The front page story in the Oct. 13 edition of [i]The Jakarta

The front page story in the Oct. 13 edition of The Jakarta
Post was one of pain. The pain of the normally peaceful Balinese,
with their natural disposition to tolerance and their warm spirit
so many of us have had the pleasure of experiencing, is clear and
their desire for the process of justice to be completed as laid
down by the law entirely understandable.

My own country, which has just suffered the horror of
terrorists, abandoned the death penalty many years ago. For such
evil maybe it should be brought back.

But the Balinese people's pain has turned to anger because of
governmental procrastination. The fact that these terrorists have
had their just desserts delayed because they have appealed for
clemency is unforgivable, coming as the announcement does
immediately after a similar, if fortunately less murderous,
series of events as the 2002 Bali bombings.

The bombers not only kill people, they are killing their
livelihoods and perhaps even worse they are killing Bali itself.

CHRISTOPHER R MCRAE
Jakarta