Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: IDN33539 Country: Indonesia Date: 8 July 2008

Keywords: Indonesia – Bali – Police – Roman Catholics – Christians

This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein.

Questions 1. Are there reports to indicate Bali’s Catholic population has been a particular target for criminal groups? What of Bali’s Christians generally? 2. Are there reports to indicate Bali’s Catholic population suffering mistreatment or neglect from police? What of Bali’s Christians generally? 3. What general information is available on the situation for Bali’s Catholic population?

RESPONSE

1. Are there reports to indicate Bali’s Catholic population has been a particular target for criminal groups? What of Bali’s Christians generally? 2. Are there reports to indicate Bali’s Catholic population suffering mistreatment or neglect from police? What of Bali’s Christians generally?

In the time in which this response was completed no reports could be located which referred to Balinese Catholics, or Balinese Christians generally, experiencing problems as a consequence of criminal targeting or police neglect. It may be of interest that Bali’s protestant centre of Blimbingsari village has claimed, in recent years, that it enjoys a zero percent crime rate (for Blimbingsari’s zero crime rate see: Talusan, L. 2008, ‘The Village that Loved Jesus’, Christian Broadcasting Network website, 18 January http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/306005.aspx – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 1; and: Mano, S. 2007, ‘Beatific Blimbingsari’, The Star, 24 March http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/3/24/lifetravel/16931543&sec=lifetravel – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 2).

Reports of police being deployed to guard Christian churches in Bali may also be of interest and these are listed in response to Question 3. General information on crime and policing in Bali follows immediately below.

General information on Crime and Policing in Bali

In October 2006 the Bali Discovery Tours website reported on the increased effectiveness of Bali’s police force under a new chief:

July 1st marked the 60th anniversary of the Indonesian police and the end of the first semester in the job as Bali’s Chief of Police for Inspector General Drs. Sunarko Danu Ardanto.

The first three months as Bali’s “top cop” saw Chief Sunarko consolidate his department by means of internal audits; the creation of a shared vision of the role of the police with the people of Bali; steps to restore the Island’s image in the wake of its second terrorist attack; and the continuance of an ongoing program of cracking down on crime.

During the period January-March 2006 the police under Sunarko’s command also intensified enforcement efforts against narcotics, gambling and potential terrorist threats to Bali.

Particularly noteworthy during the first few months of Sunarko’s rule was a crackdown on local illegal logging mafia who were undoubtedly shocked to see Bali police seize thousands of cubic meters of lumber and a large number ships involved in carrying illicit timber.

During the second quarter of 2006 Chief Sunarko undertook an evaluation of the work synergies among the Balinese police. He required all sub-district Police Chiefs and Division Heads within his Department to sign a moral contract reaffirming their commitment to their jobs and the community they serve.

Sunarko closed his first six months in the job by launching a program of “Police Partners with the People” in which outreach programs with community and religious leaders are being undertaken through safari’s to all areas of the island, many heretofore seldom visited by Bali’s Chief of Police.

The Bali Police Force

Some interesting facts and figures regarding policing in Bali.

• The Bali police force totals 11,467 officers.

• Through June 2006, the Bali police solved 2,162 cases out of 3,436 criminal cases reported,

• In the same period in 2005, the police solved 1,862 cases out of 3,043 criminal cases reported.

• Police have increased arrests for illegal gambling in the first half of 2006 recording 200 gambling investigations. In the same periods in 2005 and 2004, the gambling cases handled by the Bali police numbered 158 and 125, respectively.

• In recent months police have arrested 22 people in connection with the theft of sacred Hindu religious and ceremonial objects from 46 religious sites.

• During the first half of 2006, a total of 255 Indonesian nationals and 12 foreign citizens were apprehended for narcotic violations. This compares with 459 Indonesians and 23 foreigners arrested for drug violations in the same period in 2005 (‘6 Months Into the Job as Bali’s Chief of Police’ 2006, Bali Discovery Tours website, 7 October http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=3283 – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 3). In June 2005 it was reported that Bali’s police were concerned by those “involved in ‘organized crime’ in Bali’s night-life areas” following an incident of gang violence at a Kuta night spot:

An incident involving gang violence at Fuel Bar on Jalan Legian in Kuta in the early hours of Sunday, June 6, 2005, has evoke a strong response from community leaders, police and civic leaders concerned at the deteriorating security situation in Kuta and calling for tough action against law-breakers.

According to local press reports, altercations between local youth gangs and security guards, that began on Friday, June 3rd, came to a head in the early hours of Sunday morning a group of young thugs carrying sharp weapons and bottles attacked the up-market bar and music lounge. Fighting reportedly erupted both in the bar and the surrounding streets causing an entire platoon of riot police to respond and close the street while they brought the situation under control.

A number of people were injured in the melee, including a security guard from Fuel who was hospitalized with serious cuts and contusions.

Police Chief Pastika Responds

Clearly angered at the arrogance of those involved in “organized crime” in Bali’s night-life areas, Bali’s Chief of Police Irjen. Drs. Made Mangku Pastika was quoted in the local press on the Monday following the fracas, saying, “I have heard the those causing the unrest at Fuel Bar numbered 60 people. Catch them all, throw them into jail cells, and show them no toleration!”

At the same time, the Police Chief warned his subordinates not to treat those causing the unrest lightly, eventually letting them go without formal charges being laid against them. Bali’s top law enforcement officer said that weakness on the part of the Police feeds the conceit of gang members and becomes a point of reference for other gangs. Saying gang and organized crime was now beyond tolerable limits, Chief Pastika said, “(Even) uniformed law enforcement members are being targeted. They have gone overboard, arrest them all!”

Need for Special Tourism Security Teams

Bali’s Chief of Police, Made Mangku Pastika, is calling for the creation of “SATPAM Pariwisata” or special tourism security guards as a necessary step to improve security in Kuta and surrounding areas.

Most Balinese businesses already have private security guard services or “SATPAM,” who Chief Pastika would now like to see given special training. Ideally, these guards would be recruited from the local community youth who are currently unemployed, trained in the systems of community policing and taught how to handle public order situations.

Comments by Tourism and Community Leader

I Nyoman Rutha Ady, a local community leader and Head of the local chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurnant Association (PHRI-Badung), called on the people of Kuta to be open and honest in reviewing the security situation in their neighborhoods.

Urging the police, local government, local citizens and businesspeople to cooperate in creating a wide-ranging and effective approach to security, Rutha Ady pointed to an underlying situation of of poor security running rampant in Kuta. Admitting that the incident at Fuel Bar was unfortunate and unacceptable, he suggested the security problem may be deeper rooted, pointing to the growing boldness of illegal money changers and the inability of law enforcement to end such activities. He asked: “Why can’t we (even) stop such open fraud, expecially when the trend shows (illegal money changers) are becoming more aggressive and bold enough to practice their crimes in public places?”

Arrests Made

In the week following the unrest in Kuta, police authorities have confirmed that eight individuals have been formally named as suspects in the incident with one, named Gadjah, now formally listed as “wanted” and sought by police.

A police spokesman did not rule out the possibility of further arrests being made as their investigation of the incident continues (‘Kuta’s Security Under the Spotlight’ 2005, Bali Discovery Tours website, 13 June http://www.balidiscovery.com/update/update457.asp – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 4)

The Fugly Bali website is devoted to promoting awareness of claims that Bali’s police force is seriously affected by corruption and that it is prone to cooperating with criminals for financial gain and to engaging in extortion. Much of the website is concerned with this problem as it affects more wealthy tourists rather than locals but claims are also made about a general level of lawlessness affecting local Balinese. Reports are delivered in an anecdotal and colloquial style and little information is available on the persons responsible for maintaining the website. Nonetheless, the relevant extracts may be of interest:

It is a sad fact, Bali has an enormous crime problem targeting holiday makers and residents alike. But it seldom gets reported as people mistrust and even fear the police. When it gets reported, the police are likely only to act a) If they can make some extortion money out of it, or b) If outside pressure (such as news stories) makes them do so.

…Here are a list of the crimes that proliferate on Bali;

1) Pedophile Rings

Bali has a huge child abuse problem, which has now made the Australian press, so the police are now doing something (although something probably means little and profit motivated).

2) Child Prostitution

Many young Indonesians are illegally married off at 11 or 12 years old. Often this results in them being forced into prostitution on Bali’s streets. Many hotels, including the International brand Hard Rock Kuta tolerate questionable extra persons being allowed into guest’s rooms, which basically endorses / creates the problem.

3) Contract Murder

In Bali, it is possible to hire a hit man to kill or seriously injure another human being at very low rates. Having a local killed costs less then having, say, a foreign tourist killed. But it is possible to have either done.

4) Murder

Often committed by “pecalangan”, local bully boys / vigilantes who reign the streets in the police void caused by the police officers’ self-interest, laziness and corruption. Murder is seldom reported, but extremely rife. Neighbours kill neighbours over petty disputes and / or theft and / or political allegiances and then pay off the police to escape justice if they get caught. Everything has a price in Bali.

5) Kidnappings

Gangs, often associated with gambling rings which attract foreigners, have been known to kidnap guests to Bali.

6) Illegal Refuse and Effluence Dumping

See our health risks page for more details, but this has certainly contributed to an increase in serious diseases such as cholera and malaria found in Bali. Locals often dump their refuse / effluence around the tourist areas to save money. But as these tend to be the less wealthy locals, the police presumably do not act as they have little scope for corruption.

7) Theft

From stealing your handbag to short changing you, theft is a major problem in Bali. Some foreigners have even been mugged and / or followed in their cars for miles before being robbed (robbers tend to slit a victim’s car tyre at a red light and then wait for them to pull over). Many robberies happen at night and include burglaries by armed intruders.

8) Drive By Shootings

This happens frequently in the tourist south, be warned. Targets tends to be entertainment venues.

9) Extortion

If you do something wrong in Bali and someone finds out about it (or believes they can convince the police you have done something wrong even when you have not), they will likely try and extort money from you. If they can not (or even if they can), they are then likely to report you to the police who will also likely try to extort money from you. And remember, Indonesia has a terrible reputation for lawyers working with the police to extort money from their own clients! Even judges are known the widely make a decision but then call the potential case winner to their chambers to make a “donation” in order to be given that judgment.

10) Civil / Human Rights Abuse

You do not need to look or search far on the Internet to find that Indonesia has an appalling record of civil and human rights abuse (try Human Rights Watch – but, of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg). Which is not surprising from a country where the Minister for Human Rights and Justice compared himself with Hitler!

Please remember, if you get into trouble in Bali, the police will likely view this as a money making opportunity not something that requires civil service. If you need to appoint a lawyer in Bali, there are no foreign lawyers (Indonesia prohibits this for obvious reasons), and most are inept, corrupt or both. Please also remember that human and civil rights abuse in Indonesia is appalling, thanks in part no doubt to the Indonesian Minister of Justice and Human Rights comparing himself to Adolf Hitler (no, really, it is not a joke). And the fact that the Indonesian government refuses to sign up to the all important International conventions on human rights. So there is very little or no recourse to victims outside Indonesia, and of course none inside Indonesia (‘Balinese murder, drive by shootings, kidnappings and pedophile rings!’ (undated), Fugly Bali website http://www.fugly- bali.org/crime.html – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 5).

A number of similarly oriented websites provide information of this kind, including the Nasty Bali website (maintained by an individual called Mark Austin) and the Bali Broadcasting Service. All present themselves as alternative media for the dissemination of information about conditions in Bali that is not being otherwise published because it is not in the commercial interest of Bali’s tourism industry (for further examples of such sources, see: Austin, M. (undated), ‘Bali police – the ineffective corrupt Balinese blight and instrument of Indonesian hate’, Nasty Bali website http://www.nasty-bali.org/police.html – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 6; ‘Bali’s Shameful Secret – The “art” of hidden crimes’ 2005, Bali Broadcasting Service website http://www.balibs.org/news-update/balinese-crimes.shtml – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 7; and: ‘Why Bali’s police are the main reason Bali has become so fugly!’ (undated), Fugly Bali http://www.fugly-bali.org/police.html – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 8).

The Indahnesia.com website claims that the rate of violent crime in Bali is comparatively low:

Even though Bali is one of the world’s least policed territories, violent crimes are practically unheard of. Singapore, with about the same population, has five times the crime and five times the police. The secret to the low crime rate is the stabilizing influence of the banjar (village council). When crimes do take place the Balinese almost exclusively blame the Javanese or the Sasaks. As evidence, they point to the fact that after an arrest it turns out the criminals came from either Java or Lombok. Other oft-accused scapegoats are Bali Aga thieves from Kintamani in the mountains of Bali (‘Rules’ (undated), Indahnesia.com website http://indahnesia.com/indonesia/BALRUL/rules.php – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 9).

A March 2003 Inside Indonesia report refers to the manner in which Balinese villages are typically dependent on their own locally manner security force, or pecalangan, rather than the police as a means of protecting themselves and enforcing law and order in their area. The piece is delivered in the context of commenting on a specific incident in which it is claimed that a pecalangan force engaged in the extrajudicial killing of two young boys after the sounding of the kul-kul, the alarm of theft, in a Balinese village. According to the report the pecalangan forces have widespread influence and are known to be affected by problems of corruption, extortion and violence. Some pertinent extracts follow:

Dozens of men answered the call of the kul-kul. Included among them were the village’s pecalangan or security force. They came dressed in their trademark uniforms of sarongs, black and white checkered poleng cloth waistcloths, carrying keris daggers. Together these men hunted down the boys and murdered two of them. While the pecalangan were not the only ones to participate in the killings, their presence added a certain legitimacy to the actions. The pecalangan were also able to smooth things out with the authorities so that none of the villagers responsible for the murders were arrested.

Pecalangan groups such as this one have become common in Bali since the New Order ended in 1998. Today virtually every Balinese village has its own pecalangan. Indeed, one of the ironic results of Balinese resentment toward the repressive power exerted by Suharto’s New Order state has been Balinese claiming the right to exert that same control over their own communities. In other words, reformasi has not brought a demilitarisation of Balinese life. What has occurred instead has been a remilitarisation. There has been, in the name of culture and tradition, an even deeper penetration of militarisation into the everyday fabric of community. Few people that I spoke with in my own village to the east of Denpasar could explain where the term pecalangan came from or could relate with confidence the history of these groups. Some said that the pecalangan’s predecessor was the ‘taskforce’ of security guards for the 1998 conference of Megawati’s party (the PDIP) in Bali. Others said that the pecalangan got their start in the late 1970s when the Bali Arts Festival, the island’s major annual cultural event, began using security guards dressed in traditional ceremonial outfits to direct traffic and guard the parking lots. Still others believed that the pecalangan were a modern incarnation of the old palace guards. And those who can still remember the violence of 1965 ventured that the pecalangan were a revival of the gangs responsible for carrying out executions of alleged communists.

Despite this lack of consensus about the origins of the pecalangan, most people agreed with the notion, regularly expressed in the mass media, that the pecalangan are ‘traditional.’ Even those who acknowledged that there had never been anything called a pecalangan in their village before seemed convinced that such groups were part of a Balinese heritage that was being recovered. By drawing upon a notion of ‘Balinese tradition,’ the pecalangan seem to have succeeded in erasing their own modern origins.

Guarding Culture

The regional government of Bali passed a law in 2002 that formally legitimised the pecalangan: ‘1) Safety and order in the area of the desa pakraman (village) is carried out by pecalang. 2) Pecalang carry out duties of safeguarding the area of the desa pakraman relating to adat and religion. 3) Pecalang are selected and relieved of their duties by the desa pakraman based upon a village forum.’ Desa pakraman is a term that has recently become popular among bureaucrats as a replacement for the term desa adat (customary village). This is part of a project to ‘Balinise’ the language – the word adat comes from Arabic.

Pecalangan groups are, in keeping with this regulation, given ritual duties. These may include acting as traffic guards at ceremonies, making sure that sloppily-dressed or badly-behaved tourists are not allowed to enter temple ceremonies, and guarding the cockfights held as part of ceremonies. They also act as enforcers of silence on the day of Nyepi. They patrol the streets to make sure that everyone, Hindu or not, keeps their lights turned off and does not venture out into the streets. For many pecalang, Nyepi becomes an occasion to assert a sense of ethnic identity and even superiority. As one of them said to me, ‘On Nyepi we don’t just stop people from outside our village or outside Bali. Even the military has to stop if they’re on the road and we see them.’ Smiling broadly, he said, ‘It’s too bad Nyepi is just one day.’

Depending upon the particular village, however, pecalangan often carry out other duties that have little to do with ritual. In Denpasar, Kuta or Legian, where there are large numbers of non-Balinese inhabitants, the pecalangan have worked together with the police to carry out identity-card raids, traveling from house to house at night to ask the inhabitants to demonstrate that they have registered their current addresses with the government. Typically pecalangan members who assist with such raids are paid a fee for their night’s services (according to those I questioned, approximately Rp25,000). In Kesiman, many pecalangan members act as guards for the places of prostitution to be found in the Padanggalak Beach area.

In South Bali, they may also provide ‘protection’ for bar and nightclub owners, receiving monetary subsidies in exchange for ensuring that local residents look kindly upon what goes on in those places. In Nusa Dua, pecalangan receive financing from hotels in exchange for similar protection against local protests concerning land or labour issues. In the Padanggalak Beach area, pecalangan act as guards for brothels. And wherever there is a cockfight, it is virtually certain that the pecalangan will participate, taking a cut of the profits as their fee. Motivations for joining the pecalangan vary. In my village, each banjar is required to send at least two adult male members to join. Most of the men who sign up are those without steady employment. Anyone who works cannot stay up all night patrolling the streets. Becoming part of the pecalangan offers them a bit of money, a sense of pride, and an ability to exert power over those even more marginalised.

But what about other Balinese? Why do they feel that the pecalangan are necessary or, at the very least, unobjectionable and tolerable? Traditionally, Balinese ritual is thought to evoke the potential for danger from the unseen world. Those holding rituals would often call upon people with special supernatural abilities, those who could ward off attacks of black magic by those who might be jealous toward those sponsoring the ritual. But it is only recently that people have felt the need to have pecalangan participate in rituals as security guards.

Most people I asked about the pecalangan spoke not about their ritual duties but about how they kept things ‘safer’ in general. A typical comment was that of one man who said, ‘We always used to have our motorbikes stolen, but now nobody dares.’ Many people, especially in multicultural Denpasar and Kuta, said that because there were now many non-Balinese living in Bali, the pecalangan are necessary to deter theft and violence. Some people saw the police as being too corrupt to fulfill their proper role.

While the presence of pecalangan in Bali parallels in many ways the rise of militia groups in other areas of Indonesia, the Bali case presents some important differences. Rather than being demonised in the national and international press, as have so many other militant ‘security’ groups, especially those who draw upon religion to legitimise themselves, they have been lauded. They have become a kind of model militia. Most recently, pecalangan from villages across South Bali were assigned by the police department to assist with security for a United Nations conference. A police delegation from Japan visited Bali to learn about its ‘traditional security system.’

Even when the pecalangan become involved in killing, ‘culture’ is drawn upon to explain their actions. Today ‘Balinese culture’ is often viewed as a kind of precious object that can be marked with a price tag and sold to tourists through ‘cultural tourism.’ With culture being reduced to an object, an anxiety has arisen among Balinese who fear that this valuable possession could be lost or stolen. Now that culture has become like an expensive antique preserved in a museum, the pecalangan have become the museum guards. Those who might try to damage or destroy or steal this culture are ‘outsiders.’

This sense of being under siege translates into a resentment against ethnic others and a belief that all thieves must be non-Balinese. Killing a thief becomes sensible, even honorable, as a defence of culture. Thus nobody who participated in the killing that night in front of my friend’s house thought to raise the question: were these boys really thieves even though they were empty-handed? It was enough, in the end, that they were outsiders, for there was far more than private property at stake. What was at stake that night was culture. The killers of those two boys in front of my friend’s house that night have not been perceived in Bali as killers for they acted in defence of culture – the culture sounded by the kul-kul drum. (Santikarma, D. 2003, ‘The Model Militia’, Inside Indonesia, January/March http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit73/Degung%20pecalangan.htm – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 10; for a related report, see also: McGuire, D. 2003, ‘Trouble In Bali Paradise’, Hinduism Today website, July/August/September http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2003/7-9/28-31_bali.shtml – Accessed 7 July 2008 – Attachment 11)

In November 2003 the International Crisis Group produced an extensive report on the problems being produced by the use of informal security forces in Bali and also Lombok. Relevant extracts addressing the situation in Bali follow below: Their success in investigating the October 2002 Bali bombings and pursuing the Jemaah Islamiyah network has been a welcome boost for an Indonesian police force that has widely been derided as incompetent and corrupt. It has also encouraged the many donors who have made police reform a major element of their efforts to assist the country’s democratisation process.

But that success has obscured a development which should disturb those concerned about police reform: the devolution of authority over some police functions to civilian auxiliaries. While much thought and many resources are going into community policing, understood as a way of integrating the police more closely into the communities where they work, the trend in some parts of Indonesia seems to be to allow untrained and unaccountable local civilian groups to provide protection or fight crime in place of the police.

The reliance on civilian auxiliaries is thus both a topdown and bottom-up phenomenon. Many civilian auxiliaries were organised with the reformist hope of replacing the military by civilian security. Civilian or not, however, “security” in Indonesia continues to be defined by Soeharto’s New Order methods of intimidation and violence. The result is that these auxiliaries often exacerbate rather than reduce security problems when they are recruited from particular ethnic or religious groups, when they become an instrument to gain or maintain political power, or when they are composed largely of thugs. Some are all the above.

…Since the end of the Soeharto government, the pecalang have increasingly taken on responsibility for local security at the expense of, but also with the full cooperation of, local police. Their metamorphosis from an occasional guard for ritual ceremonies to a civilian auxiliary of the police and a protection unit for political parties has had a significant impact on life in Bali and increased the risk of local conflict.

Ethnic tensions have increased since the provincial government began to employ pecalang to monitor non-Balinese migrants living in Balinese communities. Provincial regulations passed in 2001 have also empowered untrained pecalang to enforce local administrative regulations. The pecalang role as a security guard for Megawati Sukarnoputri’s political party in 1998 and 1999 will most likely be repeated in 2004, possibly endangering free campaigns in Balinese communities.

Bali managed to maintain its traditional institutions in the face of a relentless push by the New Order for ideological and administrative conformity, in part because of the role those institutions played in its economic success.

The banjar or hamlet association, a semiautonomous subdivision of a village (desa), is arguably the most important and binding social unit in Balinese society. Each consists of even smaller social units called tempekan. Crucial decisions regarding community taxes, religious festivals and the repair of community properties are made through a consensus of peers at monthly hamlet meetings.

The New Order government recognised the importance of the banjar and made it a vehicle for development programs and dissemination of government ideology. But it also tried to weaken the banjar role in governance. In particular, its reorganisation of local government through 1974 and 1979 laws ended direct community involvement in village-level decision making and election of village heads by dividing the functions of banjars and other Balinese institutions between dinas (official) and adat (traditional) duties.

Security was an official function. Supervision and surveillance of residents, particularly those with communist backgrounds, were coordinated through the banjars. At the village level, official functions included administering directives of the central, provincial, district or sub- district government. Each village head appointed a banjar-level representative to serve as an intermediary for official matters between himself or herself and the hamlet.

…By the early 1980s, Bali’s beaches, art, and highly ritualised Hinduism had attracted large numbers of tourists and much-needed foreign currency. Fastpaced hotel and residential development drew numerous non-Balinese migrants. Crime increased, resulting in intensified community security efforts and increased anxiety among Balinese over the migrant influx.

Around the same time, local policing measures (siskamling) were introduced at the village level. The government pressed each banjar to recruit local guards who were to be coordinated by the sub-district military command (KORAMIL). Communities were also forced to build security posts (pos siskamling) for these guards.

In response to rising crime, Balinese communities revived traditional punitive and warning measures, including the kulkul bulus, a rhythm played on a wooden slit-gong indicating that a thief was in the village. Once sounded, all male villagers within earshot were required to arm themselves and hunt for the criminal, sometimes resulting in his death. Although kulkul bulus was a particularly Balinese tradition, it fit in well with the neighbourhood watch strategies of the Soeharto government and gave new legitimacy to vigilantism.

The impact of that vigilantism was quickly evident. Strong anti-outsider sentiments flared when Javanese thieves destroyed and stole Balinese temple property in the Ubud area between May and July 1994. An Ubud resident told ICG that many Balinese believed the robberies were in response to the deaths of non- Balinese criminals killed by the mobs after kulkul bulus warnings.

In reaction to the thefts, however, non-Balinese residents – some say as many as twenty but probably fewer – were killed by traditionally dressed Balinese vigilantes. Ubud residents also ran identity-card checks called “sweepings” in search of the thieves.

…Pecalang are now seen not only as a village security body but also as a pro-active deterrent to increased migration and the eventual marginalisation of indigenous Balinese. Various forms of migration to Bali did, in fact, increase dramatically in the post- Soeharto years. Violent conflict in East Timor and Maluku in 1999 forced thousands to flee. Many of the displaced chose to live in Bali because of its noted religious tolerance. In fact, since the Jakarta riots of May 1998 in which ethnic Chinese were a target, thousands of wealthy Chinese-Indonesian families established temporary residences and built up businesses in Denpasar. The 17 January 2000 riots in nearby Lombok sent at least another 500 predominantly middle-class Christian Chinese families to Bali. By 2000, the influx of non- Balinese into already densely populated Denpasar had made Bali’s regional government nervous.

…Initially, Balinese reactions to overcrowding were primarily cultural and religious. For instance, several Balinese officials publicly demanded that the island’s elite, and migrant- dominated, Catholic schools change their Sanskrit (scripturally Hindu) names to Latin or other non-Sanskrit Christian names. Plans to construct a bridge between Java and Bali fuelled fears that unemployed non-Balinese would flood across, seeking work.29 Some of these anxieties were due to a decade of inter-communal tensions, while others were rooted in the dramatic increase in crime and new migrants to Denpasar after 1999.

… In 2000, concern over the migrant influx led the provincial government to employ pecalang to run identity card checks in areas where non-Balinese workers lived. The pecalang often threatened non- Balinese workers, pulling them out of their homes and forcing them to pay Rp.50,000 to 100,000 (U.S.$7 to $14) in fines – two to three days’ wages. A Javanese tofu seller in Denpasar told ICG, “The pecalang are authorities in the village. If I don’t pay them, then none of the villagers will buy my goods. The police are easier to work with because they represent the government”. The definition of an “outsider” became more complicated with decentralisation and devolution of authority to local government. Most traditional ordinances did not discriminate in treatment of non- Balinese residents. It was easier, however, to tax non-Balinese workers than internal migrants.

…New government-backed gangs had emerged in Denpasar just one month prior to the [October 2002 Bali] bombing. The strongest was Forum Peduli Denpasar (Forum for Concern about Denpasar, FPD), which included several former members of a notorious gang from the 1970s and 1980s known as Armada Racun or the Poison Armada. Largely organisers for the 1999 PDI-P campaign, these groups showed their support for Denpasar Mayor Anak Agung Puspayoga and were allowed to use Ubung, the city’s busiest bus terminal, to secure payments from drivers and screen the identification of non-Balinese workers (International Crisis Group 2003, The Perils of Private Security in Indonesia: Guards and Militias on Bali and Lombok, Asia Report no.67, 7 November – Attachment 12).

A January 2008 report published in The Bali Times provides further background on the manner in which the Pecalang security forces are recruited, given authority, equipped and paid (‘One Day’ 2008, The Bali Times, 26 January http://www.thebalitimes.com/2008/01/26/one-day-2/ – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 13).

3. What general information is available on the situation for Bali’s Catholic population?

Most sources addressing the situation of Bali’s Catholic, and wider Christian, communities generally report that these minority communities enjoy a peaceful and tolerant relationship with their majority Hindu neighbours. This said, a number of sources refer to historical injustices and some disharmony over certain issues, such as attempts by Christian Churches to incorporate traditional Balinese traditions and phrasings into the celebration of the Christian faith. Some sources refer to episodes of discrimination and, in the case of one source, recent violence. A 2002 article authored by Reverend John Barr (Executive Secretary of Australia’s Unity and International Mission Uniting Church) claims that Balinese converts to Christianity have been violently forced from their homes in villages near Denpasar. It is also claimed that: “In Bali conversion to Christianity means local people forfeit their rights to land and loose their inheritance”. No other reports could be located, however, which related recent incidents and concerns of such severity. A Bali overview page published on the Full Gospel Assembly website expresses the view that: “Balinese Christians generally face social ostracism by both their families and the community”. And a protestant Balinese Bishop, Ketut Wispada, relates that Christians in Bali can also experience caste based discrimination. As noted above, however, most reports refer to the atmosphere in Bali as one of tolerance. Reports were also located of police being deployed to guarantee the safety, or construction, of churches in Bali (for information on the manner in which the major Catholic and protestant villages in West Bali are presently said to enjoy peace and acceptance compared to previous times, see: Sertori, T. 2006, ‘Christian Xmas Celebrations: Palasari, Bali, Indonesia’, Planet Mole website, 21 December http://www.planetmole.org/bali/christian-xmas-celebrations- palasari-bali-indonesia.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 17; and: Christmas Day in Bali seems to be Hindu’s Galungan Day’ (undated), indo.com website http://www.indo.com/indonesia/news338.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 24; Wirata, P. 1998, ‘Christians in Paradise’, Bali Echo, Trans. Baulch, E., December/January http://baliwww.net/becho/32/crossover.htm – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 26; Richardson, M. 2002, ‘An Island of Many Gods:Bali’s Oasis of Calm’, International Herald Tribune, 30 January http://www.iht.com/articles/2002/01/30/edrich_ed3__0.php – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 25; for information on ongoing Hindu resentment to some Christian practices, see: ‘Priest honored for preserving Balinese culture’ 2008, National Catholic Reporter, BNET.com website, source: Union of Catholic Asian News, 25 February http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_17_41/ai_n13499360/print?tag=artBody;col1 – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 21; ‘The Whole History’ (undated), Protestant Christian Church of Bali website http://www.christianchurchbali.org/synod/wholehistory.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 29; for John Barr’s 2002 piece, see: Barr, J. 2002’Christians are doing it tough in Bali’, John Mark Ministries website, 21 February http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/161.htm – Accessed 7 February 2007 – Attachment 15; for the Full Gospel Assembly statement, see: ‘The Balinese of Indonesia’ (undated), Full Gospel Assembly website http://www.fga.com.my/missions/PDF%20UPG/indonesia/balinese2.pdf – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 28; and for caste based discrimination, see: Wispada, K. 2005, ‘Briefing on the Balinese’, Indonesia Seminar, Plowshares Institute website, August http://www.plowsharesinstitute.com/Indonesia%20Report.pdf – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 16; for police protection of Churches, see: ‘Hindus help in construction of a Catholic Church in Bali’ 2005, Asia News, 14 May http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=3279 – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 20; ‘Peace on Earth, Peace in Bali’ 2004, Bali Discovery Tours website, 27 December http://www.balidiscovery.com/update/update433.asp – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 23).

For an overview of the source materials informing the above summary, see below.

Previous Research: Research Response IDN31305

Previous research on the issue of the situation in Bali for Christians was completed in February 2007 as Research Response IDN31305 and this is supplied as Attachment 14. Research Response IDN31305 found very little information to indicate that Bali’s local Christian communities have experienced significant difficulties in recent years. Nonetheless, the response noted a February 2002 report by a Reverend John Barr which claimed that Balinese who convert to Christianity were experiencing difficulties.

When a group of Balinese decided to follow Christ in 1984, this Christian community was ostracised and rejected. Their homes were pelted with stones but their faith was not shaken. Since then the Christian community has grown to 17 families and they have formed the Bukitsari congregation.

Now the people want to renovate their little church and on the 10th February the Bishop of the Protestant Christian Church in Bali, Bishop Suyaga Ayub, hoped to lay a foundation stone. Unfortunately there was opposition to this plan and the head of Katung village ordered a delay in the proceedings. Then things turned nasty as a crowd of people attacked the Christian community during the night of 13th February. Eight houses were burnt down and people lost everything. A number of vehicles were also destroyed. Christians fled their village in fear and hid in the nearby bush until they could be re-settled in a safe location.

Other incidents recently took place just north of Denpasar, Bali’s largest city, where three Christian families were forced to leave their village. This kind of intimidation is now happening in a number of places around Bali because local people are angry. They feel Balinese Christians are neglecting their traditional responsibilities that involve ancient Balinese Hindu practices. In Bali conversion to Christianity means local people forfeit their rights to land and loose their inheritance. These rights are normally guaranteed through customary law (Barr, J. 2002’Christians are doing it tough in Bali’, John Mark Ministries website, 21 February http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/161.htm – Accessed 7 February 2007 – Attachment 15; RRT Country Research 2007, Research Response IDN31305, 7 February – Attachment 14).

The Response also notes the following demographic figures sourced from the website of the Protestant Christian Church in Bali: “In Bali with a population of 3 million people, the majority is Hindu (91.2%) with minorities of 160,675 Muslims (7.4%), 24,306 Catholics and 22,294 Protestants, which means 1.4% Christians” (‘Church Growth: Basic Figures’ (undated), Protestant Christian Church in Bali (GKPB) website http://www.christianchurchbali.org/churchgrowth/basicfigures.html – Accessed 6 February 2007 – Attachment 15).

Additional information: Bali’s Catholic community specifically

A February 2005 report notes the manner in which the Balinese Catholics have adopted a number of Balinese Hindu traditions into their day-to-day lives. Similarly, a September 2006 Union of Catholic Asia News report provides an interview with a Balinese Catholic who discussed the way in which local Balinese cultural traditions have been incorporated into the way Balinese Catholic’s celebrate their faith. No mention is made of any sectarian fears. The report notes that: “According to the 2001 Indonesian Catholic Church Directory, Bali has 22,514 Catholics, less than 1 percent of its 3.1 million people” (‘Priest honored for preserving Balinese culture’ 2008, National Catholic Reporter, BNET.com website, source: Union of Catholic Asian News, 25 February http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_17_41/ai_n13499360/print?tag=artBody;col1 – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 21; ‘Indonesia: Balinese Catholics Can Give Greater Glory To God In Their Own Culture’ 2006, Union of Catholic Asia News website, 5 September http://www.ucanews.com/2006/09/05/balinese-catholics-can-give-greater-glory- to-god-in-their-own-culture/ – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 22).

In March 2008 Union of Catholic Asia News reported on the manner in which Balinese Catholics had adjusted the timing of certain celebrations out of respect for the majority Hindu population. The report also provides details of the number of Catholic parishes in Bali at present.

Catholics and Muslims on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali adjusted their Friday religious services to respect the local Hindu celebration of Nyepi, or “Day of Silence.”

…In respecting the Hindus’ holy day, all 17 Catholic parishes on Bali held their Way of the Cross services and First Friday Masses on Wednesday or Thursday that week instead of on Friday. Masses dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are traditionally celebrated on the first Friday of each month.

Holy Trinity Parish in Tuka, a predominantly Catholic village, held their Way of the Cross service followed by First Friday Mass on Thursday. About 250 parishioners attended both services.

The parish serves 450 Catholic families in several villages including Tuka, which has 120 Catholic families. The village also has 40 Hindu families, 15 Muslim families and 14 Protestant families. Divine Word Father Kristianus Ratu, the parish priest, told UCA News that during Nyepi, his church turned off all lights and held no religious services. Divine Word Father Yosef Wora, Denpasar’s diocesan administrator, had issued a letter on Feb. 20 to all parish priests instructing them to hold Way of the Cross services on a day other than Nyepi. The diocese, based in the Bali provincial capital of Denpasar, about 970 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, covers Bali and several neighboring islands.

Earlier, eight local leaders from Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Muslim and interreligious organizations issued a joint statement on Feb. 11 calling on people who are not Hindus to adjust their religious activities on Nyepi.

“The adjustment aims to respect local Hindus,” said Father Wora, one of statement’s signatories. Speaking to UCA News on March 1, he suggested that Catholics could spend the day praying and reflecting on Jesus’ suffering at home. “We can see it as a family retreat,” he said (‘Catholics, Muslims Adjust Prayers Respecting Bali Hindus’ 2008, Indian Catholic website, 12 March http://www.theindiancatholic.com/report.asp?nid=10327 – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 18).

In July 2008 The Jakarta Post reported on the manner in which police, and non-Hindu police in particular, as well as “pecalang (traditional security guards)” would be called upon to help enforce peace and order during a Hindu festival. The report also notes that coincidence of Christian and Muslim festivals on this day and the expectation that the celebrations of these minority faiths would be conducted in such a way as to respect the Hindu festival.

Bali Police have launched a special security operation dubbed Agung I aimed at providing security during Nyepi, the Hindu Day of Silence, which takes place Friday, said a senior police official.

Bali Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. A.S. Reniban said Tuesday the operation, involving 1,600 police officers, would take place from March 5 to 9.

“Most of the assigned officers are non-Hindu because we want to give our Hindu officers a chance to conduct their religious rituals,” he said.

The five-day operation, he said, would be focused on intelligence gathering to prevent the occurrence of crimes as well as to create a conducive security condition.

The officers will also be tasked with spreading the message of inter-religions harmony, as issued recently by the island’s Forum of Religious Communities.

“We will cooperate with pecalang (traditional security guards) regarding the methods to pass the forum’s message to each resident,” Reniban told reporters.

The Forum of Religious Communities met in Bali earlier this month to seek a solution regarding the conduct of this year’s Nyepi celebration, particularly since this year’s Nyepi falls on a day when two other religions have important services.

Muslim will attend Friday prayers while Catholic will observe the first Friday service.

At the end of the meeting, the forum’s members issued a brief message urging their followers to respect each other’s religious services and to show that respect during Nyepi.

Muslims were advised to perform their prayers at the nearest mosque from their houses so they wouldn’t have to ride any motorized vehicles to reach the mosque. The forum also recommended that the mosques’ loudspeakers be turned off during the prayer and sermon. Catholics were urged to hold their services in their respective houses (Christanto, D. 2008, ‘Bali Police ready to secure holiday’, Jakarta Post, 3 May http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/03/05/bali-police-ready-secure-holiday.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 19).

May 2005 saw the Catholic news service, Asia News, report on the support received from Bali’s majority Hindu population for the construction and protection of a Catholic Church:

The majority Hindu population of Bali has approved the construction of a Catholic Church complex, even providing security guards for the groundbreaking ceremony. The site was opened in a ceremony presided by Fr Hubertus Hadi Setiawan, vicar-general of Denpasar diocese and attended by several Hindu religious leaders.

The complex, stretching over 3,500 square metres and including a rectory and bible school, will be constructed at Uma Sari, 945km from Jakarta near Denpasar, provincial capital of Bali. The complex will belong to St Joseph parish, set up in 1935 and now based on the city outskirts. According to records from 2001, the parish has 6,000 faithful and the current church building can no longer cater for them.

Piet Made Puriatma, president of the pastoral council of St Joseph parish, confirmed “the full support for the construction of the new complex” of the population and the city council.

Hindu leader, Putu Gedong, explained that the population “welcomed the faithful of all religions” and that “Catholics have the right to build a place of worship, as stipulated in the constitution”. He augured that the new complex would contribute “to promoting solidarity and tolerance among the population and to living together in peace.”

According to article 3 of Bali’s provincial regulation no.33 of 2003, the resident population must give a favourable recommendation for the construction of a new religious building. The province has more than 3.1 million residents; around 93% are Hindu (‘Hindus help in construction of a Catholic Church in Bali’ 2005, Asia News, 14 May http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=3279 – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 20).

A December 2006 article which appeared on an Indonesian travel website, Planet Mole, provides the following overview of Balinese Christian villages, one Catholic and the other Protestant, whose location in the remote Jembrana Regency of Western Bali is reported to be a consequence of historical intolerance towards Christians. Both villages are now reported to enjoy peace and tolerance in their respective locales.

…there is a little Christmas surprise package tucked away on the Jembrana Regency side of the almost 20,000 hectare West Bali National Park.

The Protestant village of Abyasari and its sister Catholic village of Palasari, just three kilometers to the east, are home to two of Bali’s Protestant and Catholic Churches.

…Discovering Abyasari, a village snoozing in the afternoon sun, wrapped on all sides by jungle, coconut palms and cacao trees, is like stepping into a picture book, but how the village evolved is not such a pretty story.

Anik, the wife of the Abyasari pastor, Dwi, says the birth of the town dates back nearly 70 years when Bali’s early Protestants were hounded out of their native villages.

“The first Protestant church was built in Karangasem in 1931 after I Made Karangasem changed from Hinduism to Protestantism. There was a small group of us living in Denpasar and Karangasem. Basically, we were thrown out of Denpasar and sent to the jungle here, where it was expected we would die,” Anik said without rancor.

“The people of Denpasar thought that the jungle was full of spirits and ghosts, and that we could not survive. But when you look around at our beautiful village, you can see how well we have done,” Anik says, recalling the difficulties that laid the foundation for today’s thriving Protestant community.

A village dominated by farmers, Anik said chocolate and coconut farming was the backbone of the community’s wealth.

“We are a wealthy and happy community. We do not have drugs or other social problems here. There are just 150 of us living in Abyasari and we live a good life. We lead the nation as a drug-free village — we are very proud of that.”

…Just three kilometers away, over jungle roads winding through Muslim and Hindu villages, is the Catholic town of Palasari with its Gothic Catholic church, which looks like it was carried here from Europe on the wings of angels.

Father Laurensius Maryonos from Surakarta has led Palasari’s 1,259 strong congregation for the past five years. He says the original congregation moved from Denpasar in the early 1940s due to a lack of space for a growing Catholic community.

“The people came here because their was no place for us in Denpasar at that time. Catholic people in Denpasar did not have a place to live because they were Catholic, so they opened up the jungle here for rice fields and became farmers. That was when the old town of Palasari was built,” said Father Laurensius, adding that the town later moved west, becoming New Palasari, some years ago when more fertile soils were discovered.

…Surrounded as they are by Muslim and Hindu villages, both Abyasari’s Anik and Palasari’s Father Laurensius said their region could be held up as an Indonesian model for religious tolerance, both agreeing that people of the four differing religions shared their jungle village homes with respect and friendship.

“We all get along well. There is no religious intolerance here,” Father Laurensius said of the social harmony, which if gift-wrapped and shipped around the archipelago, would be Indonesia’s best Christmas present ever (Sertori, T. 2006, ‘Christian Xmas Celebrations: Palasari, Bali, Indonesia’, Planet Mole website, 21 December http://www.planetmole.org/bali/christian-xmas-celebrations-palasari-bali-indonesia.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 17).

Additional information: Bali’s Christian communities generally

In August 2005 Bishop Ketut Wispada, of Bali’s Protestant Christian Church, provided the following briefing on the situation of Balinese Christians to a seminar on Indonesia held by the Plowshares Institute (a US Based social justice focused NGO of the United Methodist Church). According to this source local Balinese Christians (as opposed to foreign Christians) face a certain level of resentment, generally “live outside the island”, and have been historically affected by local Hindu caste practices. The relevant sections follow:

The Balinese don’t understand if another Balinese is a Christian. To them, Hinduism is a part of being Balinese. For Balinese who convert – to others it’s as if you are neglecting your duty toward your ancestors. Hinduism does not have a mission like Christianity or Islam. You’re born into it – if you convert, it seems like hypocrisy. The Balinese Christians are hated. So we have to understand why Balinese society does not like Christians. It’s OK if you’re a foreigner. Just not for a Balinese.

…The Balinese think that if you change religions you don’t like them anymore. In Bali, religion is identity and origin, not so much faith or belief. 75% of Balinese Christians live outside the island. Many, when they converted, had to move to another island or to my village of Blimbing Sari, which is the only Christian village in Bali (2.5 hours one way by car from Denpasar). It was started in the 1930’s when the Christians were sent to the far west of the island as refugees by the government.

There are four castes in Balinese Hindu society. The first Christian baptisms came from the second caste, Ksatria, and the pastor asked them to change their identity to the lowest caste. Here are the four:

1. Brahmana (priests)

2. Ksatria (warriors and government)

3. Waesia (everyone else)

4. Sudra, or Jaba (“outside the walls”)

Jaba means “outsider”. When Christians convert they all become Jaba. In the case of baptism, sometimes we have difficulties. I remember an old lady who converted from the highest caste. But since I came from the lowest caste, she did not want to be baptized by me.

For children, a caste is just a name. You can tell a caste by a name. Names preceded by I.B., or just I., come from Brahmana. Names followed by G.S.T. (Gusti, or Lord) come from Ksatria, and names followed by S.I. (“someone at the front”) are from Waesia.

Society will honor those from the top caste, so language can be very difficult, as names for things also change according to caste. In other words, if you are addressing someone from the Brahmana caste, you must use all Brahmana vocabulary. For example: the Brahman word for “house” is gria, the Ksatria word for house” is puri, the Waesia is uma, and the Sudra word is kubu. When you meet, you have to say, “where do you sit?” in order to know how to talk to someone. Kids don’t understand this. Before you talk you must ask. If you don’t know, assume the highest caste. The solution to this is to use Bahasa Indonesia. In daily life among friends, Sudra is used. Even among the bus drivers, some are Brahman, so they all use the proper language of address. This is both for speech and protocol. It reinforces inherited privilege. Some people retain their names when they become Christians because the administrative aspect is so difficult. Otherwise they commonly did change their names. Jabas have no prefix or suffix (Wispada, K. 2005, ‘Briefing on the Balinese’, Indonesia Seminar, Plowshares Institute website, August http://www.plowsharesinstitute.com/Indonesia%20Report.pdf – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 16; for background on Waspada see: ‘Dr Ketut Waspada’ (undated), Protestant Christian Church of Bali website http://www.christianchurchbali.org/synod/waspada.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 30).

At the same August 2005 seminar Dr Deborah Murthy provided the following briefing:

The Bali church is small, but we want to be fruitful and a blessing. Christians are 0.5% of the population in Bali, which totals 3.5-4 million. (This would give the church 15-20,000 members). We do not proselytize; we improve peoples’ lives. We are striving to be part of the Reign of God. The Holy Spirit does the work of bringing people into the church. Like the Hindu priest’s daughter who converted, saying, “I want to have that special spirit that you have”. The father allowed her to stay in the family compound after her conversion, which is not usual. She helps to support the family, and married a Christian.

…After the [October 2002 Bali] bombing people were shocked and afraid. They realized how much the Balinese economy depends upon tourism. One of my cousins came to my home because he was so anxious he couldn’t sleep. His worry was the future. 6 months later, police were really checking who came into Bali, but then it fell off. In 2005 Balinese are suspicious of outsiders. They worry that an increase of visitors will destabilize Bali. Particularly Muslims, who were the perpetrators, and whose numbers are increasing in Bali. There is a problem when people die and their bodies must be burned – Christians and Muslims have no place for burial in Bali, and their bodies cannot be cremated like Hindus. Two weeks ago in our church there was a brochure about how many shopping centers are owned by Muslims. Hindus also worry about Christians, whose numbers are also growing (Murthy, D. 2005, ‘Maha Bhoga Marga Foundation’, Indonesia Seminar, Plowshares Institute website, August http://www.plowsharesinstitute.com/Indonesia%20Report.pdf – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 16).

A Bali overview page published on the Full Gospel Assembly website states that: “Balinese Christians generally face social ostracism by both their families and the community” (‘The Balinese of Indonesia’ (undated), Full Gospel Assembly website http://www.fga.com.my/missions/PDF%20UPG/indonesia/balinese2.pdf – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 28).

In December 2004 it was reported that police and had been deployed to ensure the safety of Christian churches over Christmas as a precaution against the kind of “attacks launched on churches on the island of Java and other outlaying areas of Indonesia” in preceding years:

Churches across Bali and the rest of Indonesia held traditional Christmas services this year under conditions of strict security, allowing the highest holy days on the Christian calendar to pass without major incident.

While past Christmases have seen attacks launched on churches on the island of Java and other outlaying areas of Indonesia, this year’s celebration was marked by a fierce determination by the Government and the Nation’s citizens that Indonesia would once again be known as a society famous for its mutual respect and religious tolerance. This renewed commitment was perhaps best demonstrated in churches in Jakarta and elsewhere where young men representing some of the nation’s leading Islamic organizations, such the Muhammadiyah, Pemuda Madjid and Nahdlatul Ulama, stood shoulder to shoulder with police outside places of worship guaranteeing their Christian neighbors could conduct Christmas services unmolested. Similarly in Bali, pacalang – traditional Hindu religious constables usually deployed only at Hindu temple festivals, stood guard outside the island’s churches together with Bali’s police, welcoming Christians to worship without fear.

Such demonstrative acts of mutual concern and solidarity did not go unnoticed. The Archbishop of Jakarta, Monsignor Julius Kardinal Darmaatmadja, commented in his midnight mass sermon, “on behalf of Indonesia’s Catholics, I express deep thanks to all who are involved in protecting and ensuring that Christmas celebrations can proceed smoothly and peacefully.”

At Denpasar’s Catholic cathedral and other Christian churches a heavy police and military presence was very much in evidence, with all vehicles and worshippers undergoing security screenings before being allowed to enter into church premises (‘Peace on Earth, Peace in Bali’ 2004, Bali Discovery Tours website, 27 December http://www.balidiscovery.com/update/update433.asp – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 23).

The Indonesia News website depicts Christmas celebration in Bali in December 2003 as representative of a peaceful and tolerant religious relationship between Christians and the majority Hindu population:

A month after Muslim people celebrated their Idul Fitri, the turn comes to Christians on December 25, 2003 to celebrate their Christmas, a day of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Christmas Eve in few churches in Bali to start at 7 o’clock in the evening and some hotels like Radisson, Oberoi, Grand Hyatt and still many other hotels have set up any decorations from young banana leaves and of course with the Christmas trees.

Bali has the strong rooted nature based on Hindu, however they are very broad minded and having a great tolerance to other religions and they live in a harmony. Sometimes, Balinese show their high tolerance by using the word Galungan for any celebration of other religions. Hindu themselves are sometimes dubbed the Christmas Day as Galungan for Christians because in some villages in the west border line between Denpasar and Tabanan whose inhabitants are mostly Christian install the decorative long bamboo pole or locally called as “penjor “ in front of their house compounds. Simply, it is like Balinese Hindu people when they are celebrating Galungan & Kuningan Day.

The harmonious religious interaction between Christian and Hindu can be seen in Sawan Village, Buleleng Regency, in which the Christian people prefer naming Christmas Day as Galungan Kristen (Galungan Day for Christian). Moreover, when the celebration of Christmas Day lasted, other people whose religion are different do a visit to the Christian people and bring any presents and mostly kilograms of sugar, rice, and other basic needs for making any meals or cake. This is just a symbol of wishes when other religions are celebrating their religious anniversary (‘Christmas Day in Bali seems to be Hindu’s Galungan Day’ (undated), indo.com website http://www.indo.com/indonesia/news338.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 24).

A January 2002 International Herald Tribune article also presents Bali as a haven of religious tolerance:

Some 90 percent of the island’s population are followers of Balinese Hinduism. This gives the island a strong sense of religious and ethnic unity – and a base for harmony. But there are significant Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian minorities. Substantial numbers of non-Balinese Indonesians came to the island to work as it prospered from tourism and business over the past couple of decades.

Since Sept. 11, foreign tourist arrivals in Bali have fallen sharply – by 25 percent in October and 33 percent in December. Hotels, restaurants, cafés and shops are all suffering. Many people complain that costs and taxes are rising while their income is falling.

Yet there is little outward sign of social tension. Ali Mumin, a Muslim who came from the island of Madura – a stronghold of Islam – to work here 10 years ago, says that he feels secure on Bali. “Of course, we can’t expect to celebrate Idul Fitri, the end of the Muslim fasting month, in the way we used to do it in our hometown,” he said. “But still we thank God that we don’t live in the Moluccas or Sulawesi, where Muslims and Christians are battling.” Ketut Wiana, a leading scholar of Balinese Hinduism, said that since its beginnings centuries ago, the religion has been tolerant and inclusive, perhaps because it has been closely related to Buddhism. Balinese Hinduism is derived from the Majapahit kingdom, which adopted both Hinduism and Mayahana Buddhism from India.

Ketut Wiana said that Balinese Hindus believed in the teaching of Atiti Yadnya, “which requires us to treat people, regardless of faith, in a better way than we treat ourselves.”

Another reason Bali had remained an oasis of peace, he said, was that its Hinduism was not an expansive or missionary religion: “We have never intended to spread our religion to followers of other faiths and therefore religious and cultural conflicts rarely take place here.” (Richardson, M. 2002, ‘An Island of Many Gods:Bali’s Oasis of Calm’, International Herald Tribune, 30 January http://www.iht.com/articles/2002/01/30/edrich_ed3__0.php – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 25).

A January 1999 provides an impression of the Balinese Christian communities of Palasari, Abianbase, Tuka, Untal-untal, Blimbingsari and Dalung. The report notes the historical intolerance that affected the formation of the settlement and the more tolerant conditions which currently prevail while also reporting on the manner in which some Hindus are said to resent the incorporation of certain Balinese practices into the celebration of the Christian faith.

“We use Balinese visual metaphors because our ancestors are Balinese, and we respect the culture of our ancestors,” says I Gusti Ngurah Wisnu Purwadhy Bernadus, a well-respected figure in Palasari and a lecturer in Agriculture at Denpasar’s Udayana University. Although he is not a Hindu, Wisnu Purwadhy continues to preface his name with ‘Gusti Ngurah’, a reference to caste. But the name he was baptized by is Bernadus. Bernadus, like almost all the Catholics of Palasari, are descended from Balinese Hindus.

The ‘Balinization’ of the Christian religion, as evident in Palasari, can also be found in other predominantly Catholic and Protestant communities on the island, such as Blimbingsari in the district of Jembrana, and the villages of Abianbase, Tuka and Untal-untal in the district of Badung. Both Tuka and Blimbingsari even boast gamelan groups which perform every Palm Sunday.

“We are attempting to accommodate local cultural traditions within Christianity – what the missionaries termed ‘inculturation’ – by taking those parts of Balinese culture that fit comfortably with Christian theology,” says Father Shadeg S.V.D, who oversees the Widia Wahana Library in Dalung, a Protestant village in the district of Badung. But this accommodative approach was slow to develop, and what lies buried beneath it is a history of conflict.

…The first Balinese to become a Protestant Minister, I Made Rungu, is still spritely at one hundred years old. When he arrived in Blimbingsari, the forest was almost impenetrable. He has since watched the village develop into a model Balinese Christian community. Here, the entrance of the local church is marked by an apit surang – traditionally the gateway to a Balinese temple. The church yard is bordered by a penyengker, as the limiting wall of a Hindu temple is called, and the church garden is positioned according to the Balinese organisation of space.

Catholic Palasari has adopted a similar aesthetic. The roof of its Sacred Heart Church is tiered like that of a Hindu temple. In fact, the only thing differentiating it from a Hindu shrine is the presence of a large cross at its entrance. …elements of so-called ‘Hindu Balinese’ architecture are evident in churches all over Bali. “Brother Ignatius expressly wanted Balinese elements to be included in the design, so that Balinese Catholics would not forget their cultural heritage,” explains Yosef Wora of the Sacred Heart Church.

…Although Balinese Hindus have not reacted as violently to the use of Balinese symbology in the practise of Christianity as they did to the missionary activity of the thirties, some critics continue to take offense to the use of Hindu attributes in church design, viewing it as part of a conspiracy to goad Hindus to convert to the Christian faith. Not only are Hindu attributes used in church design, the critics say, but also the name of the Christian Messiah has been ‘Hinduised’, so that Jesus is known locally as Sang Hyang Yesus (Hindus recognise Sang Hyang Widhi). The Bible, the Mass and the hymns have all been translated into Balinese so that Hindus who convert to Christianity don’t feel too culturally dislocated.

Such criticisms are countered by the Bishop Vitalis Djebaris, who presides over Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa “What the missionaries meant by ‘inculturation’ was to make use of those elements of Balinese Hinduism which assist converts in their practise of Christianity. After all, it is hardly realistic to rip an ethnic community away from its roots and graft it onto a completely new cultural context,” he argues. “Moreover, Christianity is making use of local cultural elements, not religious elements. Traditional ceremonial costume is the property of all Balinese, not only Hindu Balinese. Hindus in India wear a different costume, don’t they?”

Not all Christians agree with Djebaris that ‘inculturation’ is a good idea. Some Balinese Christians who believe that the use of Balinese aesthetic in church design does little to assist public understanding of the Christian faith. And there are even some Christians who refuse to pray in Balinese-style churches, thus being forced to go outside their village to attend services (Wirata, P. 1998, ‘Christians in Paradise’, Bali Echo, Trans. Baulch, E., December/January http://baliwww.net/becho/32/crossover.htm – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 26).

The website of the Protestant Christian Church of Bali provides similar information to that appearing above in a lengthy historical overview of the various episodes of intolerance which have affected Christianity in Bali as well a current resistance from some local Hindus to the incorporation of traditional Balinese practices and language into Christian practices and churches (‘The Whole History’ (undated), Protestant Christian Church of Bali website http://www.christianchurchbali.org/synod/wholehistory.html – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 29).

A 1997 study observes that: “Even today Balinese Hindus find it difficult to accept the fact that a Balinese may be a Muslim or a Christian”. The study notes a general suspicion of Christian communities by Balinese Hindus, noting the views expressed by Ngakan Made Madrasuta, an influential Balinese Hindu:

Madrasuta explicitly criticizes Islam and Christianity on particular points. Where Christianity is concerned he does so with respect not only to doctrine and specific missionary methods but also to attempts by Balinese Christians to incorporate elements of the traditional religion of Bali into their own religion. Thus some churches are built in the shape of a pura, or Hindu sanctuary, and are even decorated in a style that obviously has its roots in the art of Hindu temples. Furthermore, Christians in their liturgy use rituals that resemble the rituals of the traditional religion of Bali. The Christians describe all this as enculturation but the Hindus, according to Madrasuta, perceive these methods as no more than an attempt to win people over. In addition he claims that it is wrong to distinguish between a Balinese and a Hindu culture. There is a Hindu culture in the same way as there is a Muslim and a Christian culture (Madrasuta 1994b). No matter how superior Hinduism may be, according to Ngakan Made Madrasuta the enculturation or assimilation of Balinese cultural elements by Balinese Christians for use in their own religion, as indicated above, shows that there is also a need for a certain demarcation between religions. His notion of demarcation is illustrated by Robert Frost’s dictum that ‘Good fences make good neighbours’: a fence protects a person’s possessions from other people while at the same time stopping that person in his turn from damaging other people’s property. This also applies to religions, with their similarities and differences. Even if there is a fence, however, people can still hear each other, so that there is still some mutual contact (Madrasuta 1992). Madrasuta’s plea for some sort of demarcation indicates that he believes the Christians to pose a threat to the Hindus. Without any demarcation they might conquer the whole of Bali.

It is worth noting that Madrasuta feels the Muslims to be less of a threat to his religion – in any case, he is more critical of the Christians than of the Muslims – and in this respect resembles others in Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia circles. I posited in my doctoral thesis that this kind of bias may be explained by the Indonesian social context: Indonesia is a country with a Muslim majority, and criticism of a majority is less acceptable than criticism of a minority, in this case the Christians. The Muslims themselves are also critical of the Christians, it should be noted in this connection (Bakker 1993:312). Another possible explanation may be that the majority of Balinese who go over to another religion convert to Christianity (Bakker, F. 1997, ‘Balinese hinduism and the Indonesian state; Recent developments’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, vol.153: no: 1, Leiden, 15-41 http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/files/pdf/art_BKI_1596.pdf – Accessed 8 July 2008 – Attachment 27).

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources: Google website http://www.google.com

Databases:

FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIAC Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Research & Information database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue

List of Sources Consulted

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