[Kabar-indonesia] AT in Denpasar: Trouble Season for Indonesia's Bali

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

Asia Times
Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Trouble Season for Indonesia's Bali

By Gary LaMoshi 

DENPASAR - In the beginning, Bali had a wet season and a dry season. When 
Western artists, actors and anthropologist Margaret Mead came in the early 20th 
century, Bali added tourist season to its calendar. Now, courtesy of Police 
General Senarko Danu Ardanto, Bali has a fourth season: the island's top cop last 
week declared the start of "trouble season" on what Travel & Leisure magazine 
still calls "the world's best island". 

Islamic extremist bombers have hit multiple targets on Indonesia's tourist 
island of Bali twice in Octobers past. Attacks on nightclubs on October 12, 
2002, killed 202 people, the majority of them foreign tourists. Suicide bombings 
of popular restaurants last year killed 20, plus a trio of bombers. General 
Ardanto's force is deploying 1,000 additional officers, hoping to avoid a 
three-peat. 

Even if peace prevails this October, the 2002 and 2005 attacks mean a lasting 
case of trouble in paradise. The shadow of those blasts rises every October 
as Australia's emerging national signature event – the public memorial – comes 
to Bali. Balinese have done their Hindu cleansing ceremonies and largely 
moved on. Indonesian authorities tolerate these now annual happenings and 
occasionally provide a VIP guest, but these are Australian moments to remember its 88 
nationals who died in the 2002 tragedy. 

Previous October 12 bombing commemorations have included survivors, relatives 
of victims, and even Australian Prime Minister John Howard. The memorials 
help reinforce Howard's assertion that Bali is Australia's September 11. But like 
much of Australia's interaction with its giant neighbor, the impact on 
Indonesia is an afterthought and Jakarta's reactions a side-effect. 

Canberra's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reportedly planned to 
scale back the pathos last year. But when suicide bombers struck again - killing 
four Australians among the 23 dead - the Howard government decided to make 
another major show at Bali's Ground Zero at Kuta Beach. Foreign Minister Alexander 
Downer attended to demonstrate Australia was not intimidated by an attack on 
someone else's soil. 

Captured documents from terrorist operative Azahari bin Husin revealed a plot 
to attack last year's October 12 ceremony, but the plan was reportedly 
abandoned due to security concerns. This year, though, the Australians are going 
lower key, in line with the government's warning against unnecessary travel to 
Indonesia due to the likelihood of attacks. 

This October's pair of commemorative services are invitation only, private 
affairs away from the bomb sites, with no government incentives for the injured 
and families of the deceased to revisit. Victims attending the October 1 
memorial, at a luxury hotel, were mainly Indonesians. 

Star Season

The foiled attack on the commemoration ceremony last year is reason to mark 
this 2006 "trouble season" with a star. 

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year coincides with the bomb 
anniversaries. Last year, Ramadan began just before the October 12 anniversary, and just 
after the October 1 attacks. Perhaps Bali police can believe they've 
withstood the first danger points, but there's no relief until the calendar turns. 
Elsewhere in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim majority state with at least 
180 million of its estimated 220 million people adherents to the faith, Ramadan 
has on occasion provided an excuse for Islamist violence. 

Just ahead of Ramadan, the government chose to execute a trio of Christians 
convicted for inciting the killings of Muslims in central Sulawesi in 2000. 
That immediately put the focus on Amrozi, Iman Sumudra and Mukhlas, the Bali 
bombers of 2002, who are all awaiting execution. Balinese marched last week to 
demand that their death sentences be carried out, but the Poso executions may 
actually make the Bali executions more, not less, difficult. 

As Indonesia struggles with the meaning and practice of diversity, 
particularly for religious outliers such as its 40 million Christian minority - larger 
than the entire populations of Australia and New Zealand - and Bali's 3 million 
or so Hindus, the Bali and Poso executions were seen as a pair, mixing 
revenge with loss for each camp. In that scenario, executing the Bali bombers first 
would have made more sense. It would antagonize the Muslim majority, but the 
subsequent killings of the three offending Christians would salve the wound. 

Problems with the executions go beyond timing. The Poso convictions are 
widely considered a miscarriage of justice. Using those last three words for a 
headline, a recent Jakarta Post editorial stated, "The [Poso] executions will be 
remembered as part of the tragedies besetting the country's efforts to uphold 
justice for one reason: they took place while there was insufficient evidence 
beyond a reasonable doubt that the three uneducated men were the masterminds of 
the violence." 

In comparison, the Bali bombing prosecutions were applauded as professional 
both in Indonesia and overseas, and the accused have not denied their roles - 
questioning only whether they deserve to be punished or rewarded for jihad 
against infidels. Nevertheless, widespread questioning of the Poso death sentences 
makes it easy for Islamic extremists to raise questions about the Bali 
bombers' sentences. 

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the cleric jailed for his role in the first Bali attacks, 
told reporters, "[I]f you ask me which one is more dangerous, nude women or 
the Bali bombs, then my answer would be the women showing off their skin." You 
don't have to be an Islamist extremist or misogynist to imagine that if the 
Poso verdicts were the product of a flawed system and thus a miscarriage of 
justice, then the Bali bomber verdicts could be, too. 
Even Australia has called Indonesia's administration of the death penalty 
into question, at least when it comes to Australian defendants. (See None dare 
call it hypocrisy, Asia Times Online, September 13) 

Real Victims Still Pained

Amid the attempts by Islamists and Australia's serial commemorators to hijack 
the Bali tragedies for their own purposes, the real victims of the bombings 
are often forgotten. The Balinese - and the thousands of other Indonesians and 
foreigners on the island who rely on tourism for their livelihoods - are still 
reeling. 

Bali's economy depends on tourism for more than half of its income and jobs. 
Tourism cratered after the 2002 attacks, but by late 2004 it had rebounded. 
Last year, visitor arrivals were running at a record pace before last year's 
suicide bombings. Those blasts, even though the toll was relatively small and 
overwhelmingly local, may have a more lasting impact than the 2002 bombings. 

The second strike showed that beyond any doubt Bali is a primary target for 
Indonesia's Islamic terrorists. The tourists are foreigners, the Balinese are 
Hindus, and the attacks attract international attention. No other part of 
Indonesia offers that winning combination for terrorists. 

The immediate effect of the bombs last year wasn't as steep as in 2002 - a 
43% drop in tourist arrivals the immediate aftermath, versus 57% in 2002. As 
expected, the gap narrowed, reaching a mere 11% by April. But since then, the gap 
has widened: in the prime tourist season months of July and August, arrivals 
were again off by more than 20%. 

The biggest components in the fall have been Australians. Their arrival 
numbers are down 56%. Terror attacks combined with drug arrests are tipped as the 
reason for the dramatic drop. Whatever the reason, Balinese just wish the 
Australians would quit remembering so damned much. For Balinese tourism, it looks 
like a long, lonely trouble season. 

Gary LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and print writer and editor 
in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, 
he's also a contributor to Slate and Salon.com, and a counselor for Writing 
Camp, www.writingcamp.net. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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