Editorial: Bombs kill tourism for Bali

Opinion

Bali is as beautiful as its travel brochures say. The many New Zealanders who have been there can attest to the warmth and beauty of its natural attractions and of its people. The Balinese are exceptionally comfortable with visitors, probably because they do not feel culturally threatened by them. Theirs is an ancient Hindu culture that somehow was untouched by the spread of Islam throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The Balinese know who they are and feel their identity not at all undermined by foreigners who saunter about their towns wearing too little, talking too loudly, treating their religious observances and cultural practices as charming attractions. Bali might be the last place Western visitors would fear were it not in the middle of Indonesia.

It is certainly the last place to deserve the economic destruction that terrorism has surely now brought to it. Tourism is the mainstay of its economy. The bombing of Kuta beach night spots three years ago was a blow from which it has worked hard to recover. A second attack, almost on the anniversary of the 2002 shock, is nothing short of a disaster. It took a great deal of goodwill, and some urgent police work, to encourage tourists back to Bali after the earlier bombs. Now it would seem irresponsible to urge them back.

The latest outrage was the work of suicide bombers, suspected to be organised by Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant Islamic group behind the 2002 bombs. The Indonesian police were quick to hunt down those they said were involved in that atrocity and 33 people have been convicted. The three principal participants have been sentenced to death and a fourth to life imprisonment. But the ageing cleric who gives a perverted blessing to jihadism in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, received in March only a 30-month jail sentence. And the man said to be the chief bomb-maker for Southeast Asian terror, a Malaysian, Azahari, is still on the loose.

It is cold comfort to know that this time the Indonesian authorities seemed to know something was afoot. On August 30 the new President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, warned that terrorists could strike in September or October and ordered security services to step up surveillance. "We know the terrorists cells are still active, they are still hiding, recruiting, networking, trying to find new funding and even planning ... for another strike," he said. The warning was duly conveyed by governments such as New Zealand's, which immediately issued a "very strong advisory" against all non-essential travel to Indonesia. It is easy to be wise after the event but it is hard to see what more the authorities could or should do.

Bali is by no means the only Indonesian target of terrorism. Bombs were detonated in Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel in 2003 and the Australian Embassy last year. A market in a Christian city of eastern Sulawesi Island became a scene of carnage in May. But Bali, as the instigators well know, has the greatest global impact. At any time it is likely to have tourists from many parts of the Western world. Or rather, was likely to have them. Yesterday travel agents were accepting cancellations for holidays already booked. Qantas put on emergency flights back to Sydney and allowed all intending passengers booked to go to Bali to cancel without penalty.

It may be a long time before the travel industry treats Bali as anything other than a risk to their customers and themselves. That will be crippling for Bali, bad for Indonesia and sad for people everywhere who want to see one of the world's most enchanting places. It is too dangerous now.