The Bali and Lombok Travel Forum was started in 1999 by a traveler,
Mark Austin, who fell in love with the island and its people.
Mark started BLTF and a direct reservations site (Bali
Hotels & Accommodations) when he found the existing
travel forum and reservation sites on the Internet failed
to meet his needs. Regarding his motivations for starting
BLTF, Mark believes that another Bali Travel Forum (and probably
all the other forums that have sprung up since) are used as
sales boards by their owners posting recommendations under
pseudonyms, pretending to be real tourists, for their own
commercial gain.
That is why BLTF shows the IP address of the poster on each
message. This does not identify the specific computer used
but the IP address of the Internet Service Provider that person
connected through. So it becomes easy to spot frauds posting
under different names.
Mark also wanted to run a forum which was dedicated more
to independent travelers who wanted to find the true Bali,
rather then for people who were simply out for a holiday in
the sun with cheap beer and western goods shopping trips;
although both are welcome in the hope the later will become
the former. Mark married Suci a young Balinese woman and who
now have 2 children together; a boy born in August 2002 and
a girl born in October 2005. Mark, Suci, Andrew and Francheska
are currently based in Northern Portugal, but lived in Phuket,
Thailand for a number of years. Mark was aware of police corruption
in Bali but originally, like many, passed it off just as being
a few dollars extorted from tourists in cars or on motor bikes
by police officers claiming they had committed a traffic violation
and demanded a spot fine (without receipt of course) or going
to court. Of course every tourist pays the "fine"
as no-one wants to spend hours, perhaps days of their holiday
in a court room in a case they can not win.
Mark's closer connections inevitably led him to find out
that many businesses, including hotels and travel agents in
Bali were operating unethically or even illegally. Also that
police and judicial corruption was rampant and extended way
beyond extorting a few dollars from hapless tourists on bikes.
Through BLTF Mark tried to fairly and conscientiously let
travelers know about bad business and what they were doing;
for example he named and shamed one hotel for saying it had
a swimming pool when it did not and another for describing
its tiny plunge pool as a swimming pool when the act of swimming
in it was a physical impossibility by anyone older than a
5 year old. One of Mark's pet hates is reservation sites who
offer false switch and bait hotel rates; that is an advertised
room rate that agent can not honor, which is fraudulently
shown in order to get customer's credit card details and thus
make people that enquire feel obligated to use that agent
when they report the hotel is full (when it most likely is
not). In September 2002 Mark discovered a travel agent, Bali
Discovery Tours of Sanur, were offering room rates on the
Internet which the hotel being promoted stated in writing
to him were unauthorized and resulted in this travel agent
being required to remove the unsustainable rates from their
web site.
Mark also had no hesitation in advising people on BLTF about
police corruption and the element of Bali's hospitality business
who routinely collude with corrupt police / judiciary and
who also commercial fraud. He is absolutely convinced there
is a direct correlation between having a great, truly Balinese
holiday and only using ethical Bali / Balinese friendly businesses.
Mark also believes the media (including clearly nepotistic
and uniformed travel guides and magazines who often do not
know a mango from a papaya and have even got hotels' names
mixed up) and many people too often get wrapped up in undeserved
sheep like (follow the leader) euphoric praise for what are
in reality, pretty lame hotels; all for the sake of being
a follower of fashion. He has stayed at many luxury hotels
around the world and is keen for people posting messages on
BLTF to forget about a hotel's name and reputation and make
fair comparison with other hotels they have stayed at. Mark
considers himself to be a traveler first, a businessman second,
and his "call a spade a spade" attitude does not
always ingratiate him with certain types in the travel industry
and Bali's corrupt police / judiciary.
In October 2002 Bali suffered a terrorist bomb attack. Despite
the fact Suci had only just given birth to their first child,
Mark immediately went to Bali as a sign of support and to
see Suci's family and their mutual friends. Mark felt safe
going despite prominent warnings by foreign governments against
travel to Indonesia because business contacts on the island
had told him that security in Bali was then the tightest anywhere
in the world. When Mark flew to Bali he was the only visitor
on the normally packed Air Singapore flight (the few other
people on the flight were returning Indonesians and foreign
residents); while many were telling others to support Bali
in its time of need, Mark was one of the very few that actually
did. When Mark came through Bali's virtually empty International
Airport arrivals area and subsequently when he visited one
of Bali's ferry ports he was appalled at what he saw; a total
lack of security and diligence by law enforcement officers.
Mark through BLTF and to his business contacts in Bali let
people know about this, as was his legal right and moral duty.
His message surprised some hoteliers in Bali as they had been
assured by the Indonesian authorities through the media that
security was now exceptionally good, but his observations
were very well received by his business contact email recipients
with many of them asking if they could take his text to forthcoming
security, tourism and local government meetings, for the benefit
of Bali and its guests.
The only person who reacted badly to this news from Mark
about lax security was one John M (AKA Jack) Daniels, the
principle director of Bali Discovery Tours; he only got a
copy of Mark's well intentioned email because another well
meaning person sent him it. Mr. Daniels watched BLTF closely
and when he saw Mark was coming to Bali again he filed a complaint
with a senior police officer contact of his about the email
(i.e. he used unlawful collusion AKA corruption to file a
false and malicious complaint against Mark clearly in revenge
for the previous hotel rate issue). Mark was subsequently
unlawfully questioned and detained. It is a recorded fact
that the email was mistranslated into Indonesian, that the
police acted outside their authority (not under any criminal
code) and jurisdiction (on something written outside Indonesia),
unlawfully seized Mark's passport (Indonesian law says you
have to charge someone to take their passport) and unlawfully
detained him (the police detained Mark longer than permitted
by Indonesian law). It was only after the British Embassy
ordered the British Consulate to intervene did the police
give Mark his passport back and let him go. It was made perfectly
clear to Mark both then and several times later by the police
that he needed to refrain from saying anything bad about them,
even if it were true and was his legal right, or they would
make his life hell.
Once Mark left Bali he published the facts about Daniels
/ Bali Discovery Tours and about how the police acted unlawfully
against him. Daniels has continued to collude with corrupt
police officers against Mark ever since, and the police have
continued to act unlawfully against him; their actions escalating
in severity. Mark has continued to report corruption in Bali
and do what he can to help others avoid becoming victims of
Bali's corrupt police officers and rid the island of this
cancer. Bali's mafia police have even tried to entrap Mark
by formally telling his Balinese lawyer that there were no
pending or active investigations into him, while all the time
harboring a secret file against Mark (initiated by Daniels
of Bali Discovery Tours, which he publicly boasted that the
police would keep sealed, confirming collusion and more) which
they intended to act upon if they ever managed to get their
hands on him again. This was proven when Daniels finally had
to divulge the file number so Mark's lawyer was able to confront
the police officer involved. Over six months after the file
was created, the officer was forced into progressing it into
an official investigation in an attempt to cover his own unlawful
acts.
In late December 2003 Mark received a telephone death threat
at his home in Phuket after an unlawful investigation conducted
by Daniels / Bali Discovery Tours' agents in Thailand who
used fraud to find out Mark's home address and phone number.
Attempts to trace the phone call failed due to Thailand's
antiquated telephone system having no logging ability except
to say the call came from either Bangkok or overseas. In January
2004 Mark's lawyer in Bali forced a corrupt Balinese police
officer's hand and Mark was subsequently summoned for a police
investigation for allegedly saying bad things about Daniels
/ Bali Discovery Tours on the Internet; though why this is
a police matter no one has yet explained of course. However,
in addition, some of the criminal code cited by the police
officer was for spying, which carries a maximum penalty of
death by firing squad or hanging. The summons was therefore
unlawfully made as the stated criminal code and reason for
investigation were incompatible, but the code has been interpreted
as a mistake which shows the corrupt police officer's real
intentions. Consequently and in respect to the telephone death
threat and other facts which can not be disclosed publicly
yet, Mark's specialist lawyers in England have confirmed he
has sufficient grounds to file a human rights case against
the Indonesian Authorities if and when their government finally
signs up to / ratifies the International Convention on Human
Rights as they repeatedly say they will, but have failed to
each time.
If that were not bad enough, the Balinese police unlawfully
placed an Interpol watch order on Mark as a suspected insurgent
/ terrorist, which of course is a "joke" but not
when it actually happens to you. Mark is currently taking
multiple legal measures, including a formal complaint against
the Indonesian police for abusing Interpol's automated reporting
system under their anti-corruption mandate, plus formal complaints
to the Indonesian Corruption Commission and has vowed to put
Daniels and his colluding, corrupt police officer friends
in jail. You can read his full story here: Bali
Discovery. Obviously Mark now has joined the growing rank
of people who are determined to bring justice to corrupt police
of Bali / Indonesia and believes his story gives other travelers
both reason to take care when dealing with the Balinese police
and to avoid people or businesess in Bali that contribute
to the problem. You see the problem of corruption is not just
about the Balinese mafia police making a few dollars, it is
about murder, human and civil rights abuse against the people
of and visitors to Bali, plus the economic suppression of
the Balinese that results from judicial / police corruption.
Mark / BLTF believes travelers not only get a better deal
and much better experience by their only dealing with 100%
ethical, Balinese friendly tourism businesses (hotels, villas,
travel agents, tour operators, etc.), but by practicing true
responsible tourism holiday makers are also helping make Bali
a better place for everyone except the corrupt.
BLTF is not alone in its disgust at what has and is happening
to the former paradise island, it only takes a quick Internet
search for phrases such as "boycott bali", "bali
corruption", "bali lawyers", "bali police"
etc. to to see that. When BLTF started off it had nothing
but "BLTF loves Bali and the Balinese" pages and
linked to other, mostly smaller and personal web sites by
people who shared this love for the island. It is all telling
however that when Mark decided to make BLTF a full on "Avoid
corruption / only do business with the good guys in Bali"
site and looked at the sites BLTF had previously linked to
when deciding who to link to now (BLTF now only links to 100%
ethical, 100% legal businesses / web sites now), many had
either gone or had replaced their "I love Bali"
content with "Boycott Bali" messages, such as the
once charming and rich content, pro-Bali site by Geoff Teague
(click
here to see his Bali site now).
So should you boycott Bali? Many people say Mark / BLTF is
for a total boycott but the truth is here: Boycott
Bali?
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