Suharto-era response to 'gigolo' film has Bali reeling

Something is wrong on the Island of the Gods.

The popular resort destination of Bali should be abuzz with optimism as it heads into its annual peak season with expectations to set a new record for tourist arrivals.

But the island's collective attention has been diverted by two vastly different police investigations that have people up in arms and are causing unwanted media attention. The first involves the continuing search for a suspect in a series of rapes of young Balinese girls in recent months. Police have arrested two other suspects, and the case has not had any affect on the tourism industry, both foreign and domestic.

The other police investigation, however, might very well give Bali's image a black eye. The island scarcely needs that, given how two terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005 ravaged its tourism industry, forcing it to claw all the way back to achieve a record 2.1 million visitors last year.

Last month, a documentary by Singapore-based writer and director Amit Virmani called Cowboys in Paradise premiered at a film festival in South Korea, and its trailer was uploaded onto YouTube. The file profiles tanned, muscular Balinese surfer boys who speak candidly about their escapades with foreign women, made possible by their charming demeanour and pick-up lines in multiple foreign languages.

Media reports then began describing them using the 'G' word - gigolo - sending the Bali Governor's Office and the provincial police into a rage. They launched a full-scale criminal investigation against Virmani using a film law from the authoritarian regime of the late dictator Suharto, and last week were seeing if Interpol would help to extradite Virmani to Indonesia to stand trial.