Alex and I were driving from Kuta beach to dinner at my favorite restaurant when the car shook. The road was rough – it was probably a bump or pothole. It wasn’t until later, when we were at dinner, when the Australian woman who was busy with text messages on her phone said out loud so that people in surrounding tables could hear, that a bomb had gone off in Kuta and that many were hurt, including an Australian she knew.
The next morning, Alex and I went to the government hospital where the bomb victims were being treated. We felt like doing something – offering our services if volunteers were needed. We wanted to try to affect the situation. But there was nothing the hospital wanted from us. So, we visited the American victims – who were a Vietnamese-American family from the Bay Area on their first trip to Bali. All had sustained minor injuries and were in a Med-Surg ward, except for their elderly uncle who was in ICU.
The Balinese ICU was no place to be, let alone the hospital in general. For an island with as much tourism and money flowing into it as Bali, I would have expected better. Aside from the typical Balinese orange-brick temple-style façade, the hospital was completely lacking inside. So much so that I found a nurse’s cart using a Pepsi bottle for a sharps container. Apparently, the Balinese took the Pepsi challenge when it came to sharps containment, fearing no retribution from the JCAHO gods – who are unlikely to visit Bali anytime in the foreseeable future.
Gray, cement walls. Hard, plain cement floors, hospital beds circa 1940, glass bottle IV’s, not a piece of technology in sight, and a cleanliness that was as best as it could be with an all-cement interior, but nothing even close to the pristine, sparkling sanitation of the Singaporean hospitals I had been used to at that time – or even a second-tier US community hospital where you at least smell the cleaning chemicals sometimes.
Nurses were clearly doing whatever they could do – which was mostly bringing things to patients and smiling.
Foreign patients needing critical care beyond what the hospital could provide were being shipped to Australia and Singapore as soon as they were stable enough – most of these patients were Australian.
But the majority of the injured and dead were Balinese. Locals with shops, businesses, restaurants or who were just passing by. The number of Balinese – Indonesian citizens – were almost double the number of foreigners. The international press didn’t focus on that. But the names on the hospital boards and rooms did.
People asked the classic post-terrorist incident question, “Why?!” To an innocent victim or someone witnessing an unexpected event, the shock, the personal nature of the attack may make the answer hard to see, let alone to accept. But it was clear as day to me – as well as it seemed to be to Indonesian officials and many Balinese with some removal.
The radical Islamists from Java responsible were taking aim at Bali’s tourism and general openness to the outside world. After all, Bali is 92% Hindu and has (with the exception of fighting for its sovereignty against the Dutch – which is fair game in my book), always been friendly to foreigners. Balinese tourism is not only a huge part of Bali’s economy – but brings in taxes that Indonesia cyphens out of Bali and uses to support other, more populated parts of the archipelago nation. Bali, especially in its touristy areas, has modernized, embraced technology, and embraced European, Australian and American ideas.
To Islamic fundamentalists in Java and other parts of predominately Muslim Indonesia, this was an affront to their values – and general sentiment of keeping the Western Whitey out of Indonesia.
Within Indonesia, as within most countries, there are no security measures between provinces – or in Indonesia’s case, islands. And therefore, no checkpoints exist to screen out things like bombs. All the terrorists had to do was drive or walk right up and ignite. And that’s exactly what they did in a very touristy part of Bali.
Make no mistake, they met their objective. While the death toll and number of casualties of this 2005 
bomb was significantly less than the 2002 night club bombing killing 202 people in that same area of Bali, it had the same effect. The world – particularly wary Americans and Europeans – got the impression that Bali was dangerous, and took their vacations elsewhere. And Bali hurt. Again. Just after mostly recovering from the 2002 bomb.
And this time, Balinese took the majority of the fatalities.
The rift between Bali and the Republic of Indonesia of which it is part, widens. Only tiny Bali, by geography and manpower, has no real way out - unlike East Timor who separated also due to differences between their Christian population and the conservative Islamic bent government in Jakarta.
But Indonesia’s, new President Yudhoyono is a practical man of military 
background. He knows that Bali’s significance is much greater than its size and population. Bali is both an important tax-source, and maybe more importantly, a spot where the outside world and Indonesia come together. His actions on Bali would greatly affect how people see Indonesian attitudes toward terrorism, security, foreigners – and whether or not it was a stable, trustworthy government.
Bombers were hunted down and tried – for both the 2002 and 2005 bombings. And although the Indonesian justice system is not known for its excellent and unbiased execution of justice (Indonesia is on the list of Top Five most corrupt countries in the world), it conducted thorough and public trials of the bombers. And it convicted each and every one.
Yesterday, the Indonesian government executed, by firing squad, the three captured 
bombers responsible for the 2002 nightclub bombing in Kuta, Bali. Riots broke out in parts of Java, including Tenggulun in East Java and Serang – home villages of two of the executed convicts. Yudhoyono ordered police into the streets of not just the rioting areas, but added 3500 police to the most populated areas of Bali, to prevent retaliation against the Balinese. Not bad for Indonesia.
The surviving perpetrators of the 2005 bombing, whose victims Alex and I witnessed, have yet to be executed – but are on death row.
Australia, a powerful first world nation of 20 million people sits next to Indonesia, a third-world country of 235 million – and the fifth largest population on the planet, right after the United States. Australia lives in an uneasy, inescapable relationship with its large, less stable neighbor.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has asked Australians to avoid both Indonesia and the UNITED STATES at this time, fearing Indonesian terrorist reprisals which could be taken out potentially against the United States and its pressure against terrorism. Does Australia know something we should? After having its Embassy in Jakarta bombed in 2004, I’m going to say, “yes”.
Most Indonesians, Muslim or not, hate violence and along with their government, condemn what the terrorists did. Indonesians, of whatever religious background, are some of the kindest in the world. As in so many cases, an extremist few can ruin the image of a larger whole – and in that way, the Muslim majority of Indonesia suffers too.
But what this points to is beyond Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Balinese, Javanese, Australian, Indonesian or Foreign Whitey.
The real issue, aside from the horrors and condemnation of an unforgivable, intolerable terrorism – is what motivates it. And that’s the modern clash of cultures and values that come from a world at a zenith of change.
Over long histories, Europe, America and the countries linked to the Western First World have developed differently than cultures in many other places, with different environments, necessities, histories and influences. In a modern world where technologies like Internet, satellite, mobile phones and even long-range passenger jets have brought us all up closer to one another than ever before, we find ourselves face to face for the first time.
And there’s no turning back. The ideas and influences of the Western World have washed up on the shores of Indonesia – beyond anything the Dutch brought with them when they colonized. And the retaliation of that has washed up on the shores of Australia, as their sons and daughters on vacation as well as embassy officials came home in coffins.
We have questions to ponder and issues to tackle that pertain to the rest of the world, not just Indonesia. What do we do when Western ideas that are contrary to local customs, religions, and beliefs come into another culture? What are their rights? What are ours? How do we respect other cultures and belief systems that aren’t necessarily ready or wanting to embrace the ideas, systems and ways of the Western World? How do we assure them and empower them in a way that doesn’t lead to violence and bloodshed? Because it will, and is, happening again – over and over – worldwide.
We are a world whose technological advancements are often outpacing our social development and cultural dialog – and yet, we are surprised when we come into conflict. We talk about arms, military strategy, homeland security, economics, trade, and even sometimes the execution of three terrorists in Indonesia. But we don’t talk about what’s really causing the problems and igniting the world.
We don’t talk about what shook my car on the way to dinner that night.
