For many Australians, Bali is part of Australia

For many Australians, Bali is part of Australia

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Terror Hits Home -- screamed the headline in the Oct. 14 morning edition of The Australian as it broke the tragic news about the powerful bomb explosions that left scores of Australians dead in Bali the previous night.

The headline spoke volumes about public attitude in Australia, not only toward the bomb attacks, but also toward Bali, the famous holiday island that is in Indonesia.

Contrary to Canberra's insistence, many people in Australia, including the media, saw the bomb as targeting Australians. And many people also feel that Bali, or the Kuta Beach resort where the bombs exploded, was as Australian as kangaroos, or Fosters Lager.

The Sari Club, the target of one of the two bombs that exploded on that fateful Saturday night, was certainly known as a well known hangout among Australians.

With Australians accounting for the largest number of casualties in the Oct. 12 bomb attack, the tragedy that unfolded was as much an Australian story as it was an Indonesian story.

For the Australian media, it was a story to be covered both from Australia, as well as from Indonesia, particularly Bali.

In the wake of the bombing, all the major Australian media, both print and broadcast, sent large crews of reporters over to Bali and Jakarta, to write up or cover the stories from there.

With their large presence, and their superior equipment, those who saw them in Bali would be forgiven for thinking that this was more an Australian story than an Indonesian story.

While the bomb explosion occurred several hundred kilometers away from Australian territory, stories originating from Australia were not less interesting, if not more tragic, with anxious relatives awaiting news about missing loved ones, or receiving their bodies.

And of course, there is the story of the political fallout, as Australians are now asking whether the government of Prime Minister John Howard had done enough to warn his nationals about the possibility of a terrorist attack before Oct. 12.

The tragedy and the ensuing massive humanitarian efforts made it worthwhile for the Australian media to go all out in bringing the news and stories to their audience at home.

This was after all the worst tragedy to ever strike Australia since World War II. Never had the nation lost so many people in one strike before this, not even during the peak of the Australian involvement in the Vietnam war.

And the dead and injured in Bali were all civilians, mostly young people including many still in their teens, who were spending their holidays in the one area most people thought, or so they were led to believe, was the safest in the region from terrorist threats.

While there have been reports about lapses in security on the part of Indonesia, or the failure of the Australian government to warn its citizens about the perils of traveling to Bali, very few people in Australia, if at all, bore ill feelings toward Bali, or the Balinese people.

Such affection for Bali and the Balinese people was shown by Prime Minister Howard himself during question time in parliament in Canberra last week.

"We think of the lovely people of Bali who have been such friends to so many Australians for so many generations on so many occasions. We extend our thanks, our warmth and our affection to them," he said.

Some of the larger and respected media also made an effort to tell Australians that this was as much a tragedy for Indonesians as it is for Australians. The Sydney Morning Herald, for example, ran stories about the Balinese victims and their relatives.

Some Australians are already hoping to return to the island as soon as it is considered safe, if only to help revive the Balinese economy.

And that is because to many Australians, Bali is very much part of Australia.

"They are not being possessive about it. But they have developed a strong familiarity with Bali," commented Philip Flood, chairman of the Australia Indonesia Institute and a former ambassador to Indonesia.

According to the Institute, one in eight people in Australia has been to Bali for holidays. Australia used to be the number one source of tourism in Bali, but that role has been overtaken by Japan in recent years. Still, Australians account for one in six tourists who visit Bali every year.

Australian tourists also helped sustain the tourism industry in Bali when global tourism slackened in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. One Australian citizen recalled that all flights from Australia to Bali were virtually fully booked in the weeks and months after the attack.

But as much as Australians would like to return to Bali quickly, most of them would likely wait for the green light from the government in Canberra.

The latest travel advisory from Canberra warned of the possibility of more terrorist attacks in Bali, and elsewhere in Indonesia, and advised all Australians to leave the country unless their presence was really required.

As long as the advisory remains in force, Australians who defy the warning would be visiting Indonesia without travel insurance.

In spite of the official warning, privately, the attitude in Canberra is one of hope, if not for the sake of the Balinese people, at least for the sake of Australians themselves.

"We would like to see it (the advisory) downgraded as soon as possible," Senator Robert Hill, the Australian defense minister, told a group of visiting Indonesian editors last week.

"It will be very important for the Australian people to be able to go to Bali. If we allow this (threat of attacks) to continue, we will let the terrorists win."

(The writer was one of the Indonesian editors who visited Australia last week at the invitation of the Australia Indonesia Institute).