I

got a phone call from my family living in Australia recently. They told me about some sad news involving a young Indonesian in Australia’s court system, which is a great issue in the Australian media now.

Ali Jasmin, a 13-year-old boy when he was arrested, was sentenced to a maximum-security prison for adults in Western Australia to be incarcerated with convicted murderers and pedophiles. In addition, my family members were very distraught and emotionally upset when watching the story broadcast on Australian television on April 16.

The boy was recruited to work as a crewman on a boat that was smuggling migrants to Australia in December 2009. A West Australian court determined him to be an adult and found him guilty of people smuggling, although his sentencing documents acknowledged that his only role on the vessel was to cook food for the passengers.

Ali is now serving a mandatory five-year sentence in Albany’s maximum-security adult prison. Thanks to The Project’s journalist Hamish Macdonald — who traveled to Ali’s hometown in Balauring, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) — this issue was exposed to Australian public.

Granted this sad story is not a story about what Indonesia has done. Rather this is about what Australia has done. Yet the arrest of Ali, which went unnoticed for two years by the Indonesian government, the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra and the Indonesian consulate in Perth suggests that the real tragedy in Indonesia’s international diplomacy is ignoring the protection of children’s rights.

The failure, to some degree, is closely linked to the country’s strong preference for political issues over human rights protection. How come Indonesian diplomats did not know that an Indonesian citizen had been incarcerated with some of Australia’s most notorious murderers and pedophiles for two years? If the answer is ignorance, this is a wake-up call for the Indonesian government.

There is also a possibility that such ignorance manifested the Indonesian diplomats’ poor judgment that Ali’s case had less political weight compared to other “juicy” issues, such as trade and education. Any discriminative approach to coping with particular issues will definitely make Indonesia’s international diplomacy lose credibility and trust before the Indonesian public abroad.

Indonesia’s diplomatic style is supposed to be more comprehensive in response to Indonesia’s range of problems, no matter how small they are. Regarding Ali’s case as not fully belonging to Indonesian business — since he joined the boat carrying 55 Afghan migrants heading to Australia — may result from a partial trend of the country’s international diplomacy.

Apart from that, it is very unfair to say that the Indonesian government is the only one to blame for the sentencing of a young Indonesian in the Australian court system. Much to our surprise, an appalling human rights record when it comes to children also happened in Australia’s backyard. It is understandable that the Australian government found it difficult to deal with stopping people smugglers from heading to the country.

However, the Australia’s courts cannot and must not imprison children in its prisons with hardened adult criminals. Imagine the traumatic experience Ali has gone through for almost two years with such criminals in the prison.

It is often the case that while commencing a sea voyage, young men have absolutely no idea that they are involved in people smuggling. They just follow the orders of the boat’s captain, who is paid a king’s ransom for the voyage by other parties. These young kids are just scapegoats. Albany prison should know well that this boy is underage.

There is a tendency for Australian courts to overlook important documents aimed at easing the burden of Ali. There are several parties who have been trying to have Ali and several other underage prisoners released. Birth certificate were presented and ignored. Parties in Perth were rejected at every level, including the parliamentary level and also at Albany prison.

Additional investigation by Hamish Macdonald revealed that the testimony of “Michael”, an insider from Western Australia’s prison system, said that in Ali’s case it is very clear that he is much younger looking than the others. He further mentioned that the authorities there became aware of the situation early on and chose to do nothing.

In addition, coupled with the birth certificate, Ali’s lawyers submitted forensic evidence to supply scientific evidence proving the age of the boy. But the process was later criticized and is now subject to a wide-ranging inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission.

Ali’s issue must remind both countries of stopping ambivalent international relations and cooperation. On the part of Australia, there is no choice but to have Ali released and get him home with proper compensation. It is equally important that Australians make petitions and show protests signs with a view to stopping children being put into adult prisons. Australia should show fairness to all its neighbors.

On the other hand, the Indonesian government must be committed to overcoming this gross miscarriage of justice. While the Australian government strongly lobbies for the release of Schapelle Corby, jailed for 20 years in 2004 for attempting to smuggle marijuana into Bali, the Indonesian government and diplomats should also lobby to have Ali Jasmin released.

The writer, a graduate of the University of Canberra, Australia, lectures at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at Andalas University, Padang.