Drug case tests improved Indonesia-Australia ties

Friday, Australians' eyes will be on an Indonesian courtroom, where their fellow compatriot Schapelle Corby is expected to receive a verdict on charges of drug smuggling, a crime that can carry the death penalty.

Last October, officials at Bali airport found 4.1 kilograms of marijuana zipped inside Ms. Corby's boogie board bag next to her flippers. Since then, her case has captivated Australia, where the wide-eyed 27-year-old from Brisbane who claims innocence has been shown constantly on the nightly news being hustled in and out of a tumultuous courtroom packed with media.

Indonesians may be treating Corby's predicament as just another drug case, but outrage on the young woman's behalf has spilled from all quarters of Australian media, with pointed questions being aired about the integrity of Indonesia's legal system. Legal experts, and even movie stars like Russell Crowe, have weighed into the debate on Corby's side. A few cynics have suggested that the outpouring of sympathy in this case while there are two Australians on death row in Singapore and Vietnam and 11 others in custody in Indonesia, may be driven somewhat by Corby's good looks.

While passions are running high among ordinary Australians over the case - and a guilty verdict would inflame them further - political analysts here suggest that the blossoming relationship between Jakarta and Canberra has proven too important for both governments to jeopardize by politicizing the case.

In the last two years, the two countries have established a ministerial forum where key ministers meet to discuss issues ranging from mining to immigration. And this has opened up more possibilities for resolving conflicts - like the Corby case - at least at the government level.

"Where you have such closeness, you get a totally different relationship, a deeper one, and although there may be domestic pressure on [Prime Minister John] Howard after the verdict, the diplomatic relationship will most likely be managed well where staffers are so close to each other," says Virginia Hooker, professor of Indonesian and Malaya at the Australian National University.

The Howard government has been trying to build on democratic developments in Indonesia, among them judicial reform. This has forced Australia to emphasize dialogue over vitriol in the Corby case.

"Australia has argued for a very long time that Indonesia should have an independent judiciary," said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. "Of course the downside of that is that you can't ring up the president any more and say 'Release this person, tell the court to do this, tell the court to do that.' "

Malcolm Cook, program director for Asia and the Pacific at the Lowy Institute, an independent think-tank in Sydney says he does not believe there has been any pressure from the Australian government on Indonesia. But, he says, if a guilty verdict is handed down, then Mr. Howard would face domestic pressure over his close relationship with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"The defense has been successful in whipping up support for the young woman in the media here, and the ambivalence about Indonesia domestically would only get exacerbated," says Mr. Cook.

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