Dying For Drugs
People are so obsessed with the new cabinet it is as if an individual minister could cause the end of the world. People are also busy judging Suharto, while it is not yet certain that he will actually be tried in person. They think that if his case is resolved, his wealth will be seized immediately and distributed fairly amongst society. But how many people are talking about the victims of narcotics in this country?
Instead of giving a warm welcome to the newly installed ministers, why do we not express our appreciation to people like Judge Asep Iriawan? As chief judge of the district court in Tangerang, it was Asep who recently handed down the death sentence to three cousins: Meirika Pranola, Rani Andriani, and Deni Setia Maharwan. They were found guilty of trying to smuggle 3.5 kilos of heroin and 3.5 kilos of cocaine out of the country through Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta international airport. The three had successfully smuggled drugs before, and were members of an international narcotic syndicate.
This was an unusually large quantity of heroin and cocaine. One gram of heroin alone is enough to hook 10 victims, so imagine the effect 3,500 grams would have if it found its way to the street. That so many drugs are smuggled abroad is a sign that Indonesia has already been ensnared by international syndicates. It is impossible to estimate how many kilograms of heroin are circulating in the country.
The victims of drug abuse—whether shabu-shabu (purified amphetamine) or heroin—are widespread. All groups within society are affected, from young soldiers with promising careers to famous comedians at the height of their popularity. The celebrity world is said to be synonymous with drugs, maybe because they continually mix with and are tempted by rich dealers. It is not just entertainers who fall prey, but sportsmen as well. People have not taken heed of the high-profile drug cases that we often hear of from abroad. The death of Andres Escobar, for example, the Colombian defender in the 1994 World Cup, was connected to the country’s drug syndicates. After losing to the USA 1-2, Escobar made signs while still on the pitch that he was a dead man. Escobar’s murderers, thought to be drug lords, brutally shot the player down on his return home. The Colombian team has close connections with the drug baron, Pablo Escobar.
The unending supply of drugs can be seen from the number of victims found in nearly every corner of the country. Just look at the number of addicts and where they come from who find themselves being treated for their dependencies in Muslim boarding schools and other institutes that have special methods of treating them. It is as shocking as it is overwhelming that seemingly respectable families can be broken by this evil phenomenon. Once a person has been plagued by narcotics and its consequences, a huge amount of time and money is needed for his recovery. And this is not to mention the shame that befalls his family and profession.
Research carried out by a government body set up to fight NAZA (the Indonesian acronym for narcotics, alcohol and other addictive substances) shows that there were 130,000 drug addicts in the country in 1998. However, Dr. H. Dadang Hawari, a psychiatrist who works with drug addicts, says the government’s estimate should be multiplied by 10 to arrive at a more realistic figure. For every addict who is arrested or reported by his family, he says, there are 10 others who go undetected. The real figure should therefore be closer to 1.3 million.
On average, a drug addict needs between Rp100,000 and Rp300,000 to feed his habit every day. This equates to a national daily expenditure on drugs of between Rp130 billion and Rp390 billion—a lucrative "business" indeed. It is no wonder that drug dealers and pushers take all sorts of risks to reap such high profits from the suffering of so many people.
We must rid our country of this malevolent business. And to do this, the punishment for those found guilty of dealing and smuggling must be of the harshest order: death. In neighboring countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, the death sentence has long been handed down to those found guilty of smuggling drugs. Indonesian courts are too soft when it comes to sentencing drug dealers. They always cite the same old clichéd excuses: they were only drug users; they didn’t actually own the drugs but were looking after them for someone else, and so on. Just listen to the confession of Polo, the famous comedian, who was arrested last week for possession of shabu-shabu. He said he found the drugs by accident in a hotel room when he opened a cupboard, then took them to another hotel where he smoked them. Comedian he may be, but this is not funny.
Meanwhile, as well as the soft sentences, we often hear other mind-boggling stories: of drug-related detainees being released after paying millions of rupiah, or of evidence vanishing into thin air while in the police’s hands. Is this because supervision is not tight enough, or is there some kind of game going on? How is it possible, for example, for a prisoner to still manage to get his hands on drugs while behind bars?
The government’s own weakness in tackling the scourge of narcotics is giving rise to "mass movements" aimed at eradicating drugs and other addictive substances from society. A whole host of organizations are burgeoning, such as the Anti-drug Movement (Granat) and the People’s Anti-addiction Movement (Geram). This is an encouraging response. As well as adding to the struggle against the problem, they also scrutinize the security forces’ performance on the issue. This will ensure that the police become more serious about taking action against drug users, whether they are the son of a general or a famous artist. The main point is to ensure that the courts hand down sufficiently harsh sentences to anyone involved. The death sentence recently given to the three cousins in Tangerang will hopefully encourage a new spirit in the fight against drugs. At the very least, millions of people have been saved from their crimes. It is time for us to speak out clearly against narcotics, not just continue with pointless political discussions that have no end.
(HA)