印度尼西亚加大打击毒品的力度

Indonesia Increases Its Own War on Drugs

Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is again urging an increase in efforts to fight illegal drugs in the country.

Jokowi said police should shoot foreign drug dealers¹ who “resist arrest.” He added that the country is in a “narcotics² emergency position.”

Jokowi made his comments at a political event in late July. Days before the speech, police shot and killed a Taiwanese man for resisting arrest. Police say he and several others were trying to smuggle³ 1,000 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia.

Recently, Jakarta Police Chief General Adham Azis said he would “not think twice” about dismissing police officers who were not fighting drug trafficking enough.

In addition, the Ministry⁴ of Law and Human Rights recently announced a plan to place all people currently jailed for drug offenses⁶ into four prisons. The prisons in West Java, North Sumatra, Central Java and Central Kalimantan would get increased security, news reports say.

Human rights groups raise concerns

The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has criticized Indonesia’s campaign against drug trafficking.

In a statement, the group said, “President Joko Widodo should send a clear and public message to the police that efforts to address the complex problems of drugs and criminality require the security forces to respect everyone’s basic rights, not demolish⁷ them.”

The aim of Indonesia’s campaign is to stop the flow of the low-cost drug crystal methamphetamine. It is similar to the effort of President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. He has been criticized for his violent campaign against drug crimes. Thousands of drug dealers and users have been killed.

Last month, Indonesian officials seized the largest amount of crystal methamphetamine in the history of the country.

The head of Indonesia’s narcotics agency, General Budi Waseso, called for a war on drugs -- similar to the one in the Philippines -- last September.

He told Australia’s ABC news agency, “The market that existed in the Philippines is moving to Indonesia, the impact of President Duterte’s actions is an exodus⁸ to Indonesia.”

Severe punishments for drug crimes

Drug trafficking can carry a death sentence in Indonesia which considers the offense⁵ as serious as murder or terrorism.

People found guilty of low-level drug crimes are estimated to make up 70 percent of Indonesia’s prison population.

Erasmus Napitupulu is with the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform in Jakarta. He said there are many question about President Jokowi’s drug policy. He criticized the death sentence as putting a big burden on Indonesia’s justice system.

“The death penalty targets small drug couriers, which in many cases leads to unfair trials. Indonesian law has not been able to bear the burden of fair trial(s),” he said.

Southeast Asian countries have resisted lightening punishments for drug users or traffickers. Besides Indonesia and the Philippines, other countries in the area, including Singapore, want to continue with harsh punishments for drug crimes.

Last year, however, Thailand considered changing the criminalization of methamphetamine because prisons were becoming overcrowded.

But there are no similar signs in Indonesia.

In 2015, Jokowi led an anti-drug campaign that resulted in the execution of 14 people for drug offenses.

But, critics say that the severe punishments have not reduced the number of crimes. Claudia Stoicescu is a researcher at the University of Oxford⁹.

She wrote, “Far from having a deterrent¹⁰ effect, the number of drug-related crimes in Indonesia increased in the months after the executions were carried out in January and April 2015.”

Other critics say increased resources used for drug-related arrests have taken money away from rehabilitation¹¹ efforts. Some say those resources could be better used to help an estimated one million Indonesians addicted¹² to methamphetamines.

Erasmus says Indonesia should learn from the experience of the United States.

The U.S. has reduced the number of arrests over small drug crimes and moved to legalize small amounts of the drug marijuana.

“If Indonesia retains capital punishment as the main solution for drug issues, then I believe it is a political decision to preserve (politicians’) image(s), not to protect actual narcotics victims,” he said.

I’m Mario Ritter.

Words in This Story

narcotics –n. drugs that have a powerful effect on the mind and body whose use is highly controlled and often illegal

demolish –v. to tear down, destroy

exodus –n. the act of a group leaving a place

couriers –n. people who carry packages or letters from one place to another

deterrent –n. something that keeps people from doing some activity

rehabilitation –n. the process of bringing someone (who is sick, injured or has a problem) back to health

retain –v. to keep

1 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

2 narcotics   

n.麻醉药( narcotic的名词复数 )；毒品；毒

参考例句：

• The use of narcotics by teenagers is a problem in many countries. 青少年服用麻醉药在许多国家中都是一个问题。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Police shook down the club, looking for narcotics. 警方彻底搜查了这个俱乐部，寻找麻醉品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

6 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

7 demolish   

v.拆毁(建筑物等)，推翻(计划、制度等)

参考例句：

• They're going to demolish that old building.他们将拆毁那座旧建筑物。
• He was helping to demolish an underground garage when part of the roof collapsed.他当时正在帮忙拆除一个地下汽车库，屋顶的一部份突然倒塌。

8 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

9 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

10 deterrent   

n.阻碍物，制止物；adj.威慑的，遏制的

参考例句：

• Large fines act as a deterrent to motorists.高额罚款是对开车的人的制约。
• I put a net over my strawberries as a deterrent to the birds.我在草莓上罩了网，免得鸟歇上去。

11 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

12 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。