Race relations in Bali

Indonesia has 17,000 islands and 180 ethnic groups. It has to be one of the hardest countries to govern, considering this and the low level of infrastructure. One of the things that helps keep the different elements from killing each other is that fact that most groups are divided by islands. The Balinese are largely just in Bali, the Sasaks rarely venture from Lombok in numbers. Of course we’ve all met random individuals in Kuta who claim to be from places far and wide, but generally people tend to stay on their own island.

The Indonesian government based in Jakarta is heavily biased towards Java. Realizing that Java is the most densely populated part of the country, the government has a program called transmigrasi, which attempts to resettle people from Java on other islands. Sometimes this has led to disastrous consquenses, such as in Kalimantan, where the local Dayaks massacred Madurese who had moved there.

Here in Bali people seem fairly relaxed about race relations. The Balinese, like people everywhere will always favor people from Bali over outsiders. Who else they favor depends upon current events. Balinese Agama Hinduism is more accepting of certain aspects of life, sensuality, sexuality, reproduction, etc than most of the other major religions and that has helped the Balinese themselves be accepting of other people’s style, actions, habits. Bali is a huge tourist destination and that attracts other Indonesians to come and work here. Locals living close to Jl. Mataram, one the lanes behind Jl. Legian have told me that people get on there regardless of religion / race.

Regarding situations that are clearly related to race, one of best examples is Chinese Indonesians. Ika told me that other Indonesians will try to charge them more for things such an a government ID. For many years Chinese Indonesians were not considered Indonesian citizens. Chinese Indonesians were not allowed to hold a government job either. People from Java are often talked about in a negative light, but this isn’t really race, its more geographic / cultural, as most of the Balinese originate from Java if you go back far enough. As far as westerners are concerned, there is no race problem, as most Balinese don’t have a personal history of interactions with westerners, going back a long way. Those that do meet westerners, are in a holiday / party atmosphere. It strikes me that money and land are the 2 main points that can cause trouble between individuals and groups in Bali. Race relations take a major back seat to this.