spared from the gallows in Saudi Arabia? The government must now explain to the public yet another failure to protect its citizens abroad. The 54-year-old Ruyati was hanged on Saturday for the 2010 murder of a Saudi woman who employed her as a servant.

The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers (BNP2TKI) said Ruyati was accompanied by a team of lawyers in court. It also said that she had confessed to the murder.

BNP2TKI and Migrant Care, an NGO that monitors Indonesian workers abroad, reported in March that Ruyati had been sentenced to death and the case was going through the appeals process.

Her death came as a rude awakening to the nation and left many unanswered questions. Did the trial meet minimum international standards for fairness? Assuming she had confessed to the murder voluntarily and not under coercion, was the murder committed in self-defense? Would that not be an important mitigating factor? What sort of intervention did the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh make between March and the execution? Was the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Jakarta kept informed throughout the process? Was her family informed about the imminent execution?

There seems to be a communication breakdown, or else President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would not have spoken so eloquently at the International Labour Conference in Geneva five days earlier about how Indonesia had improved its mechanism to protect workers abroad.

If the Foreign Ministry had been more open about the case, it could have counted on the public to mobilize support to demand that Ruyati’s life be spared. Never underestimate the value of public opinion in diplomacy.

Indonesia could not have interfered in the legal system of another country as it does not want other countries to tell how it runs its own laws. Although Indonesia still has capital punishment on the books, it could have asked the Saudi kingdom to show compassion for Ruyati by looking at the circumstances of the murder as well as her humble background.

The government must improve the way our missions overseas operate, particularly in countries that host many Indonesian workers. Some of these workers are bound to become entangled with local laws. When they do, they deserve the maximum protection possible from the state. This, we feel, did not happen with Ruyati.