As most are probably aware, Bali bomb suspect Abu Bakar Bashir was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison for his involvement in an 'evil conspiracy'. Naturally the US and the Australian governments complained through both official channels and the press about the lightness of the sentence. But that's not the interesting bit. What I found more entertaining was Mr Natalegawa's response:
Mr Natalegawa says Indonesia, unlike many countries, has processed its terrorism suspects through the courts. "I know of many far more high-profile cases where the perpetrators are still at large, or if they have been caught remain incarcerated without any proper trial," Mr Natalegawa said.
Touche, eh? Sure, they can't keep the bastards in prison for very long, but they're still doing better than we are (by we I mean the US and Australia). At least they've managed to bring them to trial. And we thought Muslims were the enemy...