Expat expo rocked by Bali bomb explosion
Cameron Bates, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It was marketed as the first international exhibition of products and services for the expatriate community in Jakarta. Instead, pain, despair and an overwhelming sense of tiredness with life in Indonesia descended on many of those attending Expo 2002 on Sunday.
The suffering but resolve to carry on with the show at the International Sports Club of Indonesia (ISCI) was no better demonstrated than by club adviser Sam Clayton, who struggled to come to terms with the fact that five club members in Bali for a rugby tournament were missing, probably dead.
A total of nearly 40 rugby players from the tournament were listed as missing.
"It's a shock to the club ... a couple of years ago we lost four family members in the Silk Air crash ... but you can't compare accidental deaths like that to an act of terrorism," he said in a voice cracked with emotion.
The five, whose names have not officially been released, include three Australians, a New Zealander and a Canadian. Two of the men were fathers, while a third was understood to be recently engaged.
Surviving members of the 27-strong group from ISCI continued the ghastly, unimaginable task of searching morgues for their fallen friends, aged between 25 and 35 years, on Monday and Tuesday, but without success.
The team returned to Jakarta on Tuesday and were planning to discuss arrangements for a memorial service.
PT Sinar Expo Prima exhibition manager Yuanita said only about 1,000 people attended the expo on Sunday, well down from the hoped for 5,000 plus.
The theme of the expo was supporting foreign investment in Indonesia.
"All the major foreign investors are here and they are tired, obviously sad, very sad. There is obvious shock and grief over what has happened, but the overall mood is 'what for?', 'what are we here for?'" Yuanita said.
She said expats would not renew contracts, while others were already booking flights home.
"People are just saying, 'Right, I don't want my children here anymore'. But there is no real sense of fear, there is just people saying 'I want to take my kids somewhere else.'"
Expo stall-holder Eammon Saddler, who runs the Jakarta Comedy Club, said the barbaric attack was a disaster for Indonesia.
"Bali was the last thing that Indonesia had that was safe and outside all the problems associated with (Indonesia).
"It was the last stronghold of normality in Indonesia. Bali was like the untouched thing that carried on through it all and now it's over."
Milton Bavin, the manager of the Indonesia branch of Trantek (International) Group, a human resources and business services consultancy, said the impact of the attack on business would be "huge".
"It's just another nail in the coffin for the economy. I mean what have you got, you've got oil and gas and you've got tourism and Bali was it."
He said the Australian International School, which his son attends, had been closed indefinitely and the future looked bleak for expats in general.
"I would imagine nobody would want to come here to work at this point after this sort of thing. Who would?"
However, Englishman Peter Pool said he was looking at the possibility of establishing a construction company in Indonesia.
"It's bad ... but if you run away from things like that you are going to run out of places to go in the end. It happens in London, it happens in America, it happens everywhere. It's very unfortunate and very sad but you've just got to box on."