Cyanide coffee murder
Cyanide coffee murder
I chose to explore the different reporting of the Cyanide coffee murder which happened in October 2016. There was extensive coverage of this incident across various newsplatforms from different countries such as the Sydney Morning Herald, Buzzfeed, the Guardian and Asiaone. What I found interesting was that each article played out different aspects of the controversy: her gender, youth or nationality.
A few key details remained consistent across all the news sources. Jessica Kumala Wongsu, 27, an Indonesian citizen and permanent resident of Australia, was sentenced to 20 years of jail for murdering her friend with a cyanide-laced coffee. The pair who became friends during their college experiences in Sydney, met in a café in Indonesia. Apparently, Jessica had become upset and resentful of Salihnin’s advice to break up with her boyfriend, especially because Salihnin was got married two months ago. I feel that the details of this murder case highlights many interesting aspects of modern southeast asia:
-That Jessica must have been of higher socioeconomic class to travel overseas for her education in design, and the difficulties in assimilating to another culture (which was hinted as in one of the cultures)
-The strength with which Jessica and Salihnin’s nationality ‘follow them’, which different news articles prescribe with varying intensities.
[Jessica Wongso]
Straits times: ‘Indonesian faces 20 year sin ‘poison coffee’ murder; ‘Australian permanent resident’
Buzzfeed: ‘Everything we know about the Cyanide Iced Coffee Murder Trial’; ‘Indonesian woman’
Sydney Morning Herald: ‘Cyanide coffee murder: Australian resident Jessica Wongso jailed for 20 years’; Australian permanent resident
Asiaone: ‘Indonesian woman gets 20 years for porisoned-coffee murder’ Indonesian citizen and permanent resident of Australia
The Guardian (under Indonesia section): ‘Indonesian court convicts woman of cyanide coffee murder’; Indonesian citizen and permanent resident of Australia
BBC: Indonesia ‘coffee killer’ trial; Indonesian citizen and Australian PR
-The intersection between ‘tradition’ and modernity’
In the SMH article, this dynamic between the more ‘traditionally’ clad parents and their ‘modern’ and ‘fashionably dressed daughter was highlighted through the photographs that they chose. The SMH article also seemed the most orientalising and sensationalizing out of all.
the SMH report seemed the most orientalising out of all as it choose pictures with her family who were dressed more ‘
The crowd cheered as Ms Salihin’s father, Edi Dermawan Salihin, said: “I can’t say anything other than Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest)”.
Side note:
An interesting case study to compare this with is the murder of the Mayang Prasetyo. This had happened in Australia by the Australian chef Marcus Volke. Mayang Prasetyo was his wife. Her dual identity as Indonesian transsexual and a Brisbane citizen was also mentioned differently across different articles. Both of them were sex workers. In a fit of anger, Marcus Volke had killed Mayang Prasetyo and cooked her body parts. A straits times articlehad used this incident to cross reference singapore’s own past history of the curry murders. I also found it interesting the haunting memory of Singapore’s curry murder still pervades to the present, through an incident that happened in another country. I’m curious to explore how countries most ‘closely’ related to these traumatic events have to balance the act between a. reporting an interesting drama which citizens would be interested about b. attempt to distance these acts through perhaps subtly distancing certain social/racial groups.
Coffee murder:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/the-cyanide-iced-coffee-murder-trial
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesian-faces-20-years-in-poison-coffee-murder
http://www.asiaone.com/asia/indonesian-woman-gets-20-years-poisoned-coffee-murder
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/27/indonesian-court-convicts-woman-of-cyanide-coffee