THE CORBY CAPER

You have to ask the question: What the Hell is going on here? The Schapelle Corby drug smuggling case is still dominating the news. She was convicted of smuggling more than four kilos of dope into Bali. And she was sentenced to twenty years jail and fined.

I said on radio and television before the verdict and the sentence that I believed she was guilty. Despite all those doe-eyed tears, Three judges found her guilty. And clinically demolished a flimsy defence argument.

I thought, and do think, that the penalty was manifestly excessive. Twenty years is cruel. But that is that country’s law.

I asked: “What the hell is going on here” because the Herald Sun Page One today says: Corby Verdict Backlash. A Nation Revolts. Angry Aussies call for boycott of Bali. “A nation revolts”. No it hasn’t.

I’m sure tourists left today for a Bali holiday. It is true I have received e-mails over the weekend pleading with people to go to Fiji instead.

Why? You don’t go to Bali because a drug runner gets arrested and found guilty and sentenced to jail? On those grounds you should not go to Hong Kong or Shanghai. There they shoot drug traffickers in the back of the head.

Don’t go to the United States because David Hicks spent three years in jail at Guantanamo Bay before even being charged with any crime. And I don’t know if he is guilty or innocent. And the president of the United States, George W. Bush, signed papers that saw people executed on Death Row. You won’t go to Hawaii? New York? LA? Don’t go to Sierra Leone.?

A panel of judges in Indonesia has found Corby guilty.

I find the Herald Sun headline stupid and demeaning. Should all Australians “revolt”? Boycott Bali? Bulldust!

This is one woman charged with smuggling marijuana. No less. No More.

Why it has become a national issue? Why has it again made Page One of the biggest selling newspaper in the country?

I know why. Doe-eyed, pretty, white, Australian, female with big boobs. As I said on air there was a shot of Schapelle in her cell surrounded by family photos and in a low-cut top. It could have been taken for Ralph magazine.

As I said: twenty years jail for smuggling pot is, in my mind, excessive and cruel. But you live by the letter of the law on any country you visit. Corby got caught. She is now paying the price.

Monday, May 30, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005