Forums › Drugs › Cocaine & Crack › Bali mood swings as crackdown bites into clubbing scene
Bali mood swings as crackdown bites into clubbing scene
By Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
August 27, 2005
It is peak clubbing season in Bali, the island crammed with tourists and wealthy locals. But this year the Kuta and Seminyak nightspots young Australians frequent are the prime target of a drugs crackdown that has led to more than 250 arrests.
Indonesia’s avidly anti-drugs police chief, General Sutanto, is backing raids on the clubs of Bali and Jakarta, to applause from political leaders, howls from the entertainment industry and disbelief from a public aware many police get a cut of the action.
Drugs are easily available in Bali. On a late-night stroll past Club 66 this week – where the Sydney model Michelle Leslie allegedly obtained ecstasy that could put her in jail for years – several young men on motorcycles made offers to the Herald.
“What you want, mister, ecstasy, just 150,000 rupiah [$20]?” asked Max, lifting his shirt to show he was not armed. “Look, no police, no police.”
Longtime Bali partygoers such as Shelly, 24, an Australian, who asked that her surname not be used, warn that many dealers are undercover officers. She has not been out for a month, after one night was interrupted by a police search.
“It freaked people out; they were running to the toilets to get rid of what they had. We go out for a good time, not to have the cops shutting the music off for an hour. They should be locking up the people selling it to us, rather than getting us in the clubs.”
The raids put a dampener on the scene, Shelly said. “It definitely puts people off. You are looking for undercover cops. It’s not as relaxed as it used to be. That model’s arrest is just adding fuel to the fire after the nine Australians and the Schapelle thing.”
Others shrug their shoulders, selling ecstasy pills for cash in a dark corner of the Dju bar, down the road from Club 66.
The head of Bali’s drug squad, Lieutenant-Colonel Bambang Sugiarto, vows to do whatever it takes to stamp out the trade, but denies the cases of Leslie, Schapelle Corby and nine other Australians on heroin charges mean he is targeting one nationality. Many other foreigners and even more locals were being jailed, with drug arrests nearly quadrupling in two years, he said.
“The number of Australian tourists here rank second only to Japan, there are more people and the chance of breaking the law is bigger,” Colonel Sugiarto said. He got enthusiastic backing from General Sutanto, a former head of the National Narcotics Agency, who announced the crackdown two months ago. He visited Bali this week, welcoming the publicity of the Leslie case.
“We can detect whoever comes to Bali so Bali becomes a safe place,” General Sutanto said. “We won’t let Bali be used by both local and foreign drug users.”
The agency’s senior commissioner, Indradi Tanos, who is co-ordinating the crackdown, said arrests of local celebrities and Australians were positive, because they sent an anti-drugs message to young people in both countries.
Many Australian tourists in Bali agreed with the Prime Minister, John Howard, that taking drugs in Asia was silly. “I just think: how stupid are you? I don’t know how anyone would want to risk something like that,” Kylie Rando said.
Although she was too “buggered” from shopping to do much late-night clubbing, she said: “I would never go out alone, and always keep my bag close by.”
The Australian ambassador, David Ritchie, this week sent an email to travellers and residents, warning that trafficking, carrying or taking drugs in Indonesia was “not worth the risk”.
The Jakarta raids have been even tougher than in Bali, with urine tests carried out on nightclub patrons, netting celebrities and actors among 140 positive results. Clubs have complained that 40,000 workers have been laid off because the tests have scared off customers.
Dadang Hawari, a psychiatrist and adviser to the narcotics agency, believes the crackdown may be too late. Many young Indonesians are already taking marijuana, “while most young executives use ecstasy because the pills are considered more stylish”.
Corrupt police were part of the problem, he said. “The low-ranking officers who are in the frontline of anti-drugs campaign earn only relatively low income – they try and increase it by selling drugs.”
Colonel Sugiarto said he was investigating colleagues for “direct or indirect involvement in drug trafficking’ and insisted they risked being charged and dismissed.
Mr Tanos said the Australian Federal Police fully supported the crackdown. Earlier this year a police raided a drug factory, disguised as an Islamic school, an hour from Jakarta. It was producing more than 250,000 ecstasy pills a day.
“We have dismantled one international syndicate, but it proved Indonesia is becoming a production country,” Mr Tanos said. “Australian police are also aware of the trend so they are trying to use Indonesia as the front line.”
Many in Bali believe the raids are a fad to be waited out before business returns to normal. They may be mistaken, given the impetus from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Arriving in Indonesia two months ago I, along with several million others, received a text message from the president. “Stop drug abuse and drug-related crimes right now,” it read. “Let us preserve and build a healthy, smart and progressive nation.”
0
Voices
1
Reply
Tags
This topic has no tags
Forums › Drugs › Cocaine & Crack › Bali mood swings as crackdown bites into clubbing scene
