We're Still Here

But I refuse to let this place break my spirit. I use all my energy and willpower to pull myself back together. I forcibly replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Staying sane really does take a lot of energy, but I have to, out of respect for those who love me.

-- Schapelle Leigh Corby





In War : Resolution
In Defeat : DEFIANCE
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace : Goodwill

-- Winston Spencer Churchill




It is one thing to fool the people and quite another to keep them fooled in perpetuity.

- - DJW, Schapelle supporter



The English people are not good haters, their memory is very short... to twentieth-century political theories thay oppose not another theory of their own, but a moral quality which must be vaguely described as decency. On the day in 1936 when the Germans reoccuppied the Rhineland I was in a northern mining town. I happened to go into a pub just after this piece of news, which quite obviously meant war, had come over the wireless, and I remarked to the others at the bar, "The German army has crossed the Rhine." With a vague air of capping a quotation someone answered "Parley-voo." No more response than that! Nothing will ever wake these people up, I thought. But later in the evening, at the same pub, someone sang a song which had recently come out, with the chorus:


For you can't do that there 'ere,
No you can't do that there 'ere;
Anywhere else you can do that there,
But you can't do that there 'ere!

And it struck me that perhaps this was the English answer to fascism.

-- George Orwell, 1943





On March 28 the Indonesian Supreme court refused to grant Schapelle a judicial review, ending her last formal appeal. Officially the twenty year sentence ( less remissions) stands unless she is granted a presidential pardon, which would require admitting guilt. ( She has from the beginning refused to do so, and the Indonesian president has made a point of stating he would not pardon drug criminals). Knowing the nature of the Indonesian "justice" system, nearly everyone who has kept up with the case on the support forums expected this yet it is still a shock. I guess I vaguely thought the judicial review results would be delayed indefinitely for political reasons. There was nothing to review, really. No new evidence of the non-existent Corby drug gang ( which is known to be non-existent by Australian law enforcement, who did not search the Corby's home or do any serious investigating), no new information on Schapelle's supposed contacts in Indonesia ( or was she planning to sell the marijuana herself on Bali's beaches crawling with local drug-dealing cops who would have arrested her within 5 minutes), nothing new regarding security lapses in Australian airports ( the latest official word is that the airport cameras aren't switched on except when officials see a "person of interest" - say WHAT?). What physical evidence there was was burned after a previous appeal, which is standard procedure in Indonesia. A judicial review is supposed to review the proceedings of the court itself - not much to review there either in a country where the courts are essentially a rubber-stamp for the police. Justice Linton Sirait had never found anyone innocent in 500 previous drug cases, ( actually rumor has it he has never found anyone innocent of ANYTHING ). The joke told by those who know about the Indonesian system is that their courts are there to separate the guilty from the very guilty, with only the severity of sentence being really in doubt. The prosecutors in fact seemed strangely uninterested in their own case, not doing the most elementary tests which might prove her guilt. For example

• Fingerprinting is standard in any such case; the explanation of why it was not allowed was that too many others, particularly the police in the airport had handled the bag. This is nonsense, of course - modern techniques could separate Schapelle's prints from the large number of others - and who told the police to handle it without gloves anyway?

• DNA-testing is similarly not difficult in this day and age - if Schapelle had packed the drugs tiny fragments of her hair would be embedded and identifiable, but no such test was done. DNA-testing would certainly have shown country of origin and other characteristics of the mj, something which ought to have been of interest. Remember this is the first ever drug IMPORT case to Indonesia from Australia, a country not previously listed as a source for drug smuggling. As it stands there is nothing to disprove the ( quite plausible ) theory that the marijuana was from Indonesia not Australia and that corrupt officials there planted it themselves.

• Schapelle supposedly said "the drugs are mine" after her bag was searched at customs. No one would admit that under those sircumstances, even if he were guilty. Pleading guilty to get a reduced sentence is what you do in court later - all real criminals give the same amazed "how'd THAT get in there?" explanation when first caught. What Schapelle actually said of course was that the boogie board bag was hers. The customs officer did not speak English well and there was no real attempt to test his language competency or question him closely about his mistaken quote.




• Speaking of which, the three judges also do not speak English and didn't bother with a translator for Schapelle's last court statement before the first verdict. Not that they needed to, with a previous 500 cases+ perfect record. If everyone standing before you is guilty, what difference does it make what they say or in what language? Presumably Indonesia has something like the infallible pre-cogs in that Minority Report movie, and they really ought to share the secrets of police perfection and judicial omniscience with the rest of the world.

This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.


The mood on the official support forum is shocked ( "gobsmacked" is the Australian word?) but grimly determined. I ntellectually we expected this, but "the heart has its reasons which reason does not know" (Pascal). This affair serves as an indictment of our entertainment culture and the shallowness of public opinion, 95% believing her innocent three years ago because she is young and beautiful ( she looks innocent, so she must be) and many willing to abandon her now for the same reason ( she looks innocent, but the Australian government failed to meaningfully protest her blatantly unfair trial, so she must be hiding something). But entertainment culture has its limits. You can get bored and change the channel, but reality has a way of pulling the plug. Priorities change, alliances shift, today's political expediency becomes inexpedient tomorrow - long before the end of her awful sentence the Indonesians will find a reasson for a new investigation/review/whatever and release her. In the long run you really CAN"T "do that there 'ere, " and the essential gentleness and decency which Orwell saw in the English will prevail in Australia as well. And on THAT day the people who change their opinions as easily as their socks will suddenly remember that they, too believed in Schapelle's innocence all along. It is the task of the support group to stay strong and grow gradually until then.











This is the preferred strategy of the Australian government and most of the Australian people regarding Schapelle's case. It won't work long term.











The truth will out sooner or later, Indonesian authorities will "discover" anomalies in her trial, and Schapelle will come home. On that great gettin' up mornin', what will you wish you had done now? Schapelle needs our encouragement, now more than ever.

Miss Schapelle Corby
C/-LPM Kerobokan JI

Tangkuban Perahu Kerobokan

Denpasar 80117
Bali, INDONESIA