Re: Homesickness and the Bali Bomb

[benj <benj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ reformatted ]


At the anti-war rally in Melbourne on Sunday Trades Hall secretary
Leigh Hubbard spoke against the sort of terror as occurred in Bali at
the same time as denouncing against the war on Iraq. As one speaker
from Actors for Refugees pointed out, the war has an incredibly bad
script with lines like "he's gonna try an' kill me like he tried to
kill my daddy" that even John Wayne would find it hard to come at.

ABC news put the crowd at 30,000. Commercial TV at 10,000. The rally
organisers claimed 45,000. I was there and thought maybe 10,000 -- but
I was in the middle of it handing out leaflets and had no chance to
climb a pole or whatever and try to count or even see the whole
thing. But I've never seen such a large rally assemble at the State
Library. It was a good day!

re Australian attitudes - obviously it's going to make people nervous,
scared etc. On the other hand a guy I work with, one of the more
thoughtful types, immediately suspected the CIA were behind it. I
think although September 11 happened on the other side of the world
people here have had a whole year to think about this sort of
terrorist attack and the latest one may harden some opinions but it
probably won't cause the same sort of reactionary backlash as
September 11. I hope not.

The following is from a Workers' Power comrade offering a few
more thoughts on the Bali bombing. sorry I don't have time to
format it better.
Ben Courtice



"I've been to Bali too"
...viewpoint on Australia and the Bali bombing

Lisa Farrell - Sunday 13 October 2002

There's a well known Redgum song in Australia titled "I've been to
Bali too".  "Wired home for money, short of cash; A dose of Bali belly
and a tropical rash; Daddy came through - American express; Bali
t-shirts magic mushrooms Redgum bootlegs, I've been to Bali too"... go
the lyrics.

Bali has a special place in the hearts of many Australians. Two week
holidays are cheaper there for most Australians than to travel
interstate - and the shopping!! Well, those locals really know how to
please us Aussies.

And then there's the cheap beer, cocktails, mushrooms and
sexploitation. Bali really does epitomise the global consumerist
tourist culture. A tiny island in the Indonesian archipelago, its
entire social fabric has been altered by Western tourism. The
handicraft sector is now completely tourist oriented, as well as about
80% of employment on the island.

Why Bali and not one of the other many islands of Indonesia?  Well, to
cut to the chase, the mainly Hindu "friendly and relaxed" culture of
the Balinese suited the tourist industry corporates of Australia, the
US and Western Europe a great deal more than the rest of the mainly
Muslim Indonesia.

How do I know all this? Because I've been to Bali too - three times in
fact - the first time as a very naive, very white, middle-class,
Australian 14 year old.

And as outlined on Melbourne's The Age website, "Bali is known as the
Island of the Gods, and has been one of the world's most popular
tourist destination for decades... Kuta is the epicentre of the tourist
trade. It is filled with hundreds of restaurants, cheap hotels and
gift shops. Almost every night, the streets are filled with tourists
dancing and drinking until the wee hours of the morning."

The Sari nightclub... Famous Aussie rules footballer Dermott Brereton
pretty much summed it up today. It was "chockers" (very full) and
filled with "not-so-well-behaved footballers", as it is a mecca for
sports players celebrating the end of the season. While the clientele
may change through the year, the description is essentially the same -
drunken, obnoxious, young(ish) Australians.

Australia is now shocked by the events of the last 24 hours... Why us?
Our dear footballers! The horror of it!

We're being plied with images of "our own' running down the streets
(which many of us have been to), blood pouring down faces, skin
peeling off bodies.

Yes it's horrid. But so was the drowning of 353 refugees off the coast
of Australia only one year ago, while our government sat by and
watched. Not only watched, but blamed those trying to save their
children, for "throwing them overboard". Not only that, but our
government has now been caught - and not for the first time either,
not at all - assisting in the sabotaging of boats such as these.

This time however our Government has jumped to the defence of
innocents, with promises on behalf of our Prime Minister,
John-munchkin-Howard, that "all of the resources of the Air Force will
be available for this task", of bringing the injured back to Australia
for treatment.

How blatant is our government's treating of some lives as more
important than others? Forbes Rugby Club President, Mr McKinnon,
emphasised this point today, when explaining how important it was to
get the injured Australians home, because "he wouldn't admit his dog
to the hospital he was treated in".

The most worrying thing about these events though is the ability of
our government to use them to distort facts, and use them to justify
its slavish military support for the US-led, so-called "war on
terror".

Already Howard is talking of a national review of security measures
against terrorism. The constant reminders that this, or something like
it, could happened to any of us, any where, any time. If only some of
us could remember that this has been the lot of most of the world's
population under imperialism for over a century.

Howard stated in his address to the nation, "This event is a terrible
reminder that terrorism can touch anybody anywhere and at any time and
any country or any people, any leader or any nation that imagines that
in some way they have secured immunity from terrorism because of this
or that attitude or this or that part or position in the world, or
this or that accident of geography is deluding themselves."

In practice this means the tightening of immigration border controls
and even harsher treatment of refugees (who have become one of the
Australian targets of the "war on terror"), a bolstering of the
proposed terror laws in Australia, and most importantly, a huge push
for the war in the Gulf.

As demonstrated by 40,000 on the streets of Melbourne today however,
not all Australians back this war.

Amid the current hysteria, one bright commentator is even claiming
that this is "This is the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history,"
(Gen.  Da'i Bachtiar, the national police chief). P-lease! We have
such short memories.

It was only a few decades ago that the Indonesian Government,
enthusiastically cheered on by Australia, the US and Western Europe,
massacred millions of Communists, activists and anyone associated with
them, as part of the coup that installed the hated Suharto regime.

Sorry - not just cheered, but advised, encouraged, armed and even
directed.  Because everyone Western corporate and government wanted a
piece of the Indonesian pie - at that time a poor and large population
that could supply a potentially huge and pliant working class for
their global sweatshops. If you don't believe me, check John Pilger's
research on the time.

Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri said today that at least
182 people have been killed in the car bombing, and 132 others
injured. She said "the fate of some others remain unknown. There are a
large number of foreigners who died and were injured", but also a
number of Indonesians.

This is clearly a significant loss of life - but the Australian
Government and media will be turning this tragic event into a
propaganda war over the next week - especially if any footballers lose
their lives, because us Aussies "love our football".

When I was last in Bali, just following the Asian economic crisis of
1997, the holiday-isle had changed significantly. The desperation of
the small handicraft sellers was all the more apparent. Our dollar
literally increased five -fold against theirs within months.

The locals were prevented from accessing foreign exchange to prevent a
run on the rupiah. As a tourist this meant I didn't even have to
exchange my money, because an Australian dollar was worth more to them
than any rupiah.

I remember talking to a 16-year-old Indonesian from Jakarta. He was
one of the many travelling to and from Bali to find stores to sell the
wares of factories based elsewhere in the Archipelago.

We were talking about the Sari Hotel and why it was that he wasn't let
into the club, even though age-limits were not enforced on the island.

I explained that the doorman did not let in any locals - and that this
appeared to be especially so after the economic crisis. He did not
believe me - because it was beyond his comprehension that locals could
not mix with tourists. He could not understand why a people could
travel to another country and not want to know the "locals". To be
quite honest, neither could I. And it's the last time I could stomach
being a tourist in Bali.

The Sari nightclub is not simply a random target. It would be a hated
symbol of Western imperialism for many - no matter what the age of the
"revellers" inside. Every year thousands travel to the island, stay in
their Western Hotels, visit their Western nightclubs, flaunt their
money and feel like royalty for two weeks, then travel home to a
country which supports the repressive regimes of the world, like their
very own in Indonesia.

As the Sex Pistols put it, it is "a cheap holiday in other
people's misery".

That's not to say I support what happened last night. But let's be
clear... as long as our governments continue to wage war on the world's
poor and working class - whether through economic, diplomatic or
military means - our government will develop enemies... enemies which
unfortunately mistake us for our governments.

That's where we have even more responsibility to see through the lies
and propaganda spewed from our governments and through the capitalist
press. Our role is to say clearly: Our government is to blame for the
deaths in Bali: ? Australia out of the Gulf and the Asia-Pacific ? No
hosting of US military bases ? Solidarity with the peoples of the
Asia-Pacific fighting oppression, exploitation and imperialism.

Now more than any time in the last few decades, we need Australians to
wake up and join the anti-war movement. In our workplaces, at our
schools, out on the streets - now!


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