Gods and Demons by Deborah Cassrels

Author:Deborah Cassrels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC Books
Published: 2020-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

16

FREEDOM’S DOOR

Parallels and paradoxes could be drawn between the refugees and prisoners I visited: largely their absence of basic rights and protection. But each 17 August, Indonesia’s Independence Day, Kerobokan jail inmates cast their woes aside. Amid music and dance, inmates displayed the fruits of their rehab programs. The Bali Nine showed paintings, screen-printed T-shirts and jewellery, and even participated in sport competitions, with journalists invited to appraise and mingle.

Most importantly, prisoners on set terms traditionally received sentence cuts. In 2013, all of the Bali Nine were still housed in Kerobokan, but only Renae Lawrence, serving twenty years, was eligible for a reduction. She and Schapelle Corby were generously rewarded for good behaviour, but that year the announcements were postponed.

This didn’t dampen Lawrence’s spirits. ‘I’m happy,’ she told me, smiling, ‘as happy as I can be.’

With the usual pomp and pageantry for dignitaries over, journalists made a beeline for Bali Nine members. I had joined a small clutch around Lawrence. When reporters fanned out seeking other members, I remained chatting.

A UK correspondent approached us, inquiring after the welfare of Lindsay Sandiford. The British grandmother was known to be selective with reporters, and for her media silence. Lawrence firmly told the reporter that Sandiford, who never appeared on celebratory days, was off limits. When an Indonesian female inmate mumbled incoherently, Lawrence warned her to shut up. The UK journalist persisted. Lawrence reiterated authoritatively that ‘no one’ would be discussing Sandiford. The female prisoner again muttered indecipherably, and the UK punter sauntered off.

From left field, a strapping female warden stepped in, swiping the inmate across her face with an open hand. The prisoner cringed and bowed her head. No one in the crowd seemed to have noticed. Stunned, I stopped mid-sentence to stare at the prisoner who’d just been bashed. Lawrence followed my gaze. After a brief silence, she explained nonchalantly that the woman had been ‘speaking out of turn’.

Within the hierarchy of the jail, Lawrence wielded enormous power and was feared by many. She was known to have had a number of girlfriends among the inmates, and had been a leader, or tamping, entrusted by the jail governor and guards to uphold security within the women’s block.

By the time of her release in November 2018, Lawrence had been transferred to Bangli prison in central Bali after allegedly plotting to kill a prison guard in Kerobokan jail in 2013 – which she denied.

*

The ties between Lawrence and Schapelle Corby were fickle and ambiguous. Lawrence’s Indonesian lawyer Anggia Lubis Browne told me of jealousies, especially when Corby was granted parole. ‘She is a bit jealous. She’s upset, asking me to do something for her, and says, “It’s not fair.”’

The week preceding Corby’s climactic parole release on 10 February 2014 from Kerobokan, Australian media packs parachuted into Bali for the spectacle of the decade. I had reported Corby’s tumultuous course following her 2005 trial via the few permitted near the reclusive drug trafficker. But like most of the correspondents in Jakarta, I dreaded the unfolding media circus.

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