Balinese Police – Bali the most lawless place on earth

By Ahmad Subarkah and Erwin Chahara
Feb 25, 2008, 06:15

Bali's chief crime scene detective: The murderer knew Heidi. Um, they did not take anything. Um, it was a lewd act gone wrong. Um, oh ask the AFP, I can not even find my own banana! The USA, Britain and Australia pour how many millions into Indonesian police training?! Well I never see any of it and I deny selling reporters Heidi's personal items.

Bali’s police have to be the largest criminal syndicate on the island, with the Golkar political party’s youth wing with their narcotics and prostitution rackets second, and the TNI (armed forces) with their illegal alcohol and protection rackets third. But even allowing for the fact Indonesians only join the police force in order to extort money from victims, confirmed by the fact they themselves have to pay large bungs (bribes) to be accepted into the ranks to the most hated government institution in Indonesia. But even allowing for the fact, because of truly endemic corruption, they receive less law enforcement training then western traffic wardens. But even allowing for the fact all of the resources poured into the Indonesian police by western governments in their so called “War on Terror” going to “Brimob” police units who ultimately suppress and murder civilians seeking a better life (independence), not hunt down terrorists; proven by the fact the Indonesian terrorist group JI / Jemaah Islamiah have not been outlawed by Jakarta. Even allowing for the fact the Balinese police are nothing more then lazy thieving crooks. You would have thought, given all the hashes and balls ups the Polda Bali have painfully emitted in recent years, such as man-handling the evidence in the Schapelle Corby case which destroyed the fingerprint evidence which likely would have proven her innocence or guilt, you would have thought that the Balinese police would have learnt some lessons, be able to conduct something resembling a credible police investigation! But oh no, the Heidi Murphy murder gives credence to the age old insult “You could teach monkeys to do a better job then that!”

Heidi Murphy, an apparently good hearted hippy Australian entrepreneur was savagely murdered in her bed, that we all know, but let us not forget the series of gaffs both investigative and reported by the Balinese police which show them for exactly what they are; useless, clueless, inhumane thugs in uniform; one of the main reasons why Bali is such an unsafe place and why the true extent of crime in Bali never, ever gets reported. It is not just the fact Indonesians fail to report crimes to the police because their officers will then use this to commit further crimes against them; vis a vis the old Indonesian expression “Report a stolen chicken, lose a cow”. Nor because the fact the Indonesian authorities and government lie wholesale about crime in their nation [sic] as it is bad for business, as illustrated by the police’s blurt that they were surprised Heidi Murphy did not employ security guards as most western expatriates do in Bali; some low crime rate paradise! But one of the main reasons crime in Bali does not get brought to the western public’s attention is because it is conducted by the police and other state run and / or sponsored organizations themselves. But if one silver lining can come from the frenzied murder of Heidi Murphy, it is a catalogue of events and statements which show us what a nasty and useless bunch of banana eaters the Balinese police truly are.

First of all came the police statement that whoever killed 34 year old Heidi must have known her because there was no sign of a break in. They even suggested the murder could have been because Heidi owed money, which was a particularly typical nasty falsehood as it transpired she was an exceptionally kind person and prompt payer of bills. Plus of course the fact that she was discovered by builders who could not gain access to Heidi’s villa in Canggu to do some work as arranged, so jumped over the wall and discovered her body was somehow lost to the police, that the murderer quite likely did the same thing. Second came the fact that after years and years of investigating crime scenes and being lambasted for lack of their basic policing discipline, the Balinese police somehow still have not cottoned onto the fact you isolate crime scenes until experts arrive to preserve evidence, not walk around touching and trampling over everything, chests puffed out, hands on hips, revolver covers open, making pathetic exclamations as they apparently did yet again. Then came the clear inference that the police had both missed vital clues and allowed reporters access to the crime scene, or had taken a bung from western reporters to gain access to evidence when the Sydney Morning Herald tastelessly reported in this case they had “discovered a journal of love poems, which was confiscated by police”.

Of course the dubious and highly insensitive actions of the Balinese mafia police and cream of western reporters [sic] was not disguised or made any better by token of the fact the SMH (Sydney Mutts & Hacks?) published one of poor Heidi’s private poems describing herself as being “stripped naked and waiting”; the day after she was murdered for all of her friends, acquaintances and family to read. SMH's classy [sic] Bali reporter Mark Forbes, who has declined to answer our questions regarding his alleged financial interests in Bali, defended himself in an email to us basically admitting it was his theory this might have been a sex game gone wrong; "My assistant there spotted the journal and pointed it out to police, they said they were not interested (I think their English reading skills were not great). They had talked about their theory on the murder and after she read out some of the contents to them they then decided it was relevant evidence."

Mark Forbes AKA Sherlock Holmes claims he did not pay the police to enter the crime scene and man handle material which might contain fingerprint evidence; “Unlike some, we never pay bribes (even in Indonesia).” but has thus far eluded to name the reporters who do! When asked by us about whether he or any other SMH staff were now disgusted at what they published, to us a wacko theory designed to be nothing more than false sensationalism targeted at a moronic audience, published words which really must have deeply hurt Heidi Murphy’s friends and relatives, he replied “I'm not disgusted with what we published, it was based on what the police were saying”; the operative word being “based”. We understand Heidi's mother was understandably made very much more distraught then she was already at news of her daughter’s death by the rancid comments being spewed out by western hacks. Mark Forbes’ colleague in Sydney Alex Tibbitts admitting he was “struggling to fit in quotes from Heidi's mother” to SMH’s valiant news coverage on her daughter’s death, although we can only wonder what comments she made to Alex as they appear not to have been published!

Shame then on the Balinese police and western gutter hack media for falsely pandering to allegations of some perverted sexual act claiming Heidi was naked (who does not sleep "eu naturel" in the tropics) and may have been gagged when she was murdered, as subsequently dismissed by the poor girl’s mother. At least SMH can pride themselves that they did not sink as low as the local Balinese press who described Heidi as a “bule”, a derogatory term used for a Caucasian; nice! What a disgusting nasty world we live in; no thanks to Bali’s boys in brown and callous reporters who possibly even probably would be in jail now if they got up to such acts in their own country.

Then we heard the Balinese dummy police tell the world that nothing was taken from Heidi Murphy’s villa and that no knives were missing from her kitchen, so the assailant had to have brought his own knife to kill her. Well, how many people reading this would know if one of their own kitchen knives went missing or not? So how would the Balinese police know if one of Heidi’s kitchen knives were missing or not? The answer is, they would not, the Balinese just showed yet again they open their jaws and fill in the empty hot air as it escapes their clueless mouths as they bungle along. Subsequent news then that someone had been caught in Java with Ms Murphy’s mobile phone and laptop computer shows the Balinese police wouldn’t have known whether anything had been stolen or not unless the robber had been kind enough to leave an IOU note; what utter imbeciles.

Surely though, the Indonesian police are to be congratulated for catching someone with Heidi’s electronic equipment? Eh, no, you see it was not the Indonesian police that actually caught the person. Yes, the Indonesian police arrested the man, one Nuryanto Din Sudar at a central Javanese bus station, but it was the Australian Federal Police assisted by the CIA with their permanently parked spy satellite over Indonesia that actually nailed the fellow. Oh yes, and if ever one story demanded another, this is just such a case.

Shortly after the Balinese police had destroyed the crime scene and created a PR nightmare (bad for business), news came that two AFP officers were to “assist” the Balinese police in hunting down those responsible for Heidi Murphy’s murder. Of course, drowning in failing self-esteem the Balinese police went on and on about how AFP officers were simply there to lend assistance if required and could not themselves lead the investigation, they somehow left out the realities of the case; without real (foreign) police officers to do their job for them yet again, the Bali plod had less than a snowball in hell’s chance of ever finding the murderer(s) in what ultimately seems a very simple case. What is perhaps interesting is hapless Nuryanto Din Sudar was caught exactly the same way Bali’s bombers were caught and with it the complicity of western governments in aiding and abetting wholesale human rights abuse in Indonesia.

You see, once the AFP officers had found the crime scene to be damaged beyond repair with western reporter and Balinese police fingerprints plus boot marks everywhere, they had only to establish that Heidi’s mobile phone was missing to realize this was likely, in fact, to be a robbery gone wrong by stupid Indonesian thieves that did not know mobile phone signals can be pinpointed, although not by Indonesian police, that’s for sure. Although the murderer apparently sold Heidi’s phone afterwards, he made the mistake of calling his accomplice from it. When the AFP got the dummy Bali plod, who thought nothing was missing (duh) to contact the phone company, they were able to come up with the number the murderer called on Heidi's phone. In the same way the Bali bombers (Amrozi Bin Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron AKA “Mukhlas” and Imam Samudra) were caught; the AFP obtained the accomplice’s mobile phone number, had the phone company report which land transmitter it last used (giving a vague geographical area), passed this all to the CIA who then monitored around that area using their satellite for this mobile’s specific signal and Bingo! Having pinpointed where this mobile was to within a few centimeters the CIA were able to talk the two AFP officers in to the person carrying that phone for the Indonesian police to arrest and claim all the glory for.

But “Hold on!” you say, “If the CIA and AFP can nab someone as easily as this, how come our governments are pouring money and resources into the Indo police, especially the so-called anti-terrorist police in Indonesia? What is the point? Where is all the money going?” Ah, but there is the nasty other truth about all of this. Western governments know crime is endemic in Indonesia. They know the Indonesian police are inept at best through corruption, at worst a large and direct part of the crime problem. They (the USA, Britain, Australia and maybe others) provide so called “soft loans” (loans that fund arms / training and likely will never be paid back) and other covert / dishonest funding to these crooks, because this loophole permits them to feed the corrupt state of Indonesia in return for favours for their armament mining and oil companies, plus of course ensure western friendly Indonesia remains an ally. Actually, the money they pour in gets stolen or worse, used by the very nasty Indonesian “Brimob” anti-terrorist (lies) police to hunt down and murder regional separatists seeking nothing but their legal rights, and with them innocent civilians. So the story of Heidi Murphy actually opens up a greater murder story and with it reason to keep away from Indonesia and do something about the duplicitous politicians back home who fund state murder overseas because they can currently get away with it.

Most westerners do not realize Heidi is just the tip of the iceberg though. As reported by the Jakarta Post in that same week an Australian and a Philippino tourist were murdered in Ubud. As reported nowhere, numerous Indonesians and Balinese were murdered that week in Bali at the hands of the police, the local mafia (Golkar youth party), local vigilantes appointed by the police to enforce the law [sic] in villages, the odd hit by a business or love rival (normally involving an off duty police officer to perform the assassination – the same week Heidi was murdered an improvised hand grenade was thrown at a car in Bali), and even the odd TNI murder; well, they murder civilians in large numbers elsewhere in Indonesia so do not believe Bali is somehow exempt. Truly, what a cesspit Bali actually is; unless you are an uncaring holidaymaker enjoying some smiling Balinese subservience and lucky enough not to become yet another victim. Just because your own governments and self serving media (we wonder how many western reporters have villas or other financial interests in Bali) put your safety at risk and make fools out of you by pandering to Indonesia’s Freudian need to be held as a real democratic country with low crime rate and effective police, these lies do not mean you have to ignore the facts and make fools and possible victims of yourselves.

We said earlier that Heidi Murphy’s murder was probably a simple crime, nothing too taxing for a decent, honest, diligent police officer, if only you could find one in Bali. And it seems this is true with news then Heidi was apparently the victim of an attempted roadside robbery, just yards away from her home a few weeks before. Shame the Balinese mafia police couldn’t have asked a few questions before coming up with their theories of lewd acts gone wrong, etc. Seems the roadside robbers would have been able to seen where poor Heidi ran to for shelter, her home. Of course because the Balinese police do nothing except contribute to crime, these men probably went on with impunity and perhaps the occasional police bribe to commit yet more crime, even Heidi’s murder.

So we all should be sorry for Heidi and her family but at the same time grateful her death was not in vain, that we can tell the story of how the Balinese police make Bali such a nasty, dangerous place to be. In the hope others will stay away from the island until a real government is in place which exercises the only option to turn around a wholly corrupt constabulary along with the judicial filth that supports them; replace the lot of them. After all, how can anyone ever enforce the law if they originally paid an illegal bribe in order to join the force in order to extort money from victims? That should be a problem alone for the Balinese / Indonesians, not decent everyday people like Heidi Murphy. Let us all learn a lesson; stay away from Bali, boycott anything and everything Indonesian until Bali’s police officers are all where they belong; behind bars, not in them.