Anyone for Bali?

[mkhannah]

The way things are in the world these days with trigger happy cops, think I'll holiday at home.


JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has instructed law enforcement officers to shoot drug traffickers to deal with a narcotics emergency facing the country.

"Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist arrest. Shoot them because we indeed are in a narcotics emergency position now," Widodo said in a speech delivered at an event held by one of Indonesia's political parties late on Friday.

His remarks have drawn comparison to that of Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte, who launched a brutal anti-drug crackdown about a year ago that saw many alleged drug dealers killed.

The bloody campaign in the Phillipines has drawn condemnation from the international community, including the United Nations.

Indonesia also has tough laws against drugs. Widodo has previously been criticized for ordering executions against convicted drug traffickers who were given a death penalty by the court. Rights activists and some governments have called on Indonesia to abolish the death penalty.

Friday's shooting order from Widodo came a week after Indonesian police shot dead a Taiwanese man in a town near the capital Jakarta.

The man, who was part of a group trying to smuggle one tonne of crystal methamphetamine into the country, was killed for resisting arrest, police have said.

After the incident, Indonesian National Police chief Tito Karnavian was quoted by media saying he had ordered officers not to hesitate shooting drug dealers who resist arrest.


Now I have no sympathy for drug dealers, but I have no trust in Indonesian authorities either...
Widodo is a loose canon, this is asking for trouble.

[ol' boy]

Sounds good to me in principle
But we are talking about the most corrupt police force in the world.

[Uncle Fester]

Sounds good to me in principle
But we are talking about the most corrupt police force in the world.

in Indonesia doesn't even come close to places like Somalia, Sudan and Venezuela and it even ranks 11 places better than the Philippines
with their police being heavily involved in drug dealing themselves.

Duterte's killing spree is targeting very small traffickers and mostly drug users.
Larger dealers are left untouched or are just locked up but not killed.
Duterte also uses the drug crime excuse to try to get rid of his opposition, simply accuses them of drug offenses and locks them up.
There are no trustworthy figures to prove that crime in general has reduced under Duterte in the Philippines, the opposite appears more likely,
also considering that every police killing of a simple drug user is a crime.
The Philippines had significantly less drug prevalence(half of the global average and a lot less than Australia) even before Duterte's mass murders.
The mass eradication of cannabis plantations(the higest in the world in 2013) under the former government may have contributed to their relative low drug prevalence figures.
Also interesting this showing canabis prevalence by country (slightly older figures)
Indonesia 0.4%
Philippines 0.8%
Australia 10.6%

As far a Indonesia goes it looks like they are actually targeting fairly big drug traffickers, who resist arrest (if that information is correct) which seems fairly reasonable to me.

So for now in regards to being shot by police I would see Bali still safer than the USA and of course the Philippines.

Personally I have no intention of leaving Australia for any reason and probably the only Asian country I might consider visiting
one day is Singapore to watch F1 while my wife can see the orchids.

I spent a week in Jakarta in the 1980's and the police on the street really came up to me to admire me because I was blond and came from Germany and
went on and on about how great they thought Hitler was.

[lsemmens]

I agree, Widodo may have the right idea, but, it is likely to be the poorly trained and controlled police force that is going to be the problem. With American police shooting whoever they feel like, and Phillipino cops doing the same, now Bali. Along with all the crap in the Middle east spilling over to Europe, and North Korea's sabre rattling. I think that living about 100 miles the other side of Woop Woop might be about the only safe spot left on this planet. STOP THE WORLD! I WANT TO GET OFF!

[trash]

Do you think we can get them to send a few Indonesian Polis to Australia and retrospectively shoot some Corby's?

Not going to Bali is more of a political choice. There are plenty of places better and worse.
Thailand, but then you'll see how a lot of Farang behave and you'll wonder why they haven't gone orthodox like the Indonesians.
You could go to the pedophile capital of the universe, sCambodia and enjoy corruption on a level that befits it becoming an Olympic event. (though I suspect it already is).

Then there is one of my personal favourites like Kazakhstan where there is no need to call the police if you get mugged, it is most likely they are the police.

There are many to choose from. So it's probably just easier to pick a country that has something you like at the price you like and with a kind of corruption that won't effect you too much.
Some choices would be Laos. It's communist, so if you're a socialist or a Greens voter, you'll find it like heaven. Everything is cheap, undeveloped and drugs are plentiful and corruption largely reduce to the totalitarian government.
The down side is it's land locked, so it doesn't have many beaches. The beaches they do have are basically China's sewer and then you might be unlucky enough to find a land mine or cluster bomb. But other than that, it's a nice country.

Burma is next choice. It does have beaches. It just got rid of it's corrupt government and replaced it with an incompetent one. The good/bad news is they're taking their frustrations out on any muslims.

East Timor. This is undeveloped like Laos, run by an incompetent and corrupt government like Burma and has all the same lovely beaches and hills like Bali. It's easy to mistake it for Bali without tourists.
Things are expensive because it is so undeveloped. But it's close to Australia and you generally won't have too much to complain about other than there is nothing, to complain about. Lack of services is the complaint.
If you like unspoiled paradise before tourists wrecked Bali, then grab a fishing rod with 50lb line and sit back and enjoy doing nothing.

[enf]

I think they are ALL f*cked and I'm not interested in any of them.

My wife and her brother just went to the Philippines to see their dying father (recognised by the whole family as a former corrupt NSW cop and a real scumbag)...she says the place hasn't changed since they went there over 20 years ago looking for him after he did a runner and is still a sh*thole. The populace at large can get a bottle of cheap vodka for the same price as a decent cup of coffee, so whats a poor peasant gonna choose?

I'll just spend my money here and try to keep a couple of local Ausssies employed...we have everything here anyway.

[porkop]

Bring it on here I say. But I'd extend it to most crimes.

Does that make me a bad person????

[ol' boy]

I remember when i was in Bali last, all the locals (well, the ones we spoke too, drivers, etc) were all totally envious of Rodrigo Duterte.
They all wished the same would happen in Indo! Especially Bali.

[bob_m_54]

never mind, wasn't really worth the comment.