Let's Not Forget Bali.(terrorism)

Raslan is a Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer and columnist.

This time last year the world was recovering from the shock of the World Trade Center attacks, and New York was getting back on its feet. But New York--the world's premier financial, business and media center- -wasn't expected to recover from the tragedy of 9-11 on its own: an outpouring of support, both moral and economic, came when it was needed most. And, slowly but steadily, the city began to right itself. Visitors came in droves to show their support--and shop, filling the sidewalks in SoHo and the storefronts along Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Actors, singers, musicians and virtually anyone who'd ever appeared in People magazine declared their undying love for Manhattan. Even hardheaded businessmen and think-tankers gave in to the moment: Klaus Schwab moved the World Economic Forum from its familiar home in Davos, Switzerland, to the Waldorf-Astoria in an act of solidarity.

But, two months after the bombings in Bali, the silence here is almost deafening. Where are the Bali boosters? No one in London or New York has talked about rallying around a scarred Bali, a deeply traumatized Indonesia or even a shaken Southeast Asia. When New York is attacked, the world must wear its grief on its sleeve. But when bombs go off in Bali, Mombasa or the streets of another Third World city, we are expected to move on without a backward glance. For Indonesians, especially the more Westernized elite, the absence of sympathy has been galling. "Last year we were all New Yorkers," says Rizal Mallarangeng, the director of the Freedom Institute in Jakarta. "Now that we've been targeted, the West is ...