While the legal defence of the two accused Australians did not turn on assertions of their innocence, their executions are nonetheless shocking and barbaric – the more because both had openly demonstrated their remorse and become model prisoners during their incarceration at Kerobokan prison on Bali. The executions were scheduled to take place despite the fact that Indonesia's Constitutional Court has yet to hear a judicial review petition filed by the two men's lawyers last week, and won't do so until May 12. More disturbing still is the air of rank political opportunism which has clouded the executions, and which has emanated principally from the President, Joko Widodo, but also from his Attorney-General's office.

It was last December that the then recently inaugurated Mr Joko announced he was rejecting 64 applications for clemency for drug offenders facing the death penalty, ostensibly because a strong message needed to be broadcast to underline the government's determination to tackle the country's serious drug problem. There were some who speculated, however, that Mr Joko's real intention was to demonstrate to his critics at home and abroad that he was his own man and unafraid of making tough but necessary decisions as president. Within Mr Joko's first 100 days in office, six people, all foreigners, were executed. That number has now risen to 15, and could soon reach 40 – a significant increase on the 27 people who were executed between 1999 and 2014 under the rule of the country's first four democratic presidents.

Australia abolished the death penalty in 1973, and the federal government remains strongly opposed to capital punishment as an arbitrary and capricious abuse of state power, a denial of the fundamental right to life, and a penalty which ignores the potential for rehabilitation and which cannot be undone in the event that new developments cast doubt on the guilt of the condemned. Nonetheless, many countries in South-east Asia besides Indonesia continue to carry out death sentences, most frequently for infractions of drug-trafficking rules.

The extent of the drug problem in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand is severe and, not surprisingly, public support in those countries for the draconian punishment meted out to drug smugglers is strong. Perceptions that it is the substantial market for illegal drugs in the West which is the root of the evil probably fuel such sentiments. Conversely, sentences of death and executions in those countries have not deterred drug-running to any appreciable degree since it is small-time drug mules who get caught, never the major suppliers or financiers.

For all their admissions that they were calling the shots when the Bali Nine prepared to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia through Denpasar airport in 2005, Chan and Sukumaran were clearly not the prime movers in the operation. It's probable these kingpins were known to them. However, they never named names to the Indonesian authorities, ostensibly out of fear that this might jeopardise their families' safety in Australia. Nonetheless, their contrition appears to be genuine, and their attempts at redemption genuine.

Had Chan and Sukumaran been arrested, tried and jailed in Australia, that attitude might well have won them their freedom by now. It is that disconnect in fates which has resonated with Australians, and why so many have been horrified and appalled by the unfolding execution, with its images of coffins, crosses and relaxed executioners on their way to Nusakambangan. Equally disturbing has been the chaos and uncertainty surrounding the Indonesian appeals process. While this bought the condemned men extra time and faint hope, it must have added greatly to their mental anguish. The revelation that Mr Joko barely bothered to provide clear reasons for his rejection of Chan and Sukumaran's clemency bid is particularly concerning.

These executions are barbaric, and what makes them even more deplorable is the almost certain knowledge that they have been ushered along by a weak and ineffectual president as a ploy to enhance his authority and public image. He and Indonesia will stand condemned for their lack of restraint.