Indonesia: A Dark Past, Murky Present, and Uncertain Future

The allure of Indonesia. It's like the best place on Earth for surfers, right? Well, at one point I thought yes, and now I'm not really sure.

Either way, with beaches like this:

And waves like this:

We all want to go there because of the insanely perfect waves. The idea behind this post is to tell you more about the place so you can draw your own conclusion.

Surfing there is probably what I fantasize about most. Clear blue water, light offshore wind blowing rainbow showers off the backs of ruler edged waves, peeling along shallow reef, with curious locals scattered in the background where the sand meets the jungle. That's the image that I was originally exposed to by the surf media.

I remember sitting in my basement for hours with my friends in high school, devouring the images and stories of Indonesia published by Surfer and Surfing Magazine. Movies like September Sessions and A Broken Down Melody left my soul feeling wrenched.

How could waves get that good?

And how long would I have to wait to surf them? I wanted to go there more than I'd wanted to do anything, ever. It was (and continues to be) the strongest desire I've felt.

In 10th grade I was transfixed by Dane Reynolds, Clay Marzo and the cast of Young Guns 2 surfing the Mentawais off the coast of Sumatra. The perfection was hard to fathom.

At the time, the thought of surfing in Indonesia felt like only a slight possibility of the distant future. It was an obsession that could consume my mind with greater ease than almost anything else (I was a teenage boy after all).

Suddenly I was out of college, in a position to make my wettest and wildest dreams come true. I had zero ideas about what I wanted to do with my life, so I figured I would just go surfing and wait for some sort of revelation (which, shocker, never really came).

Anyways, I took plenty of time to go ride the waves I'd been craving so intensely, and I got tubed.

A lot.

Fast forward two years, and two trips later. It would be reasonable to assume that I'm fairly knowledgeable about the general history and current state of the country. The embarrassing reality is that I am not, or at least I wasn't before I decided to write this post, which got me thinking...

How many of us travel in this blissfully ignorant way?

I'm guilty of it, my friends are guilty of it, and I imagine that many of the people I met along the way are guilty of it too. This question probably warrants a post all it's own, but for now I want to emphasize how important I think it is for us to make an effort from this point forward to educate ourselves on the places we visit.

Capeesh?

Great, because I'm ready to substitute all this nagging with some mind-bending shit about Indonesia. Through my research, the following tid-bit stands out to me as the most interesting thing I learned:

A present-day 80-year-old Indonesian has experienced more change in their lifetime than probably any other group of people in history. To put this into perspective, they have experienced the equivalent of the British Colonial period, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, the era of industrialization, World War II, up into the computer age, in a single lifetime (1).

An American would have had to live at least two and half centuries to experience all of that.

Woah.

If you find that as shocking as I do, the rest of this post is definitely for you. If you're someone who might be interested in traveling there, consider reading what follows before going. And if you're like me and you've already been, you too will likely find that you know less about the place than you thought.

Shall we get into it?

Sweet.

The Archipelagic Power Struggle

Did you know that surf exploration in Indonesia began as early as the 1930's? (2).

Since it first entered my radar, I was under the impression that exploration for waves began there "sometime in the 70's or 80's." Super specific, I know. I remembered seeing Gerry Lopez drawing high lines (leash-less) at Uluwatu in Morning of the Earth, and assumed that was around the time waves were first discovered there.

An American named Robert Koke had in fact been surfing wood planks in Bali years before the beginning of World War II, when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony. The Japanese, who were busy taking over South-east Asia, eventually took control of the archipelago (3).

At first, the Indonesians were stoked. They thought, Hey, they got rid of those Dutch ass holes, how bad could they be?

But they soon came to find that the Japanese were just as prick-ish as the Dutch.

After the war, under the leadership of a man named Sukarno (who had been leading the Indonesian Independence Movement Party since 1927), the country was finally able to take back their independence from the Netherlands (4).

Free at last!

The revolution was a success, and the Republic of Indonesia was established in 1945, with Sukarno as their president.

20 Years to Hell

Throughout his time in power, Sukarno was able to create national unity for the first time through the popularization of a national language. He used the media and educational systems to do this, and it worked like a charm. In contrast, he did a shitty job creating and maintaining a thriving national economy (3).

After twenty years, friction between Sukarno's Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia or PKI) and the military reached a final breaking point in October of 1965, when a coup-gone-wrong resulted in six of Sukarno's leading party members being killed, at which point, he lost control to a man by the name of Soeharto (5).

In the events that followed, according to Director of the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies, M.C. Ricklefs, "between 300,000 and 2 million people were murdered and over 100,000 taken political prisoner without trial." The ambiguity of the numbers recorded has always been disturbing.

Some other things that went down include (5):

-Over a million passed through detention camps.-Some were held for ten years or more.-Once released, many continued to get screwed on their civil rights.

-Even children not even born in 1965 got hassled.

It wasn't until after the turmoil of the 1965-66 massacre had settled, in the late 1960's, that surf exploration continued (2).

Understanding this history means realizing, in the large scheme of things, just how recent these events took place. It means I have personally met people whose lives or parents' lives were directly involved in this dark period of modern Indonesia.

Without having any awareness of the chaos they had lived through during childhood, I can't help but question the depth of the relationships I made with locals during my time there. It doesn't have to be that way for you.

Reading this post and being aware of what Indonesians have been through will allow you to better understand locals, and empathize with them in a genuine way, therefore deepening any relationships you form should you decide to go there.

Picking Up The Pieces

Following what can be considered one of the worst massacres ever, Soeharto and his military regime were finally in a place to pick up the slack of Sukarno's suffering economy. They figured it was the least they could do, after the mass killing and all.

Initially, the basic strategy was to reduce their reliance on imports and increase their domestic production of consumer goods. A particularly important part of this strategy was to welcome foreign investors to start up projects in production of these goods, and promote an increase in exports (3).

This is largely what paved the way for Indonesia's present-day industrial landscape, which consists primarily of petroleum and natural gas, textiles, automotive, electrical appliances, apparel, footwear, mining, cement, medical instruments and appliances, handicrafts, chemical fertilizers, plywood, rubber, processed food, jewellery, and tourism (6).

Clearly, aside from countless perfect waves being discovered along it's shores, there has been a lot going on in Indonesia throughout the past century. So, including the rise of surf tourism, what's happening there today? (Besides choosing to execute drug criminals before murderers).

Tourist-ville

In 2014, over 9.4 million tourists visited Indonesia (7), and we can only assume that a significant portion of them were surfers (a safe bet in the tens of thousands). We flock from every continent because we know the waves are consistently world-class, and the chances of scoring are higher than most anywhere else.

Although we are increasingly visiting more out of the way places in Eastern Java, Southern Sumatra, Lombok and Sumbawa, Bali is still the premier surfing destination in Indonesia, and the perfect lens in which to explore the impacts of tourism.

Much like Shaun Tomson and I discussed in our chat about sustainability in the surfing industry, sociocultural, environmental, and economic factors (which are naturally intertwined) must all be considered.

Let's start with sociocultural:

I don't know what it is about eastern religions, but there's a mystical quality that comes to mind at the very thought of Hinduism (Bali's primary religion). I picture this frail, white haired little Indonesian man worshipping silently in an ancient, lakeside temple, and I imagine it to be the most peaceful, spiritual place on Earth.

But when you visit a well known Hindu temple today, it falls short of that. It's ironic that while the intricate architecture of these temples remains the same, the mystical quality that I find even more intriguing than the architecture, has vanished in the herds of tourists.

Traditional dances have been altered, and routines that used to only happen on special occasions, now happen daily (8). In theory it's cool for us to have the opportunity to see these parts of their culture, but old-school Indonesians are worried that their traditions are being lost, and their sacred places tarnished (1).

Which brings up the economic angle:

Tourism has long overtaken agriculture as the number one income earner on the island (8). What were the Balinese to do? They saw an opportunity in the growth of tourism to increase the financial well-being of themselves and their families, and they took advantage of it. It's hard to blame anyone for that.

With tourist arrivals at an all time high, Bali's environment continues to get nailed in the following ways (8):

-Rapid, ill-planned development.-Loss of farmland to said development.-Tons and tons of extra waste.-Destruction of coral reefs.

-Scarcity of fresh water.

I've seen first hand the piles of trash, including all the plastic water bottles we drink, burning on the side of the road, spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than we know (9), because that's the only way that locals know how to get rid of it.

A Burning Predicament

Bare with me because this is might be a little hard to swallow.

The rate of deforestation taking place in Indonesia far exceeds that of the Amazon even though it's a fraction of the size (10). Controlled, industrial scale fires burn daily, all over the country, to clear land for mostly illegal pulp and palm oil plantations.Here are some fun facts (11):-They are the number one palm oil growing country in the world.-In the last 15 years, they've burnt more than 14 million acres of rainforest to the ground.-The majority of it is illegal but government officials are easily bribed and fail to properly regulate.-Most of the forests being burnt down are on peat soil, which releases about 6.5 times more CO2 into the atmosphere than the soil of the Amazon.-Innocent people constantly lose their land, receive little to no help from authorities, and get exposed to a ton of pollution which screws their health.-The cutest fucking orang-utans ever are going extinct.

-The point of no return, when the land being destroyed can no longer recover, is not far away.

If you just learned this for the first time, I know how much it sucks, so take a second if you need to...

Now let's move on because I'm not quite done, but before I am, I promise to at least toy around with the idea of a bright side.

About The Reefs

Coral reefs are an amazing, integral part of surfing. They're beautiful for snorkelling. They have lots of weird creatures attached to them. They feed, not to mention house, lots of different kinds of colorful fish. And among other things, they make a bunch of surfers around the world very happy when they produce good waves.

Again I find myself in the realm of a topic that warrant's an entire post on it's own, and I may elaborate on reefs more in the future, but for now let's look at the basics of what's happening.

When it comes to the coral reefs of Indonesia, which at the turn of the century had an economic value of US$1.6 billion per year, there is far more going on than meets the eye. Aside from attracting tourist dollars for surfing, diving and snorkelling, they provide jobs and food to countless Indonesians through fishing, and they host biochemicals with massive potential for future pharmaceutical innovation (12).

While many of us have heard of them being threatened, most of us don't know to what extent. Indonesia specifically has about 14% of the world's coral reef, and 70% of it (possibly more) is apparently endangered from overfishing and/or pollution (13).

70% is what I like to call a holy shit stat.

The Bright-ish Side

Even though it's basically one huge socio-political and environmental mess, the waves there are absolutely everything they are cracked up to be, and we as surfers have more opportunity than ever to go get 'em. At any point throughout the year, and given that you visit the appropriate region during a given season, you can still score the best waves (barrels) of your life.

Locals who are generally light-hearted and friendly, will welcome you and your dollars with open arms. Accommodations are comfortable and easy to find, and there are many other surfers around to share the good times with.

I hope that having read this, next time the topic of Indonesia comes up around the dinner table, you can speak more intelligently of the place with your friends. If and when you visit, you can do so in the most responsible way, with knowledge that allows you to have a better understanding of the people you meet, and your own personal impact of being there. And lastly, but not least, you can have a greater appreciation for the waves you get to surf, because there is a real possibility that they won't be around forever.

Sources:

1. Lee Chester: Indonesia History and Java Culture2. Surfline: Indonesia Regional Overview3. M.C. Ricklefs: The Future of Indonesia

2. Biography.com: Sukarno Biography

3. Robert Cribb and Michele Ford: The Killings of 1965-66

4. Central Intelligence Agency: The World Factbook

5. Badan Pusat Statistik: Central Bureau of Statistics of Indonesia

6. Pearson: The Impact of Tourism on Bali

7. Andrea Thompson: For Air Pollution, Trash Is a Burning Problem

8. Samuel Oakford: Indonesia Is Killing the Planet For Palm Oil

9. Vice: Episode 28

10. Lauretta Burke, Elizabeth Selig, & Mark Spalding: Reefs at Risk in Southeast Asia

11. Dirhamsyah: Analysis of the effectiveness of Indonesia's coral reef management framework