Balinese ill-prepared for crises

Balinese ill-prepared for crises

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

The ongoing dysentery fiasco has, once again, underscored the inability of the island's government agencies and the tourist industry to handle a crisis in a responsible and effective manner.

When on Nov. 23 international and Taiwan media outlets began running news of 25 Taiwanese tourists who contracted dysentery in Bali, a local high-ranking tourism official quickly dismissed the news.

"Don't worry, there has not been any outbreak of cholera in Bali," he said.

The official was either misinformed or simply could not distinguish between cholera and dysentery, two distinctively different intestinal infections.

This denial gained currency when the head of the local health agency, Molin Yudiasa, joined the chorus, claiming that it was not a case of dysentery but a mild gastrointestinal problem commonly found in Bali.

However, when he was pressed by journalists, Molin admitted the health authorities had not completed the sample-collection process, or finished the necessary laboratory tests on samples taken from various restaurants.

Although obviously based on assumption rather than scientific findings, Molin once again reiterated there was no dysentery when questioned by a group of Taiwanese journalists who came to Bali to investigate. No wonder the journalists were not impressed by the explanation.

At about the same time, The China Post reported that the number of confirmed dysentery cases in Taiwan had risen to 42 and another 24 people who had visited Bali had developed dysentery- like symptoms. All of the infected were members of 13 groups that purchased tour packages to Bali and returned to Taiwan by Nov. 22.

Denial was not the only response government agencies, the tourist industry and the local media could offer. Shifting the blame was the second favorite response, with themes ranging from "Why did only the Taiwanese suffer from this problem while tourists from other countries did not?" and "You know that the Taiwanese are careless about the kind of food they eat and the places where they eat", to "The Taiwanese have weaker stomachs compared to the Balinese, who can handle spicy food without any problems."

This lame response was further aggravated by the obvious communication breakdown between the tourist industry, particularly those in the industry involved in handling Taiwanese visitors, and the government health authority.

This breakdown was evident in the fact that health authorities did not begin collecting food and water samples from suspected restaurants until Nov. 28, five days after the first reported case, because, as Molin said: "We found difficulties in pinpointing the restaurants that served the Taiwanese visitors."

As of Wednesday, samples had been taken from at least 17 restaurants all over the island. So far, the health authorities have finished testing samples from six restaurants, of which only one was found to be free from any bacterial contamination.

The rest were identified of having unspecified levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria.

Although not the cause of dysentery, E. coli can cause intestinal problems.

The laboratory test on samples from 17 restaurants are expected to be completed on Saturday. Equipped with the results of the tests, the head of the Bali Tourism Authority, I Gde Pitana, will fly to Taiwan sometime next week, about half a month after the first reported case of dysentery.

Consequently, the denial, pointless finger-pointing, the lack of a scientific, evidence-based response and the broken line of communications and coordination to some extent have damaged the image of Bali tourism, particularly in Taiwan.

This could have been prevented or at least contained with a well-coordinated, straightforward and swift response.

An example of this damage was, as reported by The China Post, the tourism boycott against Indonesia called for by the Taiwan's influential Consumers' Foundation because of the response of the Indonesian media to the dysentery outbreak.

The Taipei Times reported that at least 100 Taiwanese had canceled trips to Bali, some switching to Phuket, Thailand.

The Oct. 12 Bali bombings, the SARS epidemic, the Iraq War and the dysentery outbreak have shown that the local government and the tourist industry are ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with a crisis.

A recently published report by the APEC International Centre for Sustainable Tourism underlined the need for each and every tourist destination to have an established and well-maintained tourism risk management system to deal with possible crises and disasters.

Quoting a few of the report's recommendations, in the occurrence of a health crisis, officials and institutions should "monitor hospital admissions involving tourists, be honest and transparent, act fast, remember the victims and avoid speculation and categorical reassurances".

Bali's administration and tourist industry should begin to address this issue. The island cannot afford another uncontrolled crisis.