I

refer to an article titled '€œJokowi'€™s foreign policy: Assertive or nationalistic?'€ (The Jakarta Post, June 25) by Hikmahanto Juwana.

Regarding a statement: '€œCountries realized that they could not cross the line between defending the rights of their nationals and defending their wrongful acts'€, I would respond that the rights defended by other countries were only the rights to a fair trial.

A trial where you'€™re not told to plead innocent and trapped in a death sentence; a trial where you'€™re not obliged to pay bribes to judges in order to survive; a trial that tries to measure your rehabilitation honestly and a trial that does not reflect a nervous and selfish legal system and government trying to act strong and '€œresilient'€.

Defending these rights has nothing to do with defending the actions of the offenders in the past and at no point was this seen to have happened, despite some '€œcreative'€ interpretations here in Indonesia.

To be a regional and global player, Indonesia needs to understand itself first. It does not. It needs to understand that the drug crisis mostly stems from poor education, home-grown manufacturing and trade of substances, and corruption, pocketing and redistribution at the borders by '€œIndonesia'€™s finest'€.

The actions of small-time traffickers (some of them duped and some probably innocent!), who don'€™t know how to pay bribes or win friends properly here, form a mere ripple in the wave engulfing the country.

If the press itself cannot report on this adequately, or if the education system cannot supply the necessary cognitive stimulus to show the faults of the country, public opinion will always be this insular. Know thyself.

L. Millar
Jakarta