Sensationalist media would have you think that Bali is mere moments away from hurdling into an alcohol free-zone.
With Aussie sources leading the charge, alarmist headlines gracing the press like “Bali might ban this and it will change the way we travel” and “What, no Bintang? Fears over Bali booze ban” make it sound like the Bintangs are about to ripped from the innocent hands of Aussie tourists, who darnit, have a serious right to party on this “holiday island.” Oy oy oy, indeed.
First off, we feel we should remind folks that Bali is part of a larger country called Indonesia, so it wouldn’t be Bali banning anything in this scenario. And second of all, even if the Indonesian nationwide alcohol prohibition were to go through (which seems highly unlikely), Bali would probably be exempt. It’s not that the media isn’t aware of these facts—many of them address these points further down in their articles—but the way they’re framing their stories would have people who only catch the headlines, thinking otherwise.
It seems like this narrative was triggered by a Jakarta Post article, fairly discussing how the bill, proposed by Islamist parties PPP and PKS would ban drinks with an alcoholic content of 1 to 55 percent. The article quoted the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association as saying that the bill would have a detrimental effect on Indonesian tourism.
Fast forward and we’ve got headlines up the wazoo, targeted at Western tourists, signaling the end of holidays in Bali as the government could ban alcohol.
One of the more recent political developments on the bill is that legislators couldn’t even muster up the support to pass it in July, as they had been planning. Seems promising, ya?
And even if somehow this bill made its way into law, with Bali’s mega tourism industry, the island would likely get an exemption as it did with Indonesia’s 2015 ban of beer being sold in minimarkets.
