More Than a Case of Guilty or Innocent?
By Elyse Weingarten

On Friday, May 27th, Australian native Shapelle Corby was sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison for smuggling 9 pounds (4.1 kilograms) of marijuana into Bali. The verdict came after an unprecedented eight month media circus in Australia, in which the sweet faced beauty student from Brisbane became the star of her very own, twenty first century morality tale (nuanced with echoes of Midnight Express, The French Connection and Brokedown Place). Corby has sworn her innocence from the beginning, claiming that that the drugs are not hers, that somewhere along the line of her journey, someone else planted them in her bag, and according to a recent poll, 90% of Australia believes her. Now in the wake of a verdict, appeals to high Indonesian courts are being filed, as are mass outcries, from both the Aussies who believe wholly in her innocence and the Indonesians who expected the white girl/drug smuggler to get off with no less than the death penalty by a firing squad.

The relations between Australia and Indonesia have always been tenuous at best, with only the recent tsunami disaster offering a temporary reprieve. Now, with the arrest and sentencing of Shapelle Corby, the fragile relationship has finally ruptured. Shapelle Corby has become an emblem through which the animosity of the two countries is finally able to play itself out.

For the populous of Australia, long held suspicions about their northern, Muslim and poverty stricken neighbor are becoming horrifyingly real. Mother’s adage, “don’t go to these backward, exotic places unless you are asking for trouble. These people are not like us” is taking on new meaning. The truth is that Australia has never fully healed from the 2003 nightclub bombing in Bali, in which close to a hundred Australians were killed, and the fact that many of the bombing’s planners were sentenced to a mere two years in jail. Corby, who could be anyone’s daughter, has become the cause celebre. Petitions are flying about, protests are taking place, outraged Australians have threatened, in mass, a boycott of Balinese holidays, while calling foul on the judicial system of Indonesia and demanding that the prime minister of Australia, John Howard intervene and “bring Shapelle home.” Some even go as far as wanting to stop all Tsunami aid until Shapelle is released.

A quick google search of “Shapelle Corby” brings up hundreds of chat rooms and editorials, proof enough that any English speaker within hearing distance of the case has an opinion either on Corby’s innocence or guilt, cultural relativity, the judicial process of Indonesia, the judicial processes in East vs. those in the West, the safety of international traveling, drug smuggling, the belief that Shapelle is getting so much attention because she is a ‘ pretty, white female,’ and the sadness regarding her lost life. Even Australian-born actor Russell Crow has taken a stand. He has been quoted as saying that watching Shapelle Corby cry broke his heart.

In turn, many Indonesians are angry that Corby is getting preferential treatment for being white and from Australia with her twenty year sentence, when under Indonesian law, drug smugglers are punishable by a death. There is also anger that the same white person who is getting off easy attempted to come into their country with drugs, intending to corrupt and ruin their people. The Indonesian press has nicknamed her, “Ratu Marijuana,” Queen Marijuana, suggesting, perhaps, the resentment felt against Australian tourists who come down and disrupt local customs and culture and then leave, and how Bali has become a rite of passage for the hard partying Australian adolescence.

Only a few facts remain in the case remain irrefutable: On October 8, 2004, twenty-seven year-old Corby, the daughter of the owners of a Southport fish-and-chip restaurant, flew from Sydney to Bali and was immediately arrested for the cannabis found in her surfboard bag. Shapelle spent the next eight moths in Bali’s brutal Kerobokan Jail, occupied by 550 other prisoners, trying to clear her name as she awaited trial. Somewhere along the way, Ron Bakir, the Lebanese-Australian mobile-phone tycoon (of Mad Ron’s) decided to pay for Corby’s defense. (While Bakir has claimed only altruistic motives, some whisper that Bakir is really Corby’s drug running boss.)

The rest of the story is a matter of perspective. Those familiar with the western court system believe that Corby got an unfair trial. While there are reports that on the day Corby flew out of Sydney, there was a large operation of cocaine smuggled out of the airport by baggage handlers, this remains irrelevant to the Indonesian court. Judge Linton Sirait has said that what happened in Australia is of little interest to him and that what happens in Indonesia is all that matters. In addition, there have been accusations that despite the fact Judge Sirait allowed John Ford, a convicted rapist who claimed to know who framed Shapelle testify, that not enough evidence was accepted in Corby’s defense. The government of Bali didn’t fingerprint the bag that the drugs were placed in, nor did they check and see if the surfboard bag weighed more when it was in Brisbane than in Bali. While all this remains inconceivable to Western democratic nations, like Australia or the US, the fact is that our conception of law is not universal. In many countries, such as Indonesia, the court functions in such a way that it is the defense’s job to prove innocence, not the other way around; innocent until proven guilty does not exist. In Balinese drug laws, possession is everything. In the eyes of Indonesian law, since the bag belonged to Corby, the drugs are Corby's unless she can manage to prove otherwise. There was no need for a further investigation because the fact that Corby was found with nine pounds of Marijuana in Indonesia is enough to prove her guilty, enough to get her killed.

It might be a hasty exaggeration to say that at the root of all this conflict is cultural misunderstanding, but it isn’t far from the truth. What Australian see as an unfair, corrupt trial against one of their own is mostly just an exercise of another kind of law. When Westerners call a twenty year sentence (let alone the death penalty) a barbaric punishment for drug smuggling, especially when people who planned a bomb that killed hundreds got only two years, Indonesians feel that their laws and belief s are being belittled and disrespected. They are right.

In addition, while there has been some pressure to get Corby tried in Australia (where some experts claims she would still be proven guilty and others claim the case would be thrown out of court) or have Corby serve out her sentence in Australia through a prisoner exchange, there are still a code of ethics in international relations that Australians and other sympathizers do not understand has to be followed, even when dealing with another country that might be “third world” or “backward.” Quite feasibly, John Howard could demand that the Indonesian government return Shapelle Corby to Australia, call the accusations ludicrous and the sentence too long. But, this is something you just don’t do! The sovereignty of one country’s judgment cannot be overthrown by another country’s leader, however unfair, preposterous, or unethical the judgment appears to the nation of the accused. There is probably not one leader in human history that would break this treaty and leave room for his own authority to be usurped when what is at stake is the life of an ordinary girl. It is a harsh (hash) reality. Of course John Howard is not going to rescue Shapelle Corby, not when his political career and the political niceties of his profession forbid it.

Hoping to sooth the controversy in Australia, Howard offered the following words, “Guilty or innocent, I feel for this young woman. I think the entire nation feels for this girl. We have to trust the Indonesian justice system. I ask that we all pause and understand the situation, and recognize and respect that when we visit other countries we are subject to the laws and rules of those countries."

Howard is right. The dangers of a globalized world is that it is not homogenous. In traveling to see the different, we leave ourselves open to the tiny tears of difference. What will happen to Shapelle Corby is now at the whim of an Indonesian high court. If there is one thing that we in a democratic society cannot accept is that justice is not always dealt according to public opinion. The Australians can scream and yell and protest, but that won’t do a damn thing. The high courts in Indonesia will judge however they see just and however it wants. Meanwhile, if the sentence stays, and if she can survive, Corby will leave prison approaching middle age. Her life is destroyed, whether she is guilty or not. And all that we can really do is sit back and be thankful that we, ourselves, weren’t dealt the horrendous fate of Shapelle Corby.