Punishment of drug traffickers

I refer to Pardede's letter Please save their lives in The Jakarta Post on Dec. 12.

Pardede is absolutely right when she states that "we should abide by the laws of a country" that we visit. This most certainly also applies to the nine Australian drug traffickers who, being obviously mature in years though not necessarily in mind, deliberately entered Indonesia bringing drugs, even though they must have known perfectly well in advance that Indonesia, like its neighbor Singapore, punishes drug trafficking, a heinous crime against humanity, with the death penalty.

And even though the drug traffickers may ultimately be forgiven for their deliberate flaunting and breaking of the law, they most certainly have to face the impact, the outcome and the results of their choices and decisions -- namely, the consequences of their illegal actions.

If a young child who has been warned by his parents of the harmful effects of touching fire deliberately disobeys, and touches the fire anyway, then the child will be forgiven by the understanding parents -- but will still experience the painful consequences of touching the fire, namely, the burns and the blisters.

Being forgiven will not cancel out the consequences of our actions. This is a life lesson that can be found in all religious books, a lesson all of us human beings of all ages will eventually learn, sooner or later.

As an Indonesian who is appalled by the horrible effects of narcotics such as ecstasy and heroin on people, especially young people, I applaud and support the efforts of the Indonesian and Singaporean governments in upholding their strict drug laws.

Pardede seems to be absolutely sure about the repentance of the drug traffickers when she stated: "Once they are imprisoned they will suffer enough and will reform themselves." Does she know them that well, I wonder?

As for God's Law that we should not kill: If a human so forgets his "brotherhood" with fellow humans as to commit grievous crimes, and thereby endangers the lives of countless other humans, then a "change of dimension" might be appropriate for him in order to save the lives of countless others.

If these nine law-breakers from Australia are eventually convicted and sentenced to a "change of dimension", then hopefully, perhaps in the next dimension or in a next reincarnation, their immortal souls will become staunch advocates against the use of narcotics. They can then emphatically state, with justifiable pride: We've been there. We've done that. It just doesn't pay!

TAMI KOESTOMO, Bogor, West Java