It was so sad to learn that Bali’s home-based airline,
the privately-owned Air Paradise, was forced to close its
doors at the end of November and suspend its operations until
further notice citing the devastating effects on the number
of tourists visiting Bali following the recent terrorist attacks
on the island. One can only hope that the suspension is not
permanent and that the airline can find a way, a new alliance
perhaps, so that it can continue flying. The saddest thing
is that given half a chance Air Paradise would have thrived
and become an even bigger plus factor for Bali, creating yet
more new jobs in the tourism sector and keeping ticket revenues
in Bali, that would otherwise have mostly accrued to foreign
carriers. It is no accident that SIA is Bali’s “national
carrier” and earns a pretty penny from it too under
license from Garuda, who take a royalty jobbing the chore
out to folks who can do it better. The reason that Paradise
Air has gone into suspension is in no way due to a lack of
business acumen or courage on the part of the owners. Kadek
Wiranatha’s vision in launching the airline was based
on sound economics and good timing (witness what is happening
in Asia as deregulation finally busts open the region’s
cosy airline cartel to all our benefit), plus a deeply felt
commitment to a prosperous future for Bali and its people.
Apart, that is, from the one thing that nobody could foresee,
the double terrorist bombing of Bali.
The new airline was launched in February 2003, after a postponement
of a few short months following the first bombing in October,
2002. That takes a lot of bottle and the commitment and courage
paid off, despite the onset of SARS that soon followed. More
than anything or anybody else, it was Air Paradise that restored
confidence in Bali, both at home and abroad, following the
shock and loss of jobs of the initial bombing, and played
a major role in the rebound of Bali’s inbound visitors
to the extent that they exceeded all previous records within
a period of two short years.
The second bombing, though less costly in terms of lives lost,
is the more devastating in the long term, in that it reminds
and confirms tourists and the international travel industry
of Bali’s dangers and encourages them to play safe by
going elsewhere. The loss of jobs and business is also deeply
discouraging for people in Bali. You can rebound from a hard
blow once, but how long can you bounce back from repeated
misfortune? When it comes to survival people are amazingly
resilient, but in business you can only absorb so much punishment.
Lastly, Bali’s major overseas relationship has come
under strain over the past two years. Bilateral relations
at government level between Australia and Indonesia are probably
at their best in quite a while, but the Australian public’s
longstanding love affair with Bali is being tested and group
travel is paying the price. It is the bombings in large part,
but the recent spate of high profile drug busts of Australians
in Bali, shamefully exploited by Australia’s tabloid
press, does not help. For now at least, Bali is not seen as
a safe place for young Australians to go and party.
There is one mercy in this sad business and that is the restraint
with which the Balinese themselves continue to react to these
acts of terror. Given the dire effects, the loss of life,
the loss of jobs and loss of income across the board for so
many visited on them not once but twice and from the same
source, the people of Bali might well have reacted aggressively
against those they hold responsible. Certainly sterner measures
have been introduced to protect Bali from repeated outrages,
but there appears to be no violence or scapegoating directed
at non-Hindu Indonesians who are staying in Bali permanently
or temporarily as there easily might have been. This is especially
commendable when it must occur to many Balinese that these
acts of terrorism and killings, at a time when Christian churches
are also being burned to the ground in other parts of Indonesia
by these same people, are as much (if not more so) directed
at them as they are at innocent young people from Australia,
Britain and the US visiting Bali. It is the Balinese who bear
the ill effects several times over, in addition to the loss
of life. Whatever the machinations of a small number of embittered
and aged zealots poisoning the minds of impressionable young
men with dreams of martyrdom and the absurd notion of a modern
day Malay caliphate, these things however tragic will pass.
History shows us that invariably it is in the reaction to
events that the true danger lies - and the malign effects
of that can span generations, if not centuries.
There are those, I suppose, who will not mourn anything that
rolls back the growth of tourism in Bali, even though they
may be saddened by the circumstances of it. It is certainly
smart to take a leaf out of other successful travel destinations
in Asia and trade up, getting fewer tourists but having them
stay longer and spend more, meet and convene and so on, while
using the revenue to curb and regulate the grosser manifestations
of mass tourism. But whatever one feels about it, it is group
travel that put Bali on the map and spread a broader degree
of prosperity to its people. The genie cannot be put back
in the bottle and nor should it. The question is rather, what
do you do with ageing hotel properties (restore and build
more newer ones?) and how do you protect the very resource
that creates wealth, Bali itself. Create a petrified and mythical
theme park of the past on Bali as some would like? It is the
fundamental dilemma facing travel anywhere. The answers must
lie in regulation, smart tourism planning, environmental protection
and industry diversification. It does not entail a static
society where historically a few people run things and the
rest live in picturesque squalor for foreigners to come visit
or have them staff their holiday villas for peanuts. It is
one thing to regret the good things one remembers or imagines
about the past, but it is another country. You can’t
go there. It is foolish, even dangerous when whole societies
attempt it, to try.
We live in the present and plan for the future, mostly for
our own, but also to some degree for others. Some of us have
a greater and clearer vision of how this might be than others
and when this is combined with the ability to do something
about it, other than dream or talk, great things can happen.
That is why the people who had the guts to go for it, devoting
their careers and expending their treasure starting Air Paradise,
along with all the management and staff of Air Paradise, deserve
our profound sympathy and we all should share in what must
be a terrible disappointment for them. They also deserve our
admiration, gratitude and respect for trying, together with
our heartfelt wishes that they will somehow fly again.
