Kuta, Bali – The Bali bombs of 2002 and 2005 confirmed local conventional wisdom: bad things on the island come from Java. The 2005 bombings not only revived the slump in tourism, which accounts for at least 40 percent of Bali’s economy, but exacerbated ancient animosities as well.

But while other parts of Indonesia have descended into savage violence, partly because of the discredited and deposed Suharto regime’s transmigration policy—the world’s largest resettlement project, which moved Javanese, Balinese, Madurese and others to outlying islands—Bali has remained mostly peaceful.

Read the entire article here,  and some discussion of it on  Indonesia Matters here.