As a defining moment in the history of both Indonesia and Australia, much has been written about the Bali Bomb, the suicide attack on two nightclubs in rollicking Kuta Beach that claimed at least 200 lives and injured hundreds more. To date, other books have told the stories of the tragic fates of the fatalities, the agonizing struggles of burn victims and the desperation of widows left without a breadwinner. Now comes the so-far untold tale, the story of Kuta itself.
Though the bombs exploded in the heart of Kuta, not one permanent resident was killed, or even seriously injured. But the economic and social repercussions of the Bali Bomb are felt to this day, exacerbated even more by the second suicide bomb attack in October 2005. In Bali Blues, Jeremy Allan chronicles the lives of Kuta residents whose lives were devastated by the Bali Bomb.
As in his previous book, Jakarta Jive, Allan tells the story from the perspective of friends and acquaintances as well as his own. With a novelist’s eye for character description and development, Allan brings us into the real-time lives of Gusti, a Kuta-born, western educated hotel general manager; Wayan Tama, a former surfer now fighting to maintain Balinese cultural tradition; and Ketut, the beach boy son of an affluent family.
Since fully half of Kuta residents migrated from elsewhere in the nation — and the world — other major characters include Leo, a Jakarta resident who abandoned his studies for a military career to become a beach vendor; Ayu, a bar girl struggling to support a family in rural Java; and Andrew, an Australian who came to Bali thirty years before as a backpacker and stayed on as one of the sizable population of long-term resident expatriates.
As a resident of Kuta himself, Allan is drawn into the social conflicts that arose as the economic trauma resulting from the absence of tourists brought long-simmering social tensions to the surface. Bali itself is in the throes of massive change, only partly caused by the influx of tourists and their money. The Bali Bomb intensified the social pressures which, especially in Kuta, had been contained by both the wealth brought by massive numbers of tourists and repression by the central government. In the uncertain and stressful weeks following the attack, old grudges and unresolved issues came to the fore.
Nevertheless, a strong note of hope, courage, and resilience is found throughout the book. Bali Blues shows how the traditional institutions of social control — and the character of the Balinese — prevented the feared eruption of communal violence in Kuta during the miserable months after the attack. Moreover, Allan’s sharp wit and eye for absurdity managed to find humor during the darkest days, making Bali Blues an easy and entertaining read despite the gloomy subject.
Though Allan focuses his attention on the Kuta community, Bali Blues does full justice also to the gravity of the attack itself. Allan relates the background of the fanatical form of Islam that gave birth to the terrorists, and the open, tolerant Balinese society that allowed the perpetrators to operate undetected in their midst. The final two chapters are an account of the days leading up to the attack, seen through the eyes of both the terrorists and bomb survivors, and a spellbinding, minute-by-minute reconstruction of the final hours. Altogether, a riveting and eye-opening read.
-- Pakbill Bali Advertiser December 2005