Overreaction hands victory to terrorists

Overreaction hands victory to terrorists

M. Ali, MBA Student, Nottingham University, United Kingdom

Nobody can for a moment underestimate the pain and horrific
damage caused by the bomb attacks in Bali. The loss of life and
the damage to people and property was appalling, while for
Indonesia the damage has spread to infect the world's perception
of us. Any semblance of recovery is going to take a long time to
achieve.

The world's view of Indonesia prior to the Bali bombing was
not exactly complimentary, but now that what is probably
Indonesia's most famous location has come under attack the
world's view of the whole archipelago has dropped to an all-time
low.

But is it reasonable that the whole of Indonesia is now seen
as a black spot for tourism, travel and business? In the
aftermath of the Bali bombing the whole of Indonesia seems to
have become a "no-go zone" for Westerners -- officially anyway.
The list of European/Western embassies that have issued warnings
to their citizens either not to travel to Indonesia at all or to
travel very little around Indonesia if already in the country has
steadily grown.

The official line has been to err on the side of caution,
although some might suggest this leans toward panic and paranoia.

Of course we must understand caution in times that seem
perilous and fraught with dangers; but over-cautiousness does
tend to lead to paranoia, some degree of panic and, perhaps worst
of all, making prejudices even more entrenched.

Take a seemingly mindless poll on travel plans that was
recently taken and published in Germany. Among a variety of
shallow, jingoistic and xenophobic findings was the remarkable
claim that the German people have concluded that it is no longer
safe for them to travel to any Muslim country.

What a strange and overbearing conclusion this seems to be,
and how far from reality it seems to be as well. Just during the
last few days a party of tourists from Europe returned from a
tour of Java and Bali, and among this party were two Germans who
seemed to have no misgivings about traveling to and around
Indonesia.

They were traveling to Bromo at the time of the Bali attack
but they felt no great fear or problem with continuing their
trip. They went on to Yogyakarta and completed their trip with a
few days in Bali, from where they took a flight home to Europe.

When asked what they felt about the fact that various
embassies had announced that Westerners should not visit
Yogyakarta because it was considered to be "particularly
dangerous for foreigners", their reaction was rather dismissive.
"Well, they [the embassies] would say that wouldn't they," was
their response.

The apparent overreaction from embassies is the unfortunate
truth for Indonesia. Embassy warnings are as much about the
embassies covering their respective national governments as they
are about protecting their respective nationals.

The reaction of some Australians after the Bali bombing
illustrates this concern. Many tearful, distraught and dismayed
Australian tourists returning from Bali expressed their anger
that the Australian government had received warnings of potential
terrorist threats but had not communicated those warnings to
traveling Australians.

For fear of being exposed to such criticism again, the
Australian government has been highly active in warning its
citizens against travel to Indonesia, and other Western nations
have followed this pattern.

But clearly this "pattern" has the potential to become
overzealous and damaging not only to the Indonesian economy,
through lost investment and tourism revenue, but also in terms of
the relationship between Indonesia and other nations.
Unfortunately much of the Western reporting of events in
Indonesia after the Bali bombing has had the tendency to entrench
and bolster prejudiced, xenophobic and even ignorant thinking
toward Indonesia.

Typically, reporters that are bringing news of the
investigation into the Bali bombing will preface their reports
with lines such as "Indonesia, which is the world's largest
Islamic nation and home to many radical Islamic terror groups, is
now trying to track down the terrorists responsible"; or
"Indonesia is now struggling to control Islamic splinter groups
that have, since the downfall of Soeharto, been terrorizing
Christian communities".

This kind of reporting seems to enjoy the prospect of linking
religion with the fear of terror and it gives the impression that
Indonesia is held in a vice-like grip by terror groups and
radicals. It leaves no room for the reality that Indonesia is one
of the most moderate of Muslim nations. Instead it casts a deep
and dark shadow that promotes negative thoughts.

This kind of negative thinking is damaging to Indonesia, and
it is also damaging and divisive for the world community as a
whole. The ease, and apparent pleasure, with which links are made
between religion and violence is damaging to the world community
as it promotes the notion that the mostly Christian West is
facing an enemy in the Islamic East. This is a dangerous and
totally unwanted precedent.

But besides this kind of divisiveness, there is also the
danger that the way in which embassies and (Western) governments
have been quick to warn against traveling to places such as
Indonesia is handing a victory to the terrorists. One of their
twisted aims would, after all, be to disrupt and destroy the
normal way of life of their enemies.

Terrorists are the enemies of Indonesia too and Indonesia
must, and surely will now, work hard to tackle this problem. But
this is also a problem for the world community.

Embassies and national governments should perhaps be a little
more guarded and a little less reactionary in the aftermath of
terrorist attacks. The kind of paranoia that suggests that people
should suddenly evacuate countries that have fallen victim to
terrorist acts is myopic and not far short of being a concession
of defeat in the "war on terror".