Balinese must exorcise their real demons

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Many Balinese were speechless when a series of violent communal clashes occurred on the evening of the celebration of the Saka new year, known as Nyepi, or Day of Silence.

Some blamed it on excessive consumption of alcohol, others hastily claimed it was the work of malevolent outside forces -- those venomous provocateurs who want to destabilize Bali.

Yet most Balinese were humiliated: Nyepi, which this year fell on April 13, is supposed to be a day during which the Balinese Hindu followers intensify their contemplative efforts to find peace and harmony.

In Abiansemal district, some 40 kilometers north of Denpasar, a brawl between the villagers of Blahkiuh and Gerana resulted in four wounded victims, three damaged buildings and eight motorbikes and three cars which were either damaged or burned.

In the resort area of Nusa Dua, some 35 kilometers southeast of Denpasar, brawls among people of the Bualu area against those from Tanjung Benoa left several buildings severely damaged, and three motorbikes were torched. Similar clashes also took place in the Jimbaran area and the Singapadu area.

Most clashes were triggered by disputes involving local drunken youths. The spats quickly turned into fistfights, and in no time hundreds of people, heavily armed with blunt and sharp weapons, poured down the streets to defend their villages.

Yet, labeling the clashes as the outcome of drunken youths' brawls which turned ugly, or as the results of some dark conspiracy by those who wanted to destroy Bali's image as a safe tourist destination, are not only dangerous, but also irresponsible attempts.

Such a frame of mind would not provide the Balinese with the correct causes and nature of the clashes, thus enabling them to find the correct cure. It would also lure people to shift the blame elsewhere: Provocateurs, Javanese migrant workers, or the military, instead of admitting the clashes as the results of their own selfish arrogance and ignorance.

By failing to identify the roots of the clashes, and by shifting the blame, the Balinese refuse to accept responsibility for their own actions, and will be doomed to repeat the same mistake. Even larger clashes could take place.

The Balinese must learn to be humble, which is very difficult since all those tourism brochures, and most of the early anthropological studies, have depicted the island as a paradise, and its people as sweet, friendly, charming, honest, artistic and very religious.

This stance has been amplified a thousand times both by outsiders and local intellectuals that somehow many Balinese now firmly believe that their religion and culture are the loftiest of all.

Being humble requires an ability to proudly state that the Balinese Hindu religious traditions and social customs are rich and majestic; and it also means the ability to courageously admit the flaws and mistakes of those traditions and customs.

The huge gap between the teachings of the scriptures and their implementation in daily life is one major flaw.

The of Tri Hita Karana dictates, among others, human's deep reverence and harmonious relations with Nature. This teaching is repeatedly quoted by Balinese Hindus to underscore their religion's advanced view on environmental issues.

Yet most do not feel guilty about tossing their garbage in the river. Bureaucrats keep allowing the construction of tourist mega-projects that excessively consume and threaten the sustainability of the island's natural resources.

Another example involves the Hindu teaching of Ahimsa (compassionate non-violence). Yet traditional village institutions such as the Banjar and Desa Adat, generally deal with dissenting members by resorting to violence, torching their houses or expelling them from the village altogether.

The case of the late Ni Nengah Prapti, who died at 70 on March 26, is the most current example of the traditional institutions' inability to practice Ahimsa.

The Banjar (traditional hamlet) Lebah in Susut village, Bangli regency, where Prapti and her family had resided, refused to allow Prapti's cremation ceremony to take place, since her family had resigned from the hamlet's membership.

Now, some 25 days after her death, Prapti's body is still lying on a bed in her family compound. Numerous similar cases have been taking place all over Bali.

The most striking example are the violent clashes on that Nyepi eve. Here is a religion that advocates silent contemplation, modesty, tolerance and self-restraint, but its religious figures are either turning their heads away from, or simply condoning, the widespread alcoholic abuse, gambling and unfounded prejudice toward other ethnicities and religions from the younger people.

What the Balinese have here is a failure to transform the "heavy" -- philosophically and contextually laden -- text of the scriptures into reality. Yet any efforts to that end must first deal with two major obstacles.

First, the division among the Hindu's elite thinkers. The feud between the "traditionalists" and "modernists" has intensified over the past year, and has reached a critical level with both sides trying to mobilize grass-roots supporters.

Any effort to transform or interpret the scriptural texts will certainly need help from the elite thinkers. And unless they reach some common ground, any hope towards transformation will evaporate. The feud instead poses the possibility of another series of violent conflicts among supporters of those camps.

The second obstacle lies in the nature of the Balinese religious traditions, customs, and scriptures. Developed and shaped under the heavy influence of the rice-growing culture, they have formed the social, religious and political fabric influential in the traditional institutions as characterized by their agrarian, feudal, communal and conservative paradigm.

Those paradigms worked relatively well in the past. But, with Bali losing around 3,000 hectares of paddy field per year, and tourism quickly replacing farming as the main source of income, and with the rise of upper and middle classes born from lower caste families, those paradigms have disintegrated at a speed that many could not havethe imagined beforehand.

Ill-equipped to face such influential changes, many of those institutions suddenly find themselves at odds with various issues, such as gender inequality, the increase in migrant workers, the conversion of more Balinese to other religions, or the reluctance of many Balinese Hindu followers' to thoroughly abide by all the old customs and traditions.

So, besides the need to transform or interpret their teachings, the Balinese also need to redefine some basic principles that have guided their traditional institutions for hundreds of years. Otherwise, those institutions will simply cease to exist, or will become an endless "pain in the neck".

The island still cannot leave its glorious ancient past, while it is heavily tempted by, and desperately wanting to embrace, the modern future.

An island engulfed by dilemma, and thus paradox.

It will take much courage to enact all those changes. It needs a joint effort from all Balinese Hindu followers. Failure to do so will sink the island even deeper into the abyss of spiraling violence, intolerance, self-delusion and eventually, self- destruction.

The recent conflicts are just a piece of a much bigger puzzle of social, religious and political problems. And, hopefully, during Nyepi a few days ago, the Balinese Hindu followers have finally found the clarity of mind to tackle the problem right at its core, to grab the supreme demon, Demon of Self-Delusion and kick him out for good.