The remaining Bali Nine are home. Does Indonesia really want nothing in return?

Bali: Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen are free men after almost 20 years in jails on the islands of Bali and Java. Fair-minded Australians will take this as fair enough. Two decades in foreign jails – on the islands of Java and Bali – is a severe punishment for a stupid mistake of youth.

But there are questions that still deserve answers. Martin Eric Stephens in 2005. Credit: Jason Childs Indonesia has been proud to show its new forgiving face under its recently inaugurated president, Prabowo Subianto, and the tight lips surrounding the deal, this masthead has been told, have been the request of the Australians.



We are told the transfer of the men to Australia – they have not been pardoned by Indonesia – was an act of humanitarianism from a new president putting his best diplomatic foot forward. Is Indonesia really asking for nothing in return? Both sides say there is no quid pro quo. We’ll have to take it on face value in this particular transaction.

But Indonesian Co-ordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra has publicly raised the issue of detained illegal fishermen, even though he was unsure if there were any in Australian jails at present (the Australian Border Force will not answer this question). Earlier this month, while discussing the proposal that was before the Australians, Mahendra said: “If the Indonesian government asks the Australian government to repatriate Indonesian prisoners in Australia, they have an obligation to consider it.” What will this mean in practice? What will happen if an Indonesian citizen is jailed in Australia for a serious crime, and our counterparts in Jakarta request that person back? Depending on the circumstances of the crime, such a deal may be unpalatable to Australian voters.

Would it undermine our own judicial system? If this or a future government said no, what would be the repercussions for the bilateral relationship? The Australian government will not impose the life sentences the men are serving for attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia in 2005. This is apparently OK by Indonesia, a nation famously strict on drug crime. But only last week there were calls to have the matter put to the Indonesian parliament.

So seriously did Indonesia take the Bali Nine case, two of the Australian offenders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were denied requests for clemency and executed in 2015. Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died from cancer in 2018. Renae Lawrence, the only female in the group, was released the same year.

We know that an agreement was inked in Jakarta some time last week. There was no fanfare or acknowledgment, a sharp contrast from the press invitations that accompanied a similar deal struck between Indonesia and the Philippines earlier this month. The Australian government falls back to its favourite word – privacy – to justify the silence.

The office of Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke went quiet last week when rumours emerged in Indonesia that a deal might be close. His office also tried to complicate this journalist’s attempts at showing up at the minister’s meeting with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta on December 3. Today, five families are very happy.

The implications, if any, are apparently for another day..