BALI is a place of rare beauty that is why, in the last thirty years, it has become a major tourist attraction. The barbarous attacks of 2002 and those of last month caused outrage among the local population. Wednesday, that anger overflowed into a riot when demonstrators stormed a prison in Bali, demanding that executions be carried out on three terrorists sentenced to death for their part in the October 2002 bombings which left over 200 dead and hundreds seriously injured.
The damage to a cornerstone of Bali’s economy by the ruthless bombings has been enormous, even though many tourists have sworn not to be put off by the threat of terror. Unfortunately package-tour companies, now the main staple of the tourism industry worldwide, cannot be so phlegmatic. They are required to ensure their customers and the price of that cover is now rising steeply — if it can indeed be obtained at all.
Thus apart from blowing up many Balinese Indonesians as well as Western tourists, the terrorists have also blown a hole in the island’s main source of income. More importantly, they have brought ugliness and evil to one of the world’s most beautiful and tranquil holiday locations. No wonder the Balinese stormed the prison and no wonder they were angry.
But what they have done is very wrong. The guilty men must continue to be subject to the due process of law. After an exhaustive investigation, they were tracked down and arrested and then brought to trial, found guilty and sentenced to death. The reason that they are still alive is that they are appealing against the sentences and the conviction. The law must be allowed to run its course. The sight of a lynch mob storming the jail where these men are confined was thus extremely upsetting.
However justified the fury of the demonstrators, their illegal action made them no better than the terrorists who have marred Bali with their crimes. Terrorism will only be defeated by law enforcers, good intelligence and the rule of law. Any ill-considered attempt to bypass the authorities or to forget civilized standards is actually a victory for the terrorists. The stupidity of yesterday’s events in Bali was that these Jemaah Islamiah killers are so deluded that they will regard their deaths, whether at the hands of the authorities or a lynch mob, as some sort of perverse triumph and martyrdom. After all, the last attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. They are so far removed from decent human feelings, so unrepentant of their bloody crimes that they deserve nothing but contempt from all normal people. This does not, however, mean that they can also be treated outside the law.
Wherever the world is confronting the evil specter of terrorism, it is imperative that civilized standards be preserved because it is these very qualities of justice and compassion that the followers of Al-Qaeda and its satraps are seeking to destroy. Every time anguished people give vent to their fury and decide to take justice into their own hands, they are achieving nothing except doing part of the terrorists’ work for them.
