Bali: The Paradise lost

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Bali: The Paradise lost >Sat, 19 Oct 2002 07:34:30 -0700 > >Title: Bali:

Paradise lost >Author: Alexander Boldizar >Publication: Globe and Mail >Date:

October 15, 2002 >URL:

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> >Six centuries of smouldering antagonism exploded into flames Saturday night,

>says Canadian writer ALEXANDER BOLDIZAR in Bali > >A few years before the

world went mad, Ketut had a Javanese girlfriend, a >Muslim. As their

relationship grew, she became sad. "It's a shame I can't >marry you," she would

sigh. > >There was no need to ask why not. Although she was liberal, never wore

the >veil in Bali, she made it clear that he was an infidel. He was a Balinese

>Hindu and, unless he changed, they had no future. > >"Would a Muslim man ever

change to the religion of his wife?" Ketut asked. >"Of course not," she

answered. "Islam is the true religion. And I will not >become Hindu." > >Ketut

thought about the problem for a few days. Islam was brought >to Indonesia by

Arab traders, gained a foothold in Sumatra in the 13th >century, spread to the

coastal areas of Java, then eroded the great Hindu >Kingdom of Majapahit in the

early 16th century. The aristocracy of the >Majapahit, the priests, jurists,

artists, artisans, painters, sculptors, >architects, goldsmiths, gongsmiths,

writers and dancers were, for the most >part, unwilling to accept Islamization.

They fled to the nearby island of >Bali and the protection of its King

Waturrenggong. > >King Waturrenggong had "lion-hearted courage, incomparable

daring, >and magical powers" in battle. He unified the aristocracy with the

people >and built a military and cultural bulwark against Islam, stopping it

from >spreading to the shores of "Paradise." His priest and teacher, the

>Just-Arrived-Magic-Powerful-High-Priest Nirartha, floated to Bali on a palm

>leaf, another refugee from Java. Nirartha redesigned the temple system in

>Bali so that each village would have its own temples, forging a closer bond

>between the people and their Hindu gods, a bond unlike that of any other

>Hindu Kingdom, and one which Islam would find difficult to sever. >It was this

exodus and the fear of Islam that created in Bali >the paradise that Western

tourists have been admiring since the mutiny of >the first Dutch explorers in

1597, when many of Captain de Houtman's >European sailors refused to leave the

island that was so beautiful, where >women bathed nude in the rivers, where the

King's chariot was pulled by >white buffalo and his retinue was made up of 50

dwarves whose bodies had >been bent to resemble traditional dagger handles. >

>The historic hatred of Islam by the Balinese is one of the reasons >Ketut

admired his girl, that she had been willing to come here from Java on >her own,

to risk ancient racism in order to enjoy the much higher standard >of living and

greater freedoms that Bali offers in comparison to the other >islands of

Indonesia. > >"Very well," he said after a few days of thinking, "let's both

become >Buddha." > >No, she had answered. Nor Jewish, Jainist or Zoroastrean.

Not >even Christian which, to Ketut, seemed very similar to Islam, especially

in >its need to proselytize and spread. It was Islam or nothing. So Ketut ended

>the relationship, but without acrimony. He had seen too many Muslim >daughters

in Bali pulled along the pavement, their fathers dragging them by >the hair,

beating them senseless, outraged at their dating an infidel. It is >difficult

to be strong in the face of such pedigree. > >Muslims live now in Bali -- Bali

is part of Indonesia, after all, >and Indonesia is 90 per cent Muslim -- they

come despite local objections, >though they are at times subject to vandalism

and random attacks by young >Balinese. Most come for the freedom, some come to

see the enemy, a few do >both in a psychologically unstable mix. > >"I see her

in the village sometimes," Ketut concludes. "She is >the fourth wife of a

Muslim man. He lives in another city and rarely sees >her or their child. And I

think she is very unhappy, but she wears the veil >now and has become much more

fanatical." > >Today, Ketut is again unhappy about fanatical Muslims. He runs

an >Internet café and a tourist agency. It used to be a good business.

Americans >stopped coming a year ago, afraid of Laskar Jihad, the Islamic

Defenders >Front, and other radical Islamic groups in Java who have threatened

to >"sweep" all Westerners out of Indonesia. >Who will come now? > >Villages in

Bali have put their traditional guards on alert, the >Balinese People's Council

has promised to fight any hostile Javanese, and >the Balinese are ready to

release 600 years of antagonism against Java. >"If the Javanese come to sweep,

we will make lawar out of >them," Ketut said a year ago -- in the aftermath of

the first "sweeping" >threats, before losing a friend in Saturday night's

bombing. Lawar is a type >of haggis made out of pork stomachs. "Maybe it would

be good, maybe it would >begin a war for independence. The Balinese are quiet,

quiet, until they >decide it is time for puputan. The Javanese remember this."

> >Puputan is a suicidal fight to the death which, historically, has >seemed

necessary once every 50 years or so. In 1906, the Balinese royalty >burned its

own palaces, then, wearing their finest jewellery and waving >golden swords,

the Rajah led the royalty and priests out against the modern >weapons of the

Dutch. 4,000 Balinese died in 1906 and a larger number in a >similar puputan in

1945, falling again under the guns of the Dutch. >Suicidal armies scare the

Muslims as much as they do the West. >Unlike radical Islam, however, in Bali it

is not the uneducated and abused >who become human bombs; it is the priests and

leaders themselves. >The battle between Bali and Islam that began 600 years ago

has >never really been put to rest. For centuries, Balinese medicine men

>continued to fight against Muslim medicine men from Java and Lombok. Curses

>were thrown back and forth over the narrow Bali Strait, Islamic clerics put

>love spells on Balinese women to fall in love with Muslims, and Balinese >holy

men rubbed the affected in pigs' blood to undo the spell. >Now the war that has

been waged for centuries within the invisible >dimension has surfaced. > >In

Indonesia this means the government doesn't clamp down on >"sweeping" threats,

that years of Islamic bias in all aspects of Indonesian >public life have

become more and more institutionalized, and that Islamic >political parties are

increasingly pressing for Koranic law to become the >law of Indonesia, whether

the subjects be Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian >or Animist. > >From love

spells and pigs' blood, the war has moved to car bombs >in front of discos. But

if the war comes into the open, Bali also has many >young men ready to fight.

The young generation can imagine an independent >Bali, another puputan. > >This

weekend, Javanese fanatics bombed the main tourist strip in >Kuta. By November,

there will be many innocent Javanese street-vendors >floating in the sea. The

reaction will cause another, and that another. >Ketut and other young Balinese

still think about King Waturrenggong and the

>Just-Arrived-Magic-Powerful-High-Priest. They celebrate the latter's memory

>twice a year. Muslims still think about Mohammed's war to take Mecca and

>destroy the 300-odd religions represented there. It is only the West that >has

a stunted sense of history, with anything predating the Second World War

>classified as "ancient," and it is only the West that insists religion and

>politics are separate issues. > >U.S. President George W. Bush has said "you

are either for us or >against us," and blindly called his war against terrorism

a "crusade." Osama >bin Laden agreed, countering that "you are either a believer

or an infidel." >In the post-World Trade Center world, in country after country,

movements >and complaints that had seemed long buried are emerging back into the

>visible dimensions. Slowly, behind the scenes, fault lines which go back

>thousands of years are beginning to show. > >Even in Paradise. > >Alexander

Boldizar, former columnist with the Harvard Law Record, is >director of the

Gaya Fusion of Senses gallery in Bali, Indonesia. > >

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