TIME is running out fast for Bali Nine heroin smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran who have been on death row in an Indonesia jail for nearly 10 years.
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On the weekend six other drug offenders, from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria were executed by a firing squad, sparking outrage and revulsion around the world and the recall of the Brazilian and Dutch ambassadors from the country in protest.
Australia’s own foreign minister Julie Bishop also has not ruled out such a move if Sukumaran and Chan are also killed in coming months, their last plea for clemency having been recently exhausted.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has urged Indonesian leader Joko Widodo to show mercy to the pair, but his pleas are unlikely to make a difference.
Indonesia has a massive problem with drug use and trafficking and does not take the view that an Australian passport should be a get-home-free card.
Why should the Australians be spared when the offenders from Brazil and the Netherlands were not?
Many people who have lost loved ones from drug use will also not be inclined to show sympathy for Chan and Sukumaran.
Lawyer Julian McMahon, who has been representing members of the Bali Nine, has argued that Chan and Sukumaran have been fully rehabilitated and have improved the lives of prisoners at Kerobokan prison by starting classes and urging prisoners to turn away from drugs.
Chan and Sukumaran knew the risks of criminal activity for profit in another country.
They got caught and they are now facing the consequences of that country’s harsh laws.
Those consequences are tragic and appalling, but they were always predictable in a country like Indonesia with its uncompromising approach to drugs.
The death penalty is harsh and the punishment does not fit the crime, but they were warned.
It is no good for Chan and Sukumaran to try to reinvent themselves as victims in a bid to win their freedom.
It is too late for that.