OPINION: Indonesia's obscene show a total disgrace

FORGIVE me but if I am reading the map correctly Bali is a long, long way from Columbia or Mexico.

FORGIVE me but if I am reading the map correctly Bali is a long, long way from Columbia or Mexico.

I also don't believe that gangs carrying sub machine guns are roaming the streets of Indonesia looking to spring convicted drug felons in a hail of bullets from the clutches of authorities.

So if I am correct in my map reading can I ask why Indonesia put on such an aggressive show of power to move Bali Nine drug prisoners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from Kerobokan Jail to Nusukambangan Prison Island.

Fighter jets shadowing their plane, armoured vehicles, a helicopter and hundreds of troops were brought in by the Indonesian Government to move two men shackled in chains.

It doesn't take Einstein to realise it was just part of the sick melodrama that Indonesia is playing out for Australia and the world to see.

Then turning it from the absurd to the obscene we had the Denpasar police chief grinning in a photograph of himself and condemned prisoner Andrew Chan on the police plane flight.

Commissioner Djoko Hari Utomo was photographed with his arm draped around Chan's shoulder as if the two were posing for a happy snap.

His excuse for the photo was that he was trying to raise the spirits of the Australians and had no idea the photo was being taken.

The fact the photos were leaked to media outlets is amazing, given the tight security throughout the transfer.

But then again everything about this death march has been amazing.

The only thing that isn't is the arrogant and heartless Indonesian Government.

Please shoot me if I ever step foot in that country again.

Originally published as OPINION: Indonesia's obscene show a total disgrace