The bizarre and degrading spectacle is part of a trend, not just in the executions of drug felons, but of the presidency of Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are put on board the flight to the penal Island. Credit:AAP Lauded upon his election as a progressive force from outside Indonesia's graft-ridden elites, Jokowi as president has emerged as a leader much more like the man he defeated, former military hardman and ultra-nationalist Prabowo Subianto. Jokowi is sincere about grappling with the drugs problem in Indonesia, even if he has a poor understanding of the dimensions and cause of the "national crisis". But, from the outset, he has used the kind of anti-foreign theatrics popular with Indonesia's first leader Sukarno, who was the father of Jokowi's political patron Megawati Soekarnoputri.

While Sukarno used nationalist rhetoric to distract the population from a collapsing economy, Jokowi has engaged in the same tactics at a time when his personal popularity has been on the slide. The armoured vehicle and military presence at the transfer of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran would have seemed over the top to many Australians. Credit:Kate Geraghty Jokowi has mishandled the issue that concerns Indonesians most – the rampant corruption in its police force, judiciary and other national institutions. As the police have threatened to arrest members of the respected Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Jokowi has put forward two candidates for police chief identified as having "suspicious bank accounts". Andrew Chan is transferred from Bali for execution.

Soon after, Jokowi announced he would rapidly accelerate executions as he declared a drugs emergency. The awful irony is that eradicating corruption in the police and judiciary would be a far more effective tool in combating drug trafficking than killing low level couriers and organisers. The kingpins invariably get off in Indonesia by paying large bribes. It is instructive that almost half of the 64 drug felons on death row are Indonesians but, of the six killed so far and 10 slated to face the firing squad in the near future, 14 are foreigners.

The Australian government is not entirely blameless in all this. It, too, has fomented hostile sentiment in Indonesia, not least Tony Abbott's remarks tying tsunami aid to clemency for Chan and Sukumaran. Australia has also burned the fishing boats of Indonesians who have strayed into Australian waters. Then there were the incursions by Australian navy vessels into Indonesian waters to "turn back the boats" laden with asylum seekers. Both policies have angered Indonesians, and ripened the climate for Jokowi to exploit nationalist sentiment. Sadly, the most macabre event of this sorry saga is yet to come. That will happen when nine men and one woman – including Chan and Sukumaran – will be lined up in a clearing in the jungles of Nusakambangan and shot dead simultaneously by 120 police officers.