But, two months after the bombings in Bali, the silence here is almost deafening. Where are the Bali boosters? No one in London or New York has talked about rallying around a scarred Bali, a deeply traumatized Indonesia or even a shaken Southeast Asia. When New York is attacked, the world must wear its grief on its sleeve. But when bombs go off in Bali, Mombasa or the streets of another Third World city, we are expected to move on without a backward glance. For Indonesians, especially the more Westernized elite, the absence of sympathy has been galling. “Last year we were all New Yorkers,” says Rizal Mallarangeng, the director of the Freedom Institute in Jakarta. “Now that we’ve been targeted, the West is determined to isolate us to prevent ‘contagion.’ The hypocrisy is shameful.”
Many of Indonesia’s critics have been dismayed by President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s poor leadership before and since the bombing, blaming her inaction for Bali’s misfortune. But surely New York wasn’t brought back from the brink simply because Rudolph Giuliani was an effective mayor. And the people who live on the Island of the Gods are now bracing for a second bomb–namely, the social and economic consequences of a complete collapse of the tourist industry. Arrivals at Ngurah Rai Airport have plummeted more than 80 percent. Early estimates suggest that up to 100,000 people may be laid off and a further 300,000 people–simple farmers and handicraft workers–affected in turn. Some politicians worry that with a population of only 3 million, such a dramatic economic downturn could have severe implications for relations between the island’s Muslims and Hindus. The frustration for Goenawan Mohamad, Indonesia’s leading essayist, is palpable: “Even though we’re victims, we are being punished a second time. There are security warnings and travel bans. No one is saying, ‘Let’s go to Bali and show the terrorists that we’re made of sterner stuff!’ "
It’s easy to forget communities on the periphery of global affairs. But surely one of the great lessons from America’s experience in Afghanistan in the 1980s is the danger of walking away from a people when they are most in need; such shortsighted political calculations can come back to haunt the greatest of powers. If this really is a global fight against terrorism we are waging, there shouldn’t be a periphery anymore.
