Indonesia: The dark side of Bali’s blissful allure

Jeff Lewis

The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Australians’ pursuit of pleasure in the paradise of Bali has a downside, said Jeff Lewis. Some 2 million international visitors—many of them Australians—who visit the Indonesian island each year “are enticed by the low cost and delirious freedom of drinking, partying, night-clubbing, and drug-taking.” But this “hedonistic fantasy” has a steep price—for Indonesians and Australians alike.

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The “sense of privilege” and entitlement that our tourists project helped incite terrorist attacks in Balinese tourist zones in 2002 and 2005. And tourism’s rise has sparked a sharp increase in everyday violent crime, as thieves and rapists stalk the streets, looking for drunken foreigners to exploit. Indonesian authorities simply can’t cope, so nightclub owners have begun hiring security staff from Laskar Bali, a notorious criminal gang involved in prostitution and drug dealing. That’s a danger for all Indonesians.

Australians, meanwhile, can easily get caught up in the corrupt and brutal Indonesian justice system. Seduced by the “fantasy of infinite bliss,” they buy and consume drugs, forgetting that Indonesia is an Islamic country. Several are serving long prison sentences in brutal jails. The story of Bali—“beautiful, horrible, and now utterly transformed by our own desires”—is a shame to us all.