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Bali: Help me get my feet
back on the ground
By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - Oblivious to the US
Independence Day holiday and the potential terrorist
threat, Bali's Hard Rock Hotel invited the local tourism
press for a "Hard Rock Reloaded" party on July 4. The
Matrix-themed event featured the requisite
sunglasses and black outfits on waiters and waitresses
and the Hard Rock Dancers, a buffet, and special "Baby,
Come Back" promotional rates for rooms and meetings.
The Hard Rock was fully reloaded for the party.
The 400-room hotel boasted 100 percent occupancy for the
weekend and the one ahead, largely thanks to Indonesian
tourists taking advantage of the school holiday to visit
the famed paradise island (and the oddly iconic hotel
that ignores Indonesia's vibrant rock scene) and support
Bali's recovery from the October 12 terror bombing (see
Indonesia: The demons remain,
October 23, 2002). Prospects for the rest of the crucial
northern-summer high season are less certain at the Hard
Rock and throughout Bali.
International donors
are anxious to assist Bali's revival, but for them the
issue is far more complicated than checking in for a
weekend and admiring the Elvis memorabilia. A new report
on the aftermath of the bombing illustrates how
widespread the damage is and how difficult it is to make
meaningful repairs.
Help me if you can, I'm
feeling down
In a Bali Update study issued
jointly by the United Nations Development Program, the
World Bank and the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), 1,500 Bali residents
surveyed reported significant falls in employment, sales
and income since October. Perhaps most troubling,
school-dropout rates have risen, suggesting long-term
consequences for the island's 4 million people. After
bottoming out at the end of 2002, Bali tourism arrivals
were running at about two-thirds previous normal-year
levels before severe acute respiratory syndrome (see SARS fever hits economies, April 2)
played havoc with travel throughout Asia.
The
report, characterized as "rapid response assessment" by
its coordinator, accepts reviving tourism as the key to
economic recovery. An estimated 50-80 percent of Bali's
economy depends on tourism. However, international
donors are not involved in tourism-recovery efforts;
Indonesia's government and business sector have assumed
that task. In fact, some international donors, and some
people on Bali, would prefer to see tourism
de-emphasized and alternative income sources developed.
In the immediate wake of the bombing,
international assistance to Bali focused on the
emergency responses. Doctors and nurses and tons of
medical supplies, including ice to preserve ghastly
remains, poured in to aid bomb victims, while
mental-health professionals counseled survivors.
Security and law-enforcement help came from around the
globe both to prevent a repeat and to seek the
perpetrators. (The first trial of an alleged bomber,
Amrozi, who owned the van that exploded on the street
outside the Sari Club, drones toward its third month,
with a conviction and the death penalty expected
eventually.)
Global help and sympathy exceeded
the outpouring for the United States after September 11,
2001. That's not only because Bali's need was greater
but because Bali occupies a unique place in the global
consciousness. Efforts to promote tourism, especially
Indonesian ones, often portray Bali as just another
sun-and-sand destination with friendly natives, failing
to emphasize the social and cultural aspects that make
Bali unique.
Help! Not just
anybody
That shortcoming alone would represent a
vast improvement over www.BalifortheWorld.com, a website
from a Bali Tourism Recovery Committee based in Jakarta.
The Indonesian government has also reportedly boosted
its promotion of Bali through its overseas tourism
offices and participation in international tourism
fairs. However, those efforts may be counterproductive
if www.BalifortheWorld is indicative.
The
website informs, "Bali, a tropical island in the
Indonesian archipelago, is so picturesque and immaculate
it could almost be a painted backdrop." Cliche gives way
to poor taste when it declares, "Even a funeral is an
opportunity to have a good time." The website contains a
handful of ineffective features on souvenirs and
interviews with obscure golfers with no connection to
Bali. Its events-listing tabs show no events for June
despite the fact that the island is thronging with
traditional and modern performances from operas to
shadow puppets throughout the island as features of the
Bali Arts Festival. Also not shown is the September 8-14
Bali stop on the women's tennis tournament, the Wismilak
International, which is sure to provide up close views
of Angelique Widjaja, the Indonesian teenager who bested
Anna Kournikova on all counts in the opening round of
last year's US Open.
Now I find I've changed
my mind, I've opened up the doors
These
information gaps highlight the continuing lack of
communication and cooperation between those who really
do want to help. That's even more true when it comes to
international donors. However, boosting tourism in Bali
may not fit the agenda for some foreign donors. Bali
Update salutes the truism of increasing the quality, not
the quantity, of tourists. More significant, at least
four overseas assistance programs - from Germany, Japan
and multilateral aid agencies - aim at weaning Bali off
its reliance on tourism by developing opportunities in
handicrafts and agriculture. "Developing non-tourism
sectors can create a more diversified economy that's
more resilient," UNDP Bali coordinator Nick Mawsdley
says. "Tourism has become increasingly unpredictable,"
and its benefits are concentrated on the southern tip of
the island, adds Mawsdley, who oversaw the Bali Update
survey.
The Bali Update's brand of foreign-donor
involvement has one element that Jakarta's efforts lack:
talking to people on Bali. The October 12 crisis has not
led to a fundamental reassessment by Bali residents and
businesses about the direction they want to their island
take economically, environmentally, and/or spiritually.
No donor came forward with the level of immediate aid
that would be necessary to take a timeout for that kind
of review.
For better or worse, Bali seems to
have chosen to continue its chase for global tourism
dollars, but that's not necessarily indicative of what
people on Bali want. The development of tourism, from
international lodging brands such as Hard Rock and
smaller resorts and hotels, is largely out of Balinese
hands.
Nine months after the bombing in Kuta,
it's clear that there are many helping hands extended
toward Bali. It's less clear how many of those hands are
actually helping, how many have Bali's best interests at
heart, and what Bali's people really want. There is a
continued golden opportunity for people of goodwill to
work together but little indication that communication
and cooperation are on the agenda for what remains as a
unique, enchanting and unfortunately endangered
community.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co,
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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