Destinations known | Bali’s ‘trash’ foreigners cause tension with locals over social distancing

Bali has long been an outlier among Indonesia’s 17,500 islands. Its Hindu leanings stand out in the Muslim-majority nation and have helped – along with the tropical climate and Instagram appeal – shape the Island of the Gods’ reputation as a destination that not only enriches visitors culturally, but also feeds the accounts of social media influencers. Another way in which it diverges from the rest of the country is in its coronavirus case count.

Of Indonesia’s more than 7,000 confirmed cases, Bali has reported just 140, and three fatalities. On April 14, English-language newspaper The Jakarta Post reported that the island’s governor, Wayan Koster, “had no intention of implementing large-scale social restrictions”. Speaking at a press conference the previous day, Koster had seemed confident that most of Bali’s cases had been imported by returning migrant workers and community transmission remained low.

Although a state of emergency was declared in March, enforcing a 14-day self-quarantine on all arrivals and shuttering most beaches, the governor said there was still “a long way to go” before stricter measures – compulsory social distancing and the closure of public areas, shopping malls and places of worship – known as PSBB, would be introduced. On April 1, the central government had gone a step further and barred all foreign nationals, apart from diplomats, humanitarian workers and those with residency permits, from entering Indonesia. But a number of tourists remain and, without clear policies in place, tensions between local residents and Bali’s hangers-on have been rising.

The main source of tension is the behaviour of those from overseas, some of whom continue to eat, pray, love, party and surf as though everything were completely normal. The Balinese, meanwhile, appear to have accepted their civic responsibility to stay at home whenever possible. As one Bali-based surf blogger recently put it, “I do not see one single Indonesian citizen, other than the hookers, out and about.”

On April 12, guests at a socially close 21st birthday bash, most of whom appeared to be from overseas, foolishly shared footage of their frolics publicly. Online comments translated by news site Coconuts Bali ranged from the disappointed (“We are doing our best to not leave our homes, to lessen interaction with others so that we don’t infect or get infected, but here they are partying hard”) to the understandably angry (“Bali has a lot of barbaric guests […] The locals are compliant, but the foreigners are being trash like this”), with one even comparing the island’s tourism industry to colonisation.