Bali's peaceful reputation suffers blow ahead of 2000

Bali's peaceful reputation suffers blow ahead of 2000

By Degung Santikarma

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): With the end of the second millennium
fast approaching, anxieties have arisen over just what the new
era will bring.

In the West, fears that a "millennium bug" or "Y2K virus"
might infest electronic infrastructure, freezing computer
frameworks upon which so many everyday activities have come to
depend, have made many determined to seek a peaceful destination
to mark the passing of the old year.

By booking a seat on a plane to paradise, these travelers are
hoping to escape their worries in a place that offers enjoyment,
ease and, above all, safety. And Bali has promised to please.

Advertising its unique cultural heritage, nurtured over
thousands of years of marginalization from the main road of
modernity, the Island of the Gods has guaranteed a heavenly haven
far removed from the centers of commerce and confusion in New
York, London, Paris or Tokyo; a serene spot to celebrate, where
world-weary guests can usher in the new epoch in laid-back island
style.

To tempt the foreign traveler, Bali has pledged to provide a
mouth-watering mix: modernity minus the possibility of
contemporary chaos, tradition improved to include five-star
facilities, all spiced up with a good dose of exotic allure. But
in Bali, many locals have become apprehensive of the millennium
as well.

Talk has it that the turn of the new year 2000 will be a
moment when the world hangs in the balance, poised between the
possibility of Kali Yuga (an era of chaos) and Kertha Yuga (an
era of prosperity).

The signs, people say, will be easy to read. If the
equilibrium tips toward turmoil, the normal order of things will
be reversed. One village woman explained philosophically, "In the
Kali Yuga age, humans will be born with teeth instead of the
animals, and women will be the ones to ask men to marry them."

And if the third millennium brings not disorder but the dawn
of a new abundance? Those omens will be even simpler to observe.
The Balinese, whose income from tourism suffered a severe blow
from ongoing political and economic turmoil during 1999, will
receive a new shot of prosperity when the island's millennium
festivities bring an expected influx of revelers and their
riches.

But last Thursday, the image of Bali as a safe haven free from
worldly worries, where a peaceful, gentle, nature-loving people
stand ready to welcome their foreign guests and their foreign
exchange, suffered a severe blow.

Feeling the ill effects of a virus more deadly than the
millennium bug, the virus known as KKN (corruption, collusion and
nepotism), that infiltrated the island under the New Order, many
Balinese were hanging their hopes for healing on the curative
powers rumored to be possessed by Megawati Soekarnoputri. But
when last Wednesday saw their chosen candidate fail to capture
enough votes to rise to Indonesia's number one spot, Bali's
balance between chaos and order began to slip. By Thursday
afternoon, Bali's teeth were bared.

Denpasar soon became covered with a blanket of acrid smoke, as
masses poured into the streets burning tires and shouting that no
matter what the rest of the nation might think, Megawati was the
president of Bali.

Young men armed with chain saws cut down trees, turning the
roads into an obstacle course of fire and fallen foliage,
freezing all traffic and leaving thousands without electricity or
telephone services.

Others poured into the downtown district, burning and smashing
government offices and raiding department stores, grabbing
computers, radios, cordless telephones, T-shirts and any other
modern marvel light enough to be carried on the shoulders of the
swarming crowds.

The millennium, it seemed, had arrived early to the island
once called "the morning of the world".

Yet, even before the rubble had been cleared, the broken tree
limbs burned and the stain of burnt rubber scrubbed off the
sidewalks, travel agents and tourism officials were already
declaring that everything was back to normal -- just another day
in paradise.

Cultural observers even began to weave a tangled logic that
laid the blame for the outburst at the feet of mysterious
outsiders. Respected Professor of Psychiatry and oft-quoted
cultural commentator Prof. Dr. Luh Ketut Suryani explained to a
reporter for Bali Post, the island's daily Indonesian-language
newspaper, "If the Balinese get mad, they are certain to release
their anger without harming other people materially."

She went on to explain that because the Balinese are deep
believers in the Hindu law of karmapala, which holds that one's
actions, good or bad, are sure to rebound upon their instigators
in this life or the next, they could not possibly have been
responsible for the destruction. A Balinese, she claimed, would
rather go hungry than steal something belonging to someone else.

What's more, she continued, Thursday's rampage had none of the
hallmarks of Balinese style. When Balinese protest, Suryani said,
they do it with art.

And indeed Bali still remains sketched with the aesthetic
evidence of last week's performance. Fractured trees cast stark
silhouettes against the sky. Broken glass and twisted wires still
remain scattered across many a downtown street. And a number of
Bali's urban population are now displaying their sense of style
by sporting the latest fashion trends: new blue jeans and
millennium festival T-shirts once exhibited on the racks of
clothing stores that have now been turned into refined heaps of
rubble. But this new art movement seems not to have inspired the
kind of critical reflection that usually accompanies aesthetic
performances in Bali.

Before the culture mavens could reach a consensus on precisely
what genre of artistic expression last week's exhibition
represented -- social realism, surrealism or perhaps a new
postmodern primitivism -- the reviews have concluded that last
week's show was an anomaly, sure to never be repeated.

All that remains to close the curtains on the unfortunate
events is to clean up the streets, rewire telephone and
electrical lines and hope that the Western audience chose that
moment to go out to the lobby for some refreshments.

For if the foreign ticket holders were watching too closely,
they just may make other reservations for the big millennium
bash, in a place where a love story is playing, not the latest
real-life action-adventure reel.