What drew the first tourists to Bali was undeniably the culture: offerings, ceremonies, gamelan, dance, topless girls, that sort of thing. But ‘culture’ can mean so many things, sometimes these things are not apparent: a wink, a handshake, a greased palm. Hence the neologism: Kultur Korupsi.
Some consulates in Bali inform their citizens that they can be charged under their own country’s laws for involvement in an act of corruption, collusion or nepotism in any form; but to avoid such beasties, realistically, is impossible. Get this: every time you are overpriced or not given a chit by a parking warden; every time you process your visa with an agent; every time you pay an ‘on-the-spot fine’; every time you enter into a legal suit; every time you achieve something because you “know someone”; every time you are short-changed in a taxi; every time you are ripped off by a bemo driver—you are fuelling the fires of this sinister culture every day.
This is the same culture that has led to deforestation, environmental disasters, mass poverty, uncontrolled tourism, illegal villas, terrorism, abortion, drug smuggling, death—the list goes on.
I used to feel sorry for the parking guys and give them a bit extra (considering how much we pay for parking in other countries), but now I think they do pretty well for themselves. They’d make a cool 3 mill a month at least with the amount of unaccountable one thousands they pocket every day. I seriously shudder to think how much a sly civil servant makes on top of their regular salary—their ‘kultur’ is sure profitable if the size of their kids is anything to go by!
You can run but you can’t hide—from the parking fella to the civil servant, this sub-culture is rife and an unavoidable fact of Indonesian life. More in the next issue on why perhaps all is not so grim.
