Saturday 2 May 2009

Villa Ixora Bali – Balinese villas with a nasty scent.

Villa Ixora Bali – Balinese villas with a nasty scent.
By Bali BS News
Aug 29, 2005, 09:21


Villa Ixora is owned by Javanese Julia (Yulia) and her expat husband who works in Jakarta. Julia sent us a number of emails which clearly showed her rage at our web site and articles, stating that her two children work in International 5 star hotels. What clearly shone through with Julia though was her obvious conformity with the stereotypes often made against Indonesians about their attitudes to others. She referred to her own husband as a “Bule” (literal: albino), a derogatory term given to Caucasians, much the same way as the name “Nigger” was given to people of African decent. She used the term also more than once! But wait until you hear what she said about poor Harry Bleckert (read our article about the nastier side of Bali WiFi). You may remember Harry’s Balinese wife has been unlawfully imprisoned for some time without charge, while Harry and their daughter were forced to flee Bali after the Indonesian President’s Corruption Reduction Commission agreed the police should be investigated for their actions, when the police said his complaint constituted Criminal Libel against them and then went about trying to imprison him (Indonesia has no witness protection program and the police are a law unto themselves).

Villa Ixora Bali owner Julia said “(about) the Internet provider (Candi Internet). I know about this from other sources. Fact is that a large part of the problems was created by this German " Entrepreneur " (Harry Bleckert) himself. Have a look at his past and his business interest in other countries in Asia.” Julia also said Harry was “behaving like an elephant in a glass house”. Of course, filing a corruption complaint with the correct legal authority against police officers who unlawfully closed his business down at the apparent bequest of a competitor is akin to behaving like an elephant is it Julia? So Julia clearly does not believe corruption should be reigned in.

With regard to her allegations over Harry’s other business practices past and present, we looked hard but could find nothing. We asked Harry Bleckert about this, and he did not understand why or who would say such a thing. He said that he never had any other businesses in Asia and he had never done anything untoward. In fact, he did everything he could to help and support Bali with his post terrorist attack Bali SOS work (see our report: Bali SOS). So we emailed Julia at Villa Ixora Bali and asked her to put up proof of these defamatory remarks about poor Harry or we would publish a story about her, her villa (Villa Ixora Bali) and the fact she was obviously part of a smear campaign (as she had said “I know about this from other sources”). Did Julia put up any evidence that showed Harry in bad light? Did she even argue her position? Oh no, she sent the following reply email;

Dear customer,
We have no booking from you or from Harry Bleckerrt and can not pass on your
message. Has he have a reservation? Ibu Yulia is not operational here.
Kind regards
Customer Service

Of course we replied and informed Julia masquerading now as Villa Ixora’s “Customer Service” that we had legal proof by token of email exchanges that she was at that email address. Also that Julia (Yulia) is likely no “Ibu” (a salutation that shows respect to a woman – strange how Julia needs to refer to herself as Ibu Yulia). So then “Customer Service” replied “Cukup tidak mau lagi!!” (“I have had enough already” – which most people will understand is not within the mandate of a Customer Service employee to write, especially as we only had one earlier email signed “Customer Service”), and stated their computer and email address (display name “Ixora”) was used by many different people (quote: friends, neighbours, guests and “visitors”) 24 hours a day. Amazing, so Villa Ixora is left open all day and night for all and sundry to enter, on an island known for excessive crimes, especially burglaries, so people can access Villa Ixora’s Internet PC (although they do not mention such lax security arrangements or such public access on their web site of course). Plus send out emails in Ixora Villa’s name using Ixora Villa’s own email account, so people sending reservation requests to Ixora Villas could have their emails read and replied to by a burglar!

We believe Julia exemplifies the truly annoying nature of middle class Indonesians and certain expats alike on Bali. Not only are they commonly nasty in business, but they are also too often compulsive liars, even when they have been caught out. Julia of Ixora Villas is hardly alone in Bali when she lies so blatantly and then attempts to defend the indefensible with further spoilt brat like falsehoods. We believe Bali’s “rat pack” of conniving business people do such things both to claim some childish form of exoneration, perhaps even with bad intent such as to make a police complaint, plus they mainly do it to be outright annoying in the self-dillussionment that they are also somehow being clever. This supposed cream of Bali’s business community actually acting pretty much the same as adolescent ghetto thugs do in western society.

Clearly Ixora Villa’s owner performed the age old Indonesian business person’s ritual of committing an almost knee jerk cheap defamation against someone whose problems may even just remotely cause them some form of business loss. That is; “The horrible story of Harry Bleckert’s family and business woes at the hands of corrupt Balinese police officers might affect our precious business, so let’s call him a crook and say he deserves it.” People like Julia make it clear what it is like to do business in Bali, especially with middle class Indonesians and many expats. Hopefully it does not take much to imagine how they treat anyone and everyone if they stoop as low as to maliciously kick a man they do not even know while he is down by manner of such malicious falsehoods, solely for a second’s whimsical subconsious belief that such actions are self-serving. Read more about the nature and fractured groups in Bali in our report: Bali Social Issues (an island divided).

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