The View From Indonesia

"Travel Warning, Embassy Warning: U.S. citizens urged to defer non-essential travel to Indonesia�"
Almost every day I find several such messages in my email inbox. Since I live in Indonesia, which has been in a lukewarm but fairly consistent state of conflict for the past five years, I don�t find their presence particularly jarring. First the Asian financial crisis hit us in the mid-90s, and the rupiah went from 2,500 per dollar to 11,000 per dollar in about 90 days. Then came the anti-Suharto revolution, and the beginnings of Indonesian democracy. Then the presidential election, where a plurality of popular votes went to Megawati but the politicians in Jakarta decided to give the Presidency to Abdurrahman Wahid. Then this year another crisis led the same politicians to bring down Wahid and install Megawati into power.

Every crisis has brought new embassy travel warnings to my inbox. And every time a travel warning for Indonesia arrives, I hear a collective murmur from my multinational friends here, whose ranks include indigenous Balinese villagers increasingly dependent on tourism, Chinese-Balinese businesspeople and American and European expats working in the large tourist hotels. The murmur is always the same. "Tell them Bali is different�" they urge me. "Tell them Bali is safe, even happy."

A brief history of the island
Bali is an island in the nation of Indonesia, which itself is composed of 13,000 islands straddling the equator, in roughly the same time zone as Hong Kong and Vietnam. Bali is about the size of Delaware, with a population of 3 million exuberant Hindus. To the west of Bali, separated by a strait of just several hundred yards, is the island of Java, which is about the size of California, with a population of 100 million Muslims. Stretching east is an archipelago with hundreds of small to medium-sized islands, islands with names like Sumba, Sumbawa, Lombok, Flores, Komodo, the legendary Spice Islands, Timor, and the island of Irian Jaya (New Guinea). These areas have mixed populations of Muslims, Christians, and animists. Virtually every inhabited island in Indonesia has its own language and unique history.

A tiny speck right in the middle of the incredible rainbow of cultural diversity that is Indonesia, Bali has a happy role as the tourism center of Indonesia. Traditionally an isolated society of fierce warriors, Balinese culture was shaped by a wave of kings and princes who crossed from Java to Bali about 700 years ago to escape the invading Muslims. They set up their kingdoms in Bali and then defended their turf so fiercely that even the Dutch did not bother to subjugate them until the 20th century.

The Balinese are very aware that the world views their culture with delight. This awareness informs their interactions with foreigners, which makes for a very happy tourism business. It also helps the Balinese to hold onto their culture and religion even as they accept modern life. Bali�s focus on tourism business has also shielded it from much of the economic hardship over the past five years. And because the Balinese economy has remained relatively strong, compared to other areas of Indonesia, the political and social situation has remained calm and orderly. Bali�s pervasive peace has brought a wave of internal migration of Indonesians to the island, looking either for work or for a safe place to invest.

Trouble comes to paradise
Now, however, everyone — Balinese, Javanese and foreigners — seems to be in a kind of daze, not understanding what is happening in the world or how they should feel about it, or what Indonesia�s stake in all of this might be. Meanwhile, the country seems to be drifting right into the line of fire in this conflict, without giving it too much thought. The information available to Indonesians is quite limited and overwhelmingly biased.

Even in Hindu Bali, the newspaper seems more interested in romanticizing bin Laden than in dissecting the issues of war and blame carefully. I get my news from the Internet, so every day I see ten or twenty new stories, examining the issues from every angle, including the plight of innocent people caught in the crosshairs — both in New York and in Afghanistan. Then I look at the top headlines of the Indonesian-language newspapers, which read, "America Attacks Afghanistan — bin Laden Still Safe."

Most of the news about Indonesia that reaches the U.S. comes from the cities of Java — Jakarta, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta — where demonstrations are held frequently outside US consular facilities. This is where extremist groups generally issue their threats, warning that Americans and foreigners will be "swept" out of the country by Islamic groups. The problem has been not so much the threats themselves as the government�s lack of response to them. Instead of condemning the intimidation, the government seems to first avoid making any comment and then, when pressed, to assure people that the extremists are far more likely to talk than act. Only slowly and reluctantly did the national government in Jakarta say that the police would (probably) oppose any so-called "sweeping." Eventually that statement was further modified to indicate staunch support for law and order. Gradually, and only after a distressingly long debate, the government seems poised to confirm that all people will be protected from threats. Resolve, needless to say, does not appear to be particularly firm.

Where a "neighborhood watch" really means something
On the local level, however, which is where security is really handled in Indonesia, the situation varies considerably. In Bali security is handled more by village governing groups, called banjars, than by the police or army. A banjar is usually made up of around 200 families. The group handles all social functions throughout life from birth through marriage, children, to death and cremation. We live in a fairly large village or town, probably with a population of 7,000 to 10,000. Within our village there are 9 banjars. Balinese banjars are famous for delivering village justice on the spot, including shotgun weddings and death by bludgeoning for burglars. When a suspected thief is caught by the banjar, the thief yells for the police. Traffic accidents are often handled on the spot also; usually the verdict is no-fault with payment decided more on the basis of need than the merits of the case.

It follows that in these troubled times, wise expats know exactly where to go to ask about safety: The banjar. And we know that the banjar will say what it always says: That all foreigners in Bali are considered "tamu," — guests — and when a Balinese says foreigner he means other non-Balinese Indonesians as well, including the thousands of Muslims and Chinese-Indonesians living and working in Bali. All guests are entitled to the same rights, and certainly no individual or group of guests are allowed to do anything to damage the tourism business in Bali, or tarnish Bali�s image as an enlightened, friendly place. Having already resisted the Muslim expansion for 700 years, and having learned to absorb three million tourists a year while keeping their traditional culture, the Hindu Balinese are not about to allow outsiders to run their affairs.

Americans putting down roots a world away from home
Although the U.S. government has called for Americans to avoid travel to Indonesia and has urged Americans in Indonesia to leave, I suspect that all Americans and other foreigners here are making their decisions according to their local realities. Last night, in a conversation with my electrician, who is a Muslim from Sumbawa, I heard a story about an American community on that island. There is a U.S.-managed gold mine on Sumbawa that employs several hundred Americans who live there with their families and who supervise a workforce made up of thousands of local people. As soon as this crisis started, the electrician told me, the locals saw the looming threat to their jobs, and decided to protect the mining operation and their American partners. They�ve set up their own law and order forces, cordons and roadblocks, and made it clear that they will not allow outside interference in their lives. My electrician was upset that this type of development, which involves thousands of Indonesian Muslims, has gotten no publicity, whereas every anti-American demonstration with 50 people hits the front pages.

In Java, I have heard similar stories, of American or European business owners with thousands of employees being protected and staying put. I know of an American garment maker with an operation near Solo, the city famous for its hotel "sweepers." His thousands of employees insisted he stay there, and guaranteed his safety.

An uncertain future
Despite these intermittent stories of goodwill, the outlook in this country is grim: If the U.S.-led war on terrorism continues to escalate, the economic impact will be harsh in Indonesia; in Bali it is already evident. Hotel occupancy is dwindling to 20 percent. So they have cut back on ordering supplies; small businesses and individuals are already feeling the cutbacks and are very scared.

The Indonesian government�s inability, so far, to find its way in this crisis is perplexing to those of us who have observed the country for many years. Indonesia is the fourth largest nation in the world, and the largest Muslim nation, with very important strategic demographics, but for decades has maintained an incredibly low global profile. No other nation this large is so little understood and publicized in the world at large. So why now, when a low profile is most called for, is the Indonesian government suddenly wandering onto center stage, with seemingly nothing to gain from a prominent role in the crisis, but so much to lose? It�s all fodder for the country�s conspiracy theorists, whose conjecture runs rampant: The nation has been infiltrated by Islamic radicals who are now controlling the agenda here by staging demonstrations, issuing threats, and possibly controlling the media.

Beyond the wildly speculative theories, however, there is real trepidation here as well. Reports are swirling about the various Islamic militias active in the outer islands, including bin Laden�s cells and other "graduates" of the war in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,180375,00.html#ixzz0oS67jjyN

The View From Indonesia