Wrote a Song

Opinion 2

Continues from Opinion 1

It was with this belief, that I worded a letter to the President, asking him to consider a commitment he made to me, (An Australian Citizen) during his visit to Australia in 2005. In the same way that I and many other Aussies made a commitment to raise a huge amount of money for the victims of Indonesia's Tsunami disaster. (Something I would do again without hesitation). During the President's visit to Australia in April 2005, and when asked about the "Corby Case" during a media interview, he stated that he could not interfere while the judicial process was in progress, and that he had to respect his country's legal process once it was under way. However he went on to say,

Quote.
"I will watch the "Corby" case closely to make sure that justice is there, because justice is important to be upheld and everybody, including the people of Australia and the people of Indonesia, will watch that kind of fairness of justice." "When the legal process is under way, I have to respect the legal process that is adopted in Indonesia as part of the laws and rules. "But of course, as a president I keep saying that while we have to respect the court in proceeding this case, that the decisions of the court must be just. "They must be well accepted by all sides and of course must be logical in terms of well understood and accepted. "And I let the legal authorities to do it, to process it, in a fair manner. "Transparency and accountability is not only the business of the Government but also in our court system." End of Quote.

My letter was a very polite well-worded document that highlighted this little known and perhaps forgotten aspect of the Corby trial. Owing to the well known fact, that letters written and sent by ordinary mail to Presidents and Prime Ministers of other countries do not always reach their chosen destination, or are not always received and read by the person they are intended for. I made my intention and suggestions well and truly known by way of a letter to the "Australian Federal Government" asking for help in this regard. The letter along with the letter I wrote to President Yudhoyono was sent to "The Honourable Stephen Smith Minister for Foreign Affairs" via the office of a very well known and respected MP in my area who read the letter and offered support. Around eight weeks later I received a very short reply that astounded me. These seemingly short standard ho hum replies to people like myself who have taken the time to write a well meaning letter of concern to government ministers is no longer good enough. The reply basically indicated that I should direct my concerns to the Indonesian Embassy here in Australia. But hang on; couldn't my letter have been simply passed on to the Embassy direct from the Ministers office? I thought that an elected Government was supposed to represent the people it served, not the other way around. I now publicly appeal to Mr Rudd and the Australian Government, to consider that a new approach is needed in regard to the situation that Schapelle Corby finds herself in.

It has been well documented that Schapelle's so called drug charge was never 100% investigated or proven, and there were several things requested by Shapelle that were never followed up by the Indonesian authorities. These requests I believe were what she was entitled to, and were not the sort of requests that a guilty person would be asking for. Also, the "beyond reasonable doubt" clause that does exist within the judicial process and also in the "Indonesian Constitution" was never considered or offered.

I now ask Julia Gillard as my elected representative as "Prime Minister of Australia" and "Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd" that sometime during their world travels, could they at least be seen to make an attempt and negotiate the release of Schapelle Leigh Corby. --- Not as a prisoner exchange participant, but pardoned, released and brought home a free woman. It has been done in Vietnam and Laos, why not Indonesia?

Pity just feels sorry, Compassion takes action.