Mark Andrew Austin; Bali, my story

About me ("Nasty Mark") and Bali

2009-08-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

My name is Mark Andrew Austin, my wife is Balinese, I used to operate a bespoke travel service for Bali and also owned an eco-friendly luxury villa resort on the north of the so called 'Paradise Island". I felt the need to publish my blog after years of abuse by the Indonesian state plus defamation and lies against me by some of the human garbage which inhabits one of the most corrupt and human rights abusing countries in the world. An island infamous for sheltering criminals on the run from the west and human abusers such as pedophiles as it is famous for being a cheap tropical vacation destination.

Like most people who get involved with Bali, it started off for me with a holiday. Having read up on the negatives of resort areas like Kuta, I decided to do "walkabout" around the island to find the real paradise. After a couple of trips from my native England, I started a part time hotel reservations "business" (dealing primarily with hotels I had "discovered" and loved) and travel forum in 1998. I have been very "vocal" about what I found and loved in Bali, but also equally about aspects of the island I disliked, reporting bad practices about certain Indonesian travel agents and about which hotels I felt offered appalling value. This put me in conflict with a number of hoteliers, agents and tourists; the later who felt the need to be devoted to and thereby stalwart defenders of certain hotels. For example, after having stayed at most of the so called luxury hotels in and learned the sordid history of Nusa Dua, I said then and I say now that anyone staying at one of these hotels is not staying in Bali, are getting poor value for their dollars and with it actually supporting the oppression of the Balinese people.

All was not bad, much was good, but the great was hard to find and I wanted to share everything with my fellow travelers. Unfortunately the Indonesian state via their very nasty, corrupt and human rights abusing police in Bali (e.g. Manfred Nowak, the senior UN human rights monitor has stated the Balinese police have shot and beaten people simply to torture them while in custody) has ensured I can no longer go to Bali to support the small bespoke Balinese businesses. So this blog is about the bad in Bali; at least some of the bad as there is so much.

After the 2002 terrorist bombings in Kuta and the economic blight afflicting the Balinese that ensued, I donated all of the money I made from my reservations business to some of the worst affected Balinese sent home without pay, redundancy or social security. After the 2004 terrorist bombings, days after I had opened a luxury villa resort, I provided free accommodation both at those villas and via my reservations site (using the commissions earned from the hotels) to bomb victims and their families; I believe I was the only accommodations provider and / or reservations site owner to do this, the other free accommodation for victims and their families being paid for by charities. And yet, somehow, a little group of people started calling me "nasty Mark"; I believe "Freud" says enough.

In 2002 I was unlawfully detained by the Balinese police and threatened with execution for being a spy! The British Embassy in Jakarta had to intervene to secure my and my passport's release. The police action was ordered by the then police chief himself, Budi Setywan, after an aggrieved business competitor (named in one of my previous travel agent scam warnings), Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours filed a police "complaint" with Setywan about an email I had sent to a hotel, which was then broadcast to some of the Balinese tourism community by a well-intentioned third party. My email simply criticized airport security and police inaction in Bali after I made a trip to the island directly after the attack, in the hope something could be done to help remedy the situation. The police said this constituted spying and helping the terrorists as they would then know security was bad! A joke? Yes, but a very sick one.

After I left Bali I exercised my civil and human rights by publishing the facts of my unlawful detention, naming Jack Daniels as the complainant. Unfortunately for me I did not understand Indonesian law in that, although I was outside their jurisdiction when I wrote and published what I did, the Indonesian police and judiciary are so corrupt they receive money to hold extreme interpretations of the law, you need the permission of another person in Indonesia to say bad things about them (even if those things are true) or it is considered defamation, and finally libel is a criminal offense in Indonesia. So you can not say anything truthful about another (more influential) person which they do not like, or you will go to jail. So next time anyone publishes an account of how bad they thought their hotel was in Bali, they may want to remember that hotel can have them arrested for criminal libel if they ever return to the island! It is not likely to happen because of the bad publicity and business it would bring, but the fact remains it legally can happen and with it indicates what the people themselves of Indonesia have to endure.

From that time the Balinese police have set out, initially paid for with corruption money (bribes) from Jack Daniels, to "get" me. As I found out what they were doing, all of it totally unlawful, I published the facts and with that the Balinese police got involved against me personally. As I reported their unlawful acts, they grew increasingly determined to not just arrest and harm me, but recently also to kill me.

In 2004 armed Thai gangsters tried to kill me at our home in Phuket. I found out afterwards they had been paid for by my nasty business competitor in Bali after he received details from the Balinese police as to my whereabouts in Thailand. I also later found out how the Balinese police knew my whereabouts; they had placed an automated watch order against me with Interpol, claiming I was a suspected terrorist! The Thai immigration were then obliged to feed the regional Interpol HQ with my data, which was passed onto the Balinese police, who then gave it to the man who wanted to kill me. I truly believe if it were not for the kindness of a local police officer in Phuket I had come to know, I would now be dead. A police officer in Bali afterwards boasted about and showed the Interpol file on me to various people, plus stated that the then police chief Made Pastika, the current governor of Bali authorized the watch order after receiving $3000 USD as a corruption bribe / bung from Jack Daniels.

So my wife, young son and I fled to Europe where we now live and I continue to tell the world about what happened to me, and what goes on in Bali. Some friends in Indonesia asked me long ago why I simply did not pay the police to leave me alone and even take revenge on people like Daniels, but the fact is I am not prepared to pay a single cent to a bent Bali cop acting unlawfully against me. Yes, publishing the truth has cost me more money, but my conscience is clear and my standards / honour preserved. But this has cost me dearly, not just with the mafia law enforcement agency of Bali.

In harmony with the unlawful even criminal police actions against me, certain people in Bali have deemed it their place to "work" with Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours and the police against me, because they do not like what I publish or rather what they claim I publish. The Balinese police have provided them with scans of my passport and even credit card details (which the police got from a hotel I stayed at) and these have been widely circulated on the Internet to try and intimidate me, to try and make sure I do not come back to Bali, Indonesia or even SE Asia, and to defraud me; thousands of dollars were stolen from my credit card using the information and passport scans provided by the Balinese police.

These people are all anti-Balinese. As I was no longer able to travel to Bali as Mark Andrew Austin to promote Balinese and Balinese friendly hotels, and because I was worried about the consequences of retaining a commercial operation for Bali, I turned my reservations business over to charitable work; that is every penny it (Travel Ethos) made from direct reservation commissions was paid directly by the hotels / villas to a children's charity in Bali. The "end of the line" came for me when one of the nasty people of Bali, Roy Thompson in Ubud, started publishing false statements that this charitable aspect was a con, that I was still taking the hotel commissions and in doing so was defrauding the charity. Despite the fact from early 2007 the hotels and villas only ever paid commissions earned by my reservations site directly to the charity's nominated bank account, and that it was only the needy children who benefited from the charity who would suffer economically from such malicious lies, the dregs of Bali deemed it acceptable to publish this hate in an attempt to get at me. And that is what Indonesia is all about, a cockroach of a country in which the parasites of society not just survive but thrive.

My name is Mark Andrew Austin, the so-called "Nasty Mark of Bali" and these are my blogs / substantiated stories about some of the human garbage that infests Bali. The people I name here claim I fabricated everything, that the police investigations against me never happened, that nothing wrong was done to me, that I am a mad hatter and made everything up. So here I show police documents and other evidence to prove what I say is the truth, and that there is sufficient evidence to expect those named here are investigated and even jailed, including several senior police officers past and present, including the Governor of Bali, Made Pastika.

Dr. John Cooke - Bali / California / France - Scum Bag

2009-08-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

I say Dr. John Cooke of Bali, California and France "fame" is a defrauding scum bag. Please read the story here: Bali Children's Project.

My company arranged for thousands of dollars in donations to his "charity" which he directed go to his Balinese girlfriend's, the charity's operational manager's personal account "to save on bank charges". That money clearly never went to the charity / needy children. Thousands of dollars went to his bit of fluff in Bali.

Anyone think John Cooke is a good guy? So consider;
1) He has refused like a thief caught out to so much as reply to me about the problem.
2) The Bali Children's Project has not thanked me or the donors for the money; it appears the co-directors know what goes on and are probably involved in this / their own fraudulent scams themselves.
3) John Cooke refuses to provide proof that the money, thousands of dollars, went where it was intended.
4) John Cooke concocted a story for third parties that I had been asked to cease supporting the charity months before, though I never was and he can not show anything to substantiate this. In fact, at the time John Cooke now claims a termination letter was sent to me (no copy letter provided, no proof of posting provided, no signed for receipt - because I never received it of course, no reason for wanting me to stop getting the charity money, no explanation why John Cooke simply did not email me), I have an email from him thanking me for my work and gratefully approving a project I was working on to promote our relationship further.
5) Even if Cooke had sent me a termination letter, which he clearly did not, this does not explain why his girlfriend continued to accept donations for the charity into her bank account.
6) Dr. John Cooke, in order to try and cover his own nasty backside, to try and sustain his untenable pride and false piety, then went on to support someone who accused me of stealing the charity money for myself, when I could not as I am not in nor have an active bank account any more in Bali and the donations were paid directly to his "operational manager's" account. The money I / my UK company arranged for others to donate I could have taken for myself legally and legitimately anyway, as my company earned it (we got the people in Bali we earned it from to pay the Bali Children's Project instead, or so we thought), so why would I steal it?! I would not, it is crazy (especially as the facts are documented), but still, to be accused of stealing from a children's charity when I was actually financially supporting it tells you everything you really need to know about Dr. John Cooke and his friends.

If you want to contact him, Dr. John Cooke's published details are;
Château d'Alogny
86270 Lésigny-sur-Creuse
France
05 49 20 29 70

The Bali Children's Project
PO Box 171
Dutch Flat CA 95714
530 389-2167

After I filed a complaint against Dr. Cooke with the California Attorney General's office which clearly went nowhere because of the volume of complaints they receive about fraudulent charitable trusts in California (and possibly jurisdiction issues), I decided my last chance to have John Cooke face up privately for what he had done was to write to him and the Bali Children's Project in Bali warning I would publish the facts and name him as a fraudster if he did not reply. If there was any chance I could get the truth from Cooke and have the thousands of dollars I had donated go to where it was intended, this was the last one.

John Cooke received my letter and did not reply. I told him I would publish that he had deliberately engineered charity payments authorized by my UK company to go to his Balinese mistress instead, that he had defrauded the needy children of Bali, that he was a con man, a fraudster, a liar, a cheat, a thief, an abuser of children, a low life scum bag; John Cooke did not respond.

Dr. John Cooke of Bali, California and France; in any language, I say you are human garbage, have a bad day and a lousy life. May your insurance lapse and your "Chateau" burn down from a lightening strike, preferably with you in it.

Bali Children's Project FRAUD

2009-08-01T05:40:00.000-07:00

I have put this warning about the Bali Children's Project off long enough; this Indonesian charity is like so many others; a fraud, a con.

I really did not want to publish in the hope I was wrong, that the management of the Bali Children's Project would show they had not stolen thousands of dollars donated by hotels in Bali (at my direction / bequest - commissions for bookings from my charitable reservations site) intended for the Balinese children they were meant to support. But the fact is, I can show the hotels had paid large sums of money (by Balinese standards) into the bank account of the operations manager, only for this money to be defrauded by John Cooke and his Balinese girlfriend, Kadek Liatini (yes, she is Bali Children's Project operations manager). I was informed about their relationship by a reliable confident in Bali and I have given both Cooke and Liatini the chance to deny it; I have also given them the chance to show they have not defrauded the money for themselves.

What follows is a concise summary of my dealings with John Cooke, Kadek Liatini and the Bali Children's Project, including you will note copied correspondence to other BCP directors such as Linda Moselle, so you can establish what I say as fact.

First, Dr. John Cooke's email reply to me setting up the arrangement;

Next, Kadek Liatini's response with her bank details (to be used for donations to the charity);

Yes, perhaps I was stupid to agree to get the hotels to pay into an individual's personal bank account not one registered to the charity, but John Cooke explained to me that the charity account was in the USA and therefore money would be lost in bank charges if it were sent there (from Bali hotels) and back again (to the Bali Children's Project), so I agreed.

Next I can show emails from hotels such as this one, Tegal Sari confirming they have sent payments of commissions due to my company to the operations manager's bank account as directed by me / my webmaster at the time. Tegal Sari in Ubud can be contacted to verify this of course, as can all the other hotels we have emails from stipulating they have paid money into Kadek Liatini's bank account;

Everything seemed to be fine, good in fact. I was happy in the belief the money my UK company earned from direct reservations in Bali was going where it was intended, Balinese children in need. I / we (my webmaster Andrew Stevens) had occasional contact with John Cooke, e.g. when we got some free advertising with the Bali Advertiser to support this effort;

Notice the date, late November 2007.

Then, in December of 2008 the very nasty Roy Thompson of Ubud started sending me emails, claiming I was defrauding the Bali Children's Project, that none of the money intended for the children was getting to them. He claimed the charity had not received anything from me (my company) or rather the hotels in Bali as they were meant to. He also claimed Dr. John Cooke had informed him that their lawyer in Bali had written to me late in 2007 demanding we remove any links to / connection with the Bali Children's Project. At first I just shrugged it off, but then when John Cooke did not reply to my emails I realized something was not right.

At first I asked Dr. Cooke to simply reply and deny the allegations. I heard through someone else he had repeated the allegation that a lawyer's letter had been sent to my company in the UK, as had been alleged by Roy Thompson. So I emailed John Cooke again, demanding he produce this letter and evidence it was sent / delivered because neither I nor my company received anything from them. In fact, I pointed out to John Cooke that in late November 2007 he had approved the Bali Advertiser project so how come, at the same time, it was now being alleged he had his lawyer in Bali write to me / my company to dissolve the arrangement? How come he did not simply email me? How come Kadek Liatini was continuing to accept money from the hotels?

Nothing, no answer, no proof of sending any such letter, no proof of receipt of any such letter, no copy of their alleged letter, no answer as to the money and where it had gone. When I checked the Bali Children's project web site's sponsorship page there was no mention of any of the money paid by hotels to their operations manager, no thank you to anyone for the thousands of dollars donated it was believed to the Bali Children's Project. At the same time, I received word from a credible source in Bali informing me John Cooke and Kadek Liatini were an item, that they were lovers and perhaps the money had been taken all along to support Dr. Cooke's Balinese mistress; this was not music to my ears. So I challenged John Cooke with this and again he refused to respond, so I then felt sure this was the reason. Especially in retrospect when I read the very strange and personal comments about Ms. Liatini on BCP's web site; "Kadek is a great asset as well as an excellent role model for the girls in the programs, having chosen a profession rather than early marriage and child-rearing".

I threatened legal action against John Cooke and BCP; still no response. So I did just that, I filed a complaint with the California Attorney General's Office against John Cooke's charitable foundation as it was him / them in California who had instructed me to get the hotels to pay into Kadek Liatini's bank account;

Regrettably it seems charity fraud is big business in California and I got a "We may investigate, we may not, we will not tell you" response listing the many reasons they would not investigate!

I tried to give BCP (the Bali Children's Project) every chance to show they had applied the money donated to them in good faith as it was meant to be, but they have declined to so much as reply; they have not even thanked the hotels for the money donated by them, so I am sure BCP are as bent as they come.

Of course the problem in Indonesia is that everything is so corrupt, there is so much fraud. Charities are not regulated, they do not have to produce accounts, and even when they do they are often very generic and not audited. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised, but I was, I was gutted. I wished I had simply taken the money for myself, as I was entitled. I had it go instead, I believed, to a children's charity only to be accused of defrauding them somehow, as if I could; the money was paid by hotels in Bali to Kadek Liatini's bank account on that island. If I wanted the money I could and would have just taken it as commissions to which I was entitled. But still, the accusation after I feel I did so much for the charity really, really hurt. Past that I felt and feel nothing but anger and disgust for what John Cooke has done, without so much as the decency of an explanation or apology.

So let me now write a blog page especially for Dr John Cooke Bali / California / France and hope he gets some good old fashioned Balinese karma from the publicity.

Made Pastika, Bali's Police Chief & Governor

2009-04-11T00:40:00.000-07:00

When Made Pastika was Bali's police chief, I wrote to him three times (as required by Indonesian law) detailing why two police investigations against me were unlawful (see my Balinese police, Bali Discovery Tours and previous Bali Police Chief blog pages for full details), demanding he have his officer's cease and desist.

Although I never got a reply from him and while the unlawful investigations continued, Made Pastika's subordinate, Officer Tri Kuncoro, who was heading the Cyber Crime Department "case" against me and registered mail receipts confirmed Pastika had received the letters. Legally, Made Pastika had an obligation to respond giving reasons for allowing the investigations to continue, or to close the investigations and confirm this in writing, or repudiate they were being conducted in the first place. Pastika did none of these things, he just ignored my letters and the law of Indonesia; he acted unlawfully, even illegally.

However, the real problem I have with made Made Pastika is I have been informed Officer Tri Kuncoro boasted Pastika took a $3000 bribe from jack Daniels, no doubt via an intermediary as is standard practice in corruption cases, to sign a regional Interpol watch order against me in 2004, claiming just cause as my being a terrorist suspect. Subsequently I learned the Balinese police, then clearly trying to cover up their highly unlawful acts, went on to claim they "considered" me a terrorist because they felt what I published on the Internet somehow terrorised people! Of course this does not actually qualify me as a terrorist suspect in the legal sense or conform to Interpol's strict criteria. So whoever's signature is on that watch order has some very difficult explaining to do.

I understand Made Pastika is very unhappy with me, that I have published details of the police investigation and evidence of corruption against him on the Internet, and that he has vowed to remove it. The trouble for Governor Pastika is that I am well within my legal rights in the EU to publish what I have. That if he has any problems with this, he should complain to the proper authority, such as the British Foreign Officer / Embassy in Jakarta, or even to sue me here in the EU. Of course I would be delighted and honour bound to remove what I say if it is false, and all he has to do to prove this one way or another is send me a copy of the police investigation file including the original Interpol watch order, so I can see who signed it for myself. As it is clear the Balinese police have copied the entire file to Jack Daniels, there is no reason I should not have a copy as well, unless what I say is true and can be used against Made Pastika to put him in jail.

Jack Daniels, Bali Discovery Tours or Whores?

2009-04-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

John Millard AKA Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours, former Chairman of the Bali PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) and all that says about them, is the nastiest travel agent on Bali. I do not want to repeat what I have published about US Citizen Jack Daniels unlawful acts about me as you can read on my Nasty Bali website, but I believe it important to provide some background, key points and updates here;

1) Jack Daniels was a barman and mortician (ugh) in his native USA.
2) He came to Indonesia and worked in a hotel in Jakarta; one reportedly owned by the Suharto family.
3) Jack Daniels then worked for an Australian cruise ship outfit for 4 years until he learned they were about to be closed down as they were neither registered or had paid taxes in Indonesia. This fact means Daniels worked illegally in Indonesia for 4 years without paying income tax.
4) Jack Daniels formed Bali Discovery Tours with a Javanese man who also worked on these unlawful cruise boats.
5) In 2002 there was a rash of Internet fraud by Indonesian based travel agents using "bait and switch" tactics where they offered hotel rooms at well known hotels for less than they could actually honour, only to falsely report the hotel was full to potential guests who had by then provided their credit card information, sometimes paid deposits, and therefore felt obligated to book with that agent at another hotel (at a rate the agent did make a profit).
6) As the owner of a reservations site, in September 2002 a user of my site complained that Bali Discovery Tours were offering lower rates than my own for the Santika Beach Hotel in Tuban-Kuta for which I had a "lowest rate guarantee".
7) I contacted the Santika Beach Hotel about this and they stated Bali Discovery Tours were not authorized to offer the rates they were and could not place guests in their hotel at the rates they were quoting. These facts along with the facts about other travel agents offering unsustainable rates I published on the Bali & Lombok Travel Forum, as was my legal right as I was sick and tired of it.
8) Jack Daniels was not happy about this and entered into a rage against me.
9) In October 2002 the infamous Bali terrorist bombings occurred; I flew to the island to support the cause and was horrified at the lax airport security in comparison with Singapore and Phuket (where I had flown from and through) and that it seemed to simply be a case of police corruption business as normal, no extra effort being made to tighten security.
10) After I left Bali, outside of Indonesian police / criminal jurisdiction, I sent and email to contacts of mine within the Balinese tourism industry (see email). It was very well received and one person (with good intentions) forwarded it to other tourism members, including Jack Daniels.
11) Jack Daniels / Bali Discovery Tours was responsible for issuing tickets to the so-called "Bali Security Workshop" at the Nusa Dua Convention Center in Bali in December 2002. I went to Bali again partly to attend this conference, to raise my concerns with the chief guest speaker, Bali's then police chief Budi Setywan. Bali Discovery Tours refused me a ticket on the basis the event was booked full, when in fact it was only 35% subscibed.
12) I have no doubt it was here that jack Daniels managed to do his nasty act against me, reporting my email (which criticized the job his department was doing) to the police chief and suggesting my text could help terrorists launch another attack!
13) Instead of going to the Security Workshop, I ended up being unlawfully detained and had my passport unlawfully seized by the Balinese police. The British Embassy in Jakarta ultimately got involved, confirmed the police action was unlawful, and ensured my and my passport's eventual release.
14) During this unlawful police operation against me over 4 days, conducted by 6 or 7 officers of Bali's intelligence police who should have been out hunting bombers instead, I saw the contents of the police file and in it my email with "Jack Daniels" on the identifying header, had it confirmed it by the police officers ir was jack Daniels who filed the complaint against me, and was further told the police chief himself had ordered the investigation (see my Budi Setywan police chief blog page).
15) After I was released and had my passport returned, I left Bali and published what hat happened. Jack Daniels took great exception to having been found out and started to threaten me with libel action. When his threats failed, he filed a police complaint against me for criminal libel and reported this on his Bali Discovery Web Site;

16) You will see the "article" date is June 7th 2003, although Jack Daniels actually notorious layer Suryatin Lijaya (implicated in several corruption cases involving alleged pay offs to the police and prosecutors of Bali) did not actually file the complaint until the following month, which proves prior arrangement / agreement AKA collusion and corruption. This is confirmed on the summons that was unlawfully made against me (see: Indonesian Law - Balinese Police) - if you go to and look at that summons near the top for "DASAR 3;" it shows the date of Daniels complaint was July 3rd 2003.
17) You will see the "article" says criminal charges had been filed against me, when not even his criminal complaint had been filed at that time and when it is only prosecutors who can file "criminal charges". So Jack Daniels article is both libelous and shows what was unlawfully agreed with the police in advance of them even receiving and knowing the specifics of his complaint against me.
18) You will see the statement "will remain sealed and with the police until Mr. Austin personally presents himself to the police" shows Daniels knew the complaint would be held unlawfully without being processed in order to deny me my rights under the Indonesian statute of limitations (see: Indonesian law blog page).
19) You will see Jack Daniels is very selective with his wording. He does not deny making the original nasty police complaint, he simply says "insisting no proof exists to substantiate Mr. Austin's allegations", or at least he hoped not; at that time all I had was first hand personal experience of what I had seen in the police investigation file and what the police officers had told me.
20) You will see Daniels states it is his lawyer, Suryatin Lijaya who is filing the complaints on his behalf; this is also unlawful as Indonesian law requires the complainant to make the complaint themselves to a police officer (in / on the island where the alleged crime took place).

As you can see, I have enough evidence not just to dismiss Jack Daniels allegations against me (even if I had come under Indonesian jurisdiction, which I had not), but to expect him to face criminal proceedings for criminal libel, perjury and corruption.

I also I believe have enough evidence to convict Daniels of attempted murder (against me) in Thailand; that he paid the then Balinese police chief Made Pastika a corruption bribe for and benefited from an unlawful Interpol watch order placed against me; that with the Balinese police provided details of my home address in Thailand that Daniels paid for Thai gangsters to murder me. If it were not for the humanity of one Thai police officer, who for obvious reasons I can not name here in case he is represented as having broke the law by helping me, I truly believe I would now be dead. One day I expect Daniels to stand trial in Bali for this attempted murder. No doubt Daniels will claim immunity under Indonesia's 3 year statute of limitations but I will submit he does not qualify until I am able to make my criminal complaints, otherwise it would be a denial of justice.

Finally, some people have been trying to make capital of alleged death threats by me against Daniels and others. I have never made death threats against them but yes, I did nearly pay for someone to "stop" Jack Daniels, Bert Vierstra and police officer Tri Kuncoro in Bali, and yes I did warn the then police chief of Bali I considered I had the right to do this; for details, please see Bali murders and death threats.

Balinese Police / Indonesian Law

2009-04-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

I want to explain certain aspects of Indonesian criminal and civil codes, how the Balinese police are able to abuse them, and why currently this means I am unable to take legal action against others in Bali.

My Own Legal Action Options

I would very much like to file both criminal complaints and commence civil actions against Budi Setywan , Jack Daniels, Made Pastika, Tri Kuncoro, Bert Vierstra and Roy Thompson in Bali but can not. The reasons for this are;

a) I can not file criminal complaints against them because unlike with other countries, where you can file such complaints with their embassies overseas, Indonesian criminal law requires the complainant to file complaints at a police station on the island itself. If I went to Bali to do this, I would be arrested and likely shot.

b) Although I can file civil cases against these people in Bali through a lawyer there, without being able to attend I would not be able to respond to any claim made by these people in court, and also there is not a single recorded case of anyone successfully suing a police officer in Indonesia, such is the well documented nepotism, collusion and corruption between police, prosecutors and judges.

Criminal Libel

The only official Balinese police investigation into me is for alleged criminal libel against Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours. Both civil and criminal libel exists in Indonesia. Libel was criminalised by the Suharto regime in order to protect the influential from the less well connected. Basically, it is a criminal offense in Indonesia to say or write anything bad / defamatory about someone else without their permission! Even though Suharto has gone, the powerful (politicians, judges, army, police, businessmen and so down) protect any wrong doing they commit with this law. In my case, because I did not ask Jack Daniels permission to publish what he did to me in 2002, he was able to file a criminal libel complaint in Bali against me in 2003.

There is even further criminal code (Section 207) preventing anyone from saying anything bad (no matter how true) against the police in Indonesia. In 2006 two pop musicians were arrested and jailed in Bali for singing a song containing the lyrics "Anjing! Kukira Preman Anjing! Ternyata Polis" which has two possible meanings; 1) "Dog! I thought you were a gangster. But dog! You were actually the police.", and 2) Damn! I thought you were a criminal. But damn! You were actually the police.". So much for Indonesia's accession to International Human Rights and guarantees of Freedom of Speach, even when the musician's "offence" was only implied! So understand how much the Balinese police want to get me for not just calling them "mafia" (and "dogs"), but also for naming their beloved chiefs in documented cases of corruption and human rights abuse!

However, Indonesian criminal libel is limited by its national boundaries, its jurisdiction. It is a documented and well known fact I published what I did about Daniels in Thailand; outside Indonesian jurisdiction. Therefore, because Jack Daniels knew I published my 2002 account of his previous unlawful acts against me outside Indonesian territory, he committed an act of criminal libel (with the police) against me and perjury (submitting falsified complaints and evidence). The Balinese police also knowing this (have been duly informed on multiple occasions) also committed further unlawful and illegal acts by progressing his complaint into and thereafter maintaining (an) investigation(s) against me. Of course I can not currently file my own criminal complaints in Bali against them because of this.

Civil Libel

Civil libel is the damages / compensation form of legal action resulting from published defamation. As I could not travel to Bali to sue Jack Daniels there, I sued him and his hosting company in Arizona, USA, where his web site is legally physically located (on a web server there) and where his hosting company operates. You can read about the case here: Jack Daniels Bali. Instead of counter-suing me for the alleged libel I committed against him (which he could not, as it was not libel in the civil sense), so I could then have my lawyer in Bali file the US court ruling with the police and courts in Bali and force them to drip the criminal libel case against me, American citizen Jack Daniels fought the action on the basis the US had no jurisdiction over him. Regrettably my lawyer missed a filing date by two days, so Daniels won on a technicality. I hoped this case in the USA could be the beginning of the end of it, not least for the Balinese who suffer economically from the fall out of the ongoing bad publicity; I had hoped Daniels would face off with me in his own country.

Striking Out Police Investigations

Indonesia has a legal process for "forcing" their police to stop conducting an unlawful investigation, such as the ones against me. You or your lawyer basically write 3 times to the police setting out your case and the reason for claiming the investigation(s) is / are unlawful. Under Indonesian law the police must then either a) give good legal cause for continuance, b) deny the investigations exist, or c) strike the investigation out and confirm this has been done in writing back to you. However, in practice this does not work, as the police only have to ignore what you do and your only recourse then is to file a civil case of "legal taut" against the police. This of course brings you back to the same problem of needing to attend court to stand any chance of success, plus the fact no Indonesian court has ever ruled in anyone's favour against the police thanks to rampant nepotism, collusion and corruption.

3 Year Statute of Limitations
Like the USA, Indonesia has a statute of limitations on crimes, in Indonesia's case it is just 3 years. That is, any crime you commit in Indonesia, if you are not investigated for it within 3 years, you get off Scott free. This statute is why many people accused of heinous crimes in Indonesia go unpunished; the state has simply to ignore their crime for 3 years. Similarly, the police or other law enforcement body must bring any such criminal investigation to the courts within a further 3 years of commencing it.

In reality, the Indonesian Statute of Limitations is only there to give impunity to the well connected. People like me, who had a criminal investigation for criminal libel commenced against me in 2003, should have seen that investigation dropped in 2006, especially when it was challenged. Extreme interpretations and corruption of the law by the police and judiciary mean they can claim my alleged libel is ongoing, as it involved the printed / published word, so the 3 Year Statute of Limitations is not up yet! Which is akin to saying the people of East Timor murdered by the Indonesian army, that the hurt and cause of this on their family is ongoing, so the Statute of Limitations is not up yet for the TNI officers who murdered civilians; but of course it is.

Unlawfully Served Summons

The Indonesian police are well documented at being adept at serving summons unlawfully (such as serving the summons with a collaborating village elder, so the victim does not know about it); so the persons they are after have no hope or even idea of complying and thereafter can be arrested (see 60/90 day arrest law below). Take my case, in 2004 after an unlawful "hidden" police complaint (the one filed by Daniels against me in 2003 which was unlawfully kept in the chief police investigator's draw until they could get me, to circumvent the Statute of Limitations) was exposed, the then police issued a summons against me which they knew I could and would not attend;

The fact this police investigation was unlawfully conducted, kept in a drawer until they could get me, "remain sealed and with the police until Mr. Austin personally presents himself to the police" as Jack Daniels predicted a month before the complaint was made (see John Millard Daniels blog page) is graphically shown proven here: look at near the top of the summons, DASAR 3 states the date of the complaint / investigation commencing was July 1st 2003 and yet the summons was not issued until February 1st 2004.

The police of course knew I would not attend because of the circumstances, as it cited legal code for spying and the death penalty, plus I was not Indonesia; I was hardly likely or able to arrange and pay for my own flight to certain human rights abuse at such short notice! Now, let me be clear about the last aspect of this; my not being in Indonesia and why this is yet another documented case of the police acting unlawfully against me.

International conventions and precedences do not allow the police force of any one country to serve a summons against anyone who is not a citizen or resident of that country if that person is not in that police force's country at the time of the summons. As I am not a citizen or resident of Indonesia, they should not have done this, it is unlawful. The correct procedure for the Balinese police would have been either;
a) To commence extradition proceedings against me. If they believed I had committed a serious criminal act, Indonesia would have been able to extradite me from where I was then living (Thailand). The trouble is of course, it was such a nasty BS investigation, they would not have been able to extradite me.
b) To request assistance from the police of the country I was in, to question me to determine if certain evidence was true and / or if a prosecution should commence. Again, BS unlawful investigations like the one against me prevented the Balinese police from doing this either.

Indonesian 60/90 day arrest law
This is where the police get people and would get me. Because they claim I did not attend a lawful summons, they have the automatic right to arrest and detain me for up to 60 days, plus another 30 days with an easily obtained court extensions. So to go to Bali to both clear my name and file my own law suits and criminal complaints against hose who act against me would cost me 90 days in jail or worse. I say worse as it has been made clear to me the Balinese police want me dead; Officer Tri Kuncoro had been harassing my friends in Bali with unlawful (not real) summons and told one, if I ever came to Bali I would be arrested and then shot in the back as I tried to escape. Bear in mind the UN special envoy on torture stated in his 2007-8 report that the Balinese police routinely rape, beat and even shoot detainees; how's that for a Balinese paradise?

Interpol Abuse
As a consequence of the west's so called "war on terror", pariah nations have been "allowed" to abuse Interpol. In return for data on real terrorists coming out from places like Indonesia, the Indonesian police have been given greater access to Interpol's facilities. As a result, the Balinese police were able to file a totally false regional Interpol watch order against me, citing I was suspected of being a spy or terrorist, providing the above summons and my non compliance as substantiation. My movements and whereabouts then were reported back by Thai and other nations' immigration and other law enforcement agencies to the Balinese police. This data, my home address, was then abused in order to try and have me murdered by local gangsters I am sure were paid for by Jack Daniels.

Some of the nasty anti-Mark circle of friends in Bali claim there was no Interpol watch order against me, that I made it all up. Here is an excerpt from a letter from my lawyer in Jakarta citing the Interpol file on me. This letter also confirms my lawyer wrote to the police three times as prescribed in law but the police did not respond as they are legally bound;
"Anjing! Kukira Preman - Anjing! Ternyata Polda Bali Polis"

Budi Setywan, Bali's nasty police chief and a liar

2009-04-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

Budi Setywan was Bali's police chief at the time of the Bali Bombing on the 12th October 2002 and ordered the unlawful investigation against me as a suspected terrorist "spy" in December of that same year which saw me unlawfully detained, my passport unlawfully seized and my being threatened with being shot for espionage! You can read the specifics of this on my Bali Police and Bali Criminal Complaint blog pages.

Under Indonesian law, a police officer is only authorized to conduct a criminal investigation a) if they witness first hand a suspected crime or b) if someone makes a criminal complaint to them. Now, as the investigation against me was over an email of mine someone else (with good intentions) forwarded to other people within the tourism industry, Budi Setywan could not have witnessed this suspected crime first hand, so someone made a complaint. The person from the tourism industry who took the email and matter to the police chief can not defend themselves by claiming they did it just for information; the law is very clear. An investigation was conducted so it could only have come from a complaint.

Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours claims he did not make that complaint to the police against me in 2002. However both I and other people were informed by the police that it was Daniels, plus a number of people have seen the police investigation file against me which contains correspondence from Daniels and a copy of the contentious email proving it was one received and printed up by Jack Daniels. Here is a statement from my former lawyer who attended me at the police station at the time confirming he also witnessed the email with Jack Daniels' "header" on it and that he was also told by the police it was Jack Daniels who made the complaint;

People like Jack Daniels and Roy Thompson now try to have others believe I made everything up, that there was no unlawful police investigation, that Jack Daniels was not involved, that Budi Setywan did not personally order it; next I will absolutely not just prove Budi Setywan instigated an illegal investigation against me but also that the Balinese police sell confidential data from their files to 3rd parties. Here is a copy of the confidential police investigation file memo against me, paid for with a police bribe by a friend of mine;

You can see it is a fact that police chief Budi Setywan is clearly stated as being the officer who instigated the complaint against me.

What is sad for Budi Setywan is he even lied about this investigation to one of his best friends. Someone I did business with tried to come to my rescue and phoned his friend from high school days, police chief Budi Setywan. Setywan denied any knowledge of the investigation to his best friend, so he in turn told me not to worry but it later transpired, as I was being threatened with being shot as a spy, I had a lot to worry about. The fact that Budi Setywan even lied to his best friend about all of this shows what a sad and ugly life he has.

I believe the above evidence is sufficient for a criminal investigation against Budi Setywan and I one day hope to be able to make a complaint against him (see my Balinese Police / Indonesian Law blog page to understand why I currently can not).

A warning to all foreigners about Bali

2009-04-11T00:36:00.000-07:00

I want to leave a warning for all foreigners going to, and especially those thinking about investing in Bali. I want to warn you so you know not to make any mistakes which would end up with your spending time in jail and / or being blackmailed into paying a huge bribe.

First, during my unlawful police detention in December 2002;
1) The police said they wanted to ask me some questions as the police station, a "cross check" as they put it. They have no legal right to demand you go and you should refuse; you should instead ask them to do their cross-check in front of and at your country's consul, not least to ensure there is a good witness to what goes on.
2) When the Balinese police asked to make a copy of my passport, they never returned it. The British embassy in Jakarta had to strongly intervene over 4 days to get it back. Unless you are charged with a crime, which I was not, the police have no right to hold your passport and you should not give it to them under any circumstances. Carry a copy of your passport around with you and give them this if asked.
3) The police used my passport to try and coerce me into signing a statement in Indonesian which I did not understand. They interviewed me in English and yet they wanted me to sign, without translation, a statement in Indonesian. They waved my passport in front of me and said "This statement is nothing, it is what you said, if you sign it we can give you your passport back and you will be free to go". I am very glad I did not sign their statement, despite the fact they got very angry (after having been very friendly) because of it. When they shouted "Are you refusing to sign this statement of what you said? You can go to jail for that!" I replied "I am not refusing to sign it, I simply want an accurate translation into English first." Although this meant coming back the next day as they refused to do it then, I have no doubt I would have been stitched up and in jail if I had signed what they wanted. The next day I came back and they police said the interview had to be held again in front of the translator. When I asked why they could not have the translator simply translate the previous statement they had asked me to sign, the police replied it had been lost! When I said I wanted a copy of it anyway, they got very angry once more and then said it had been destroyed. I have no doubt the original statement was not an accurate record of what I said and would have landed me in jail.
4) After my passport was returned and I was allowed to go, my lawyer at the time asked for a police letter confirming the "pre-investigation" (as the police termed it) was closed. He claimed the police showed him a copy of my villa investment agreement (I had invested in some villas in Bali). I did not believe him at first, as he said he needed a copy of the agreement himself, and I suspected he and the police were up to something. However, some 3 years after, my former business partner in Bali was "summonsed" (not properly / legally) to the police station about me and they showed him they had a copy of our former agreement together. At that time I had already sold / transfered (thank God) my interests in thise villas, but the question is "How did the police get a copy of these documents?". The only answer is that Bali's notaries routinely inform / copy the police all such documents involving foreigners. The thing is, this is illegal and none of the police's business of course, but it goes on and you have to ask yourself why!

Ever since going for the first time to Bali, every experience I have had of the police from driving around Bali, being involved in a road traffic accident (not my fault, someone hit me from behind), from wintessing "road blocks", to this horrible affair has shown me the Balinese police are nothing but extortionists, crooks, mafia and human rights abusing garbage in uniform; they are scum, street dogs. I have watched them stop my hotel driver, who was fully licensed, to say "Business must be good" and then extort money from him. I have had to endure their attempts to get my wristwatch from me after the road accident, as well as negotiate over 2 days how much money I had to pay them so they could donate this to the hospital (yeh right!).

The Balinese police are the garnage of Bali and you should knowm this, and be careful.

Fugly Bali BS; Big deal, so what?!

2009-04-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

The claims and furore over Fugly Bali and Bali BS never cease to amaze me.

So what? Big deal!
I do not understand why people react to these sites the way they do. OK, I do not understand why anyone other then the nasty corrupt Indonesian authorities and people featured on these sites act the way they do.

Expats in and other devotees of Bali are weird. They have to preserve the notion Bali is a paradise no matter what, even though it is well documented Bali is chiefly an Indonesian hell hole (for the Balinese). Why don't these losers of western society get off other people's backs about these sites? How come they don't email and post forum messages of hate about the web sites for the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International, etc., etc., etc?

Why do I get and see messages about how Bali's sons and daughters have been defamed by these sites? How it is somehow wrong to say bad things about Made Pastika, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, etc? It may be illegal to do this in Indonesia, which speaks more about Indonesia then Fugly Bali BS, but these web sites clearly are not based in Indonesia. Why do some people believe Indonesia's well documented poor and corruptly applied laws should extend past their national boundaries? For me I am not Indonesian, I thank God I am not Indonesian, I have no intention of visiting Indonesia ever again (but would love to visit Bali), I bless my EU civil and human rights, and Indonesia can take their rancid corrupt malicious law and shove it where the sun does not shine.

Is Made Pastika a god? Is speaking out against him an act against people's faiths? No, Made Pastika is actually some guy with a very dubious background, especially during his tenure as police chief of West Papua (which Jakarta has stolen for the vast mineral resources and now calls Irian Jaya) and as Indonesia's narcotics police chief. Why is it OK for westerners to speak out about western leaders and senior officials yet not Indonesian public "servants"? Why is it OK for Indonesians in Indonesia to criticize other countries and their authorities, which the Indonesians do against their neighbours with monotony, yet somehow it is not OK for westerners in their own countries to criticize Indonesia?

Why do the monkeys in office and uniform in Indonesia only have to beat their drums for masses of pie eyed expats and tourist devotees to go into their yapping fits? Invite me to a dinner party? Are there going to be any Bail expats or devout tourists there? Yes? No thanks! Even if the subject of Bali / Indonesia never came up, the prospect of conversations strewn with "Wows", enlightenment (yeah right you pot heads), beer made in the tropics (ugh), hair braids, fake watches and gaudy "art" would drive me nuts.

If the evidence published against the Balinese police and others were instead evidence against a western government or police department, there would be cries for suspensions, investigations and prosecutions everywhere. Yet the evidence against Bali's "finest" somehow is defamation, criminal acts by anyone who dares seek justice. Wake up, smell the coffee; this is the difference between developed societies with effective law enforcement / judicial systems compared with a third world corrupt nightmare of a country, where there are so many crooks in positions of power the law is "tailored" to protect them, not applied to all. Like all thieves feigning pious pillars of society, the problem of Fugly Bali BS is not that they publish falsehoods, it is that they publish uncomfortable (for the thieves and their supporters) truths.

From what I have seen, Fugly Bali BS only add focus (attack) to the truth, nothing else. The bleating sheep on western wages in Bali enjoying a third world economy with subservient smiling attendants, ignoring or even actively sweeping under the carpet the realities for the everyday Balinese (poverty, sexual abuse, pedophilia, beatings, rampant disease, rank health care, contaminated water, dire education, massive corruption, excessive civil and human rights abuse), hiding behind their foreign passports, Australian / Singaporean health care and plane ticket out of "paradise", telling others how much they love and support the Balinese (while staying in nasty Jakarta family owned hotels renowned for cheating their staff in areas of Bali illegally off limits to the indigenous people of the island), angry to the point of rage at anyone or anything which challenges their self-delusion; they make me puke, they are spoiled nasty freaks who help oppress the wonderful people of Bali, and I say Indonesia (not Bali) is welcome to them.

I "own" Fugly Bali BS? Get a life!
The wholesale corrupt civil and human rights abusing police of Bali love the procession of people (Daniels, Vierstra, etc.) coming in and back in to their offices to make further complaints / allegations that I own / operate Fugly Bali BS and other sites I do not; it allows these bent cops to claim they are doing a job and that continued complaints somehow revoke my right to the Indonesian Statute of Limitations when they do not.

Irrespective of Fugly Bali BS and these visits involving "donations" by garbage expats of Bali, the Balinese police would continue to try and get their clutches on me one day anyway. So even without all these fresh wallet lightening "Bali Updates", the Polda Bali would still act unlawfully against me anyway because on the sites I do own (and openly admit to it, like here) I say things they do not like about them, their bent "masters", their corrupt friends.

What more are they going to do to me if I did / said I owned Fugly Bali BS? Shoot me twice, three times in the back not once? Put my name on the Interpol watch list three times not once? Get a life, get a clue; if I owned / operated Fugly Bali BS I would have no hesitation in putting my name to this.

What gets me regarding the stupidity of the people making the complaints and the police themselves is that I said right from the very beginning, before the advent of Fugly Bali BS I was helping others publish their own web sites on the subject. I was quite open about helping others get web templates, etc. to exercise their legal rights. Then after the event, these dummies cite what I told them I was going to do for others as evidence Fugly Bali BS are mine!

Mr. Governor, Mr. President, Bali's mafia police, Bali's human garbage. You want to remove Fugly Bali and Bali BS from the Internet? So go and file a diplomatic complaint with the government(s) with jurisdiction over these sites (where they are deemed to be legally located)! What's that? You can not! Because these sites are not in the least bit illegal or unlawful?! So stop trying to blame me for being what I am not and / or attempting to shoot the messenger, deal with the real problem; Oh dear, you can not, because the problem is you.

Gob Bless Bali, may it free itself from these jerks soon.
God Bless the EU; Jakarta can rot in hell.
Have a nice day.
Mark Austin

Tri Kuncoro, Bali Cyber Crime Police

2009-04-11T00:34:00.000-07:00

Officer Tri Kuncoro is or was the head of the Bali police's cyber crimes department. Understand that "Cyber Crime" in Indonesia is less to do with Internet fraud and online prostitute sites as are rife in that country, but to stop people like me publishing things on the Internet the police do not like, even when what I publish is truthful and also outside Indonesian police jurisdicition (see my Indonesian Law / Balinese Police Abuse blog page).

Officer Tri Kuncoro is or had been in charge of Jack Daniels complaint of alleged criminal libel against me. Officer Tri Kuncoro acts outside the law and in fact has copied every single document in his confidential police investigation file, including my passport scan which was used to defraud me / my credit card (see: Roy Thompson Ubud Bali blog page) and details of my wherabouts in Thailand courtesy of an unlawful Interpol watch order (see Indonesian law bog page again), so Daniels could try to have me murdered. I can prove Officer Tri Kuncoro copies everything to Jack Daniels as Kuncoro is as stupid as he is bent (corrupt). Although he never responded to my Jakarta lawyer's demands to strike out the unlawful investigation against me, Officer Kuncoro did write to my lawyer about yet more unsubstantiated and false complaints / evidence against me by Daniels and actually, incredibly cc'd Daniels on that letter!

Now, in case this act of copying Daniels is lost on you; legally, as the complainant, Daniels is entitled to progress and conclusion reports, but not to actual documents from what is meant to be a confidential police investigation file. The fact this police letter was cc'd to Daniels, the fact my passport scan (which was taken unlawfully by the police) ended up being circulated on the Internet (see Roy Tompson Ubud blog page), proves the police have given everything in their file to Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours.

This police letter is sufficient evidence of collusion and corruption between Jack Daniels and Officer Tri Kuncoro so as to expect them both to be prosecuted under Indonesian criminal law. As I can not file a complaint with the police in Bali, I tried filing a complaint with the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), but they didged the issue and reprted they could not investigate a case of alleged corruption against a police officer in Bali as, wait for this, they did not have an office there!

Travel Ethos (AKA Travel Ideas & Thailand / Bali Direct)

2009-04-11T00:32:00.000-07:00

I / my company own a reservations site called "Travel Ethos". In 2006/7 when I no longer wanted to hold a bank account in Indonesia or Thailand (to collect direct hotel / villa commissions) rather than just "throw the money away" I decided to have it go to local children's charities in Bali and Thailand; the Bali Children's Project in Ubud Bali and the Mercy Center in Bangkok Thailand.

No problem you would have thought, a nice thing to do; but not much is nice in Bali!

Just before Christmas 2008 a very strange and nasty thing happened. The shortest, fattest, ugliest, most maligned and annoying expatriate in Bali, Roy Thompson, an ex-insurance admin supervisor (ouch), someone who has been accusing me of every crime under the Balinese sun for years, emailed me and accused me of defrauding the Bali charity.

How could I be defrauding them? The hotels and villas paid the charity's operational manager not me! Why would I defraud them? If I wanted the commission I need only have continued to take it! But this was lost on American Roy Thompson, who then did a really nasty thing and contacted the Thailand Mercy Center and told them I was defrauding them too!

Roy Thompson simply kept and keeps challenging me to produce accounts showing the money actually went to the charities, but this was between the hotels and the charities, all I had were copy statements showing the hotels / villas were told to pay the respective charities and emails from the various hotels / villas confirming when and what they had paid them; but he keeps "challenging" me for something I do and can not have, accounts / payment receipts which only the hotels and charities have. However, Roy Thompson, an alleged pot head and narcotics dealer (no surprise) married to an ex-Legian "night butterfly" who has been banned from every Indonesian related forum going, keeps claiming I had stolen this money! Thompson said the Bali Children's Project had told him this!

So I contacted John Cooke (Bali Children's Project or "BCP") but he refused to reply to me! So rather than find a new charity and have Roy Thompson email them with his nasty falsehoods, given something was clearly not right at the BCP, I decided to shut down Travel Ethos in January 2009; I have since re-launched it as a 100% pro-Balinese site (see Travel Ethos Bali).

After failing to get John Cooke to respond despite several attempts, I am currently going through a legal process to try and have the Bali Children's project produce accounts / receipts for the thousands of dollars donated to them by the hotels and villas in Bali, so far without success. It would seem the money was in fact stolen, but not by me! You see, John Cooke asked that I have the hotels / villas pay their commissions / donations to the operational manager directly. Yes, you can see where this is going, and I expect to have some news / be able to publish what happened to all this money soon.

Perhaps it should not surprise me but it still hurts and disgusts me that my, the hotels and villas goodwill was abused to one extent or another. In fact, I actually spent some of my own money on Travel Ethos with web developers to help it earn money for good causes in Bali and Thailand. It is surreal when you give money to a charity only to be accused of stealing it. It is horrible waking up to the prospect that the money you gave never actually went to the needy children in Bali it was intended for. I have learned my lesson, I will never trust Indonesian charities ever again.

Watch this space!

Bert Vierstra Lovina; be careful, be warned.

2009-04-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

Dutchman Bert Vierstra lives and works near Lovina in the north of Bali; his business is selling villas to foreigners who, under Indonesian law, can not own them (see: Bali Villas). Vierstra also operates the so-called "Bali Expat Forum" which puts him in touch with and has allowed him to secure a small group of expatriate followers such as Roy Thompson in Ubud, in Bert's efforts to defame and otherwise afflict me. Most of these followers are actually a small number of Indonesian expat dregs hiding behind multiple anonymous pseudonymns; or at least they hope they are anonymous. When you expose them simply by their real name, they soon show their true colours. One of Bert's supporters, a prolific even famous blogger in Jakarta with the pseudonym Indcoup defamed me and claimed I could not sue him in Indonesia (a reference to the fact I was suing Bali travel agent Jack Daniels in the USA); how safe he fealt behind his anonymity to do that! Unfortuntaly for him I managed to find out who the coward was behind the libelous statements against me and others and he bolted like cowards do (see: Indcoup Jakartass Blogspot).

I do not want to repeat what has already been published elsewhere, but a very short summary is;
1) I supported and even sent potential real estate customers to Bert Vierstra when he first set up shop.
2) Bert Vierstra repaid this by uninvitedly deciding to meddle with the legal problems I was having with Bali Discovery Tours' Jack Daniels by going to see him, plus telling others how they could bypass the security of my web sites to post messages of hate on them (hacking)!
3) Bali BS published an article speculating Bert Vierstra was likely a pedophile.
4) Bert Vierstra falsely accused me of being "Bali BS", even though I have seen emails from him accepting I am not.
5) Bert Vierstra went to the Balinese police and filed a false complaint of criminal libel with them alleging I was Bali BS and had published the above article.

I want to pick up from that point and prove just what a nasty and dangerous person Bert Vierstra truly is, and also how nasty the Balinese police are.

First, I find it absolutely amazing, having been presented with the Bali BS article on Vierstra by Bert himself, given the facts clearly documented in that article, that the police not just took Vierstra's complaint but never investigated him for suspected paedophilia. But perhaps I should not be surprised, even one of Vierstra's "friends", the former owner of a beachfront hotel in Lovina published an account of how the local police, having had a report / complaint of a foreign pedophile abusing under-aged boys in his hotel room, would simply come, chat and take bribes once (and this is the sick part) the foreign pedophile had finished his "business". Lovina is, you see, a known pedophile black spot.

Second, people have not been made aware of certain facts about Bert Vierstra and what he went on to do past that point.

Whatever Bert Vierstra claims, he can not sue me and he can not sue Bali BS because he gave email permission to us both to publish what we liked about him! Admittedly he did this before Bali BS published the article, before Bert Vierstra realised just how much evidence they had against him. But Bert Vierstra has never rescinded that permission, so can not sue either of us for anything we publish about him until he does and only then for anything past that point which is published; Vierstra gave us an open / blank cheque to publish what we liked.

This is important as Bert Vierstra in 2007 started publicly going around here, there and everywhere (forums, etc.) publishing he was going to sue me, when he had absolutely no legal basis to do so in several respects. However, abusing the friendship of one of his Bali expat forum devotees, Bert Vierstra appointed a lawyer in Portugal to determine my whereabouts on the basis he was going to sue me. I say "appointed", as I do not think Vierstra ever paid him anything. In fact, his lawyer was the legal advisor and director of the Portuguese Association of Vending Machine Operators! Vierstra's lawyer did actually manage to determine my family's home address, I believe unlawfully, in Portugal at the time and report this back to Bert.

When I reported the facts to Vierstra's Portuguese lawyer he said "Oh Christ!" and I never heard from him again. Clearly, Vierstra did not want my home address to sue me as he was unable to and knew it.

At the same time Bert Vierstra started emailing me with implied yet clear threats that he was going to come to Portugal to "talk" to me. Given the evidence he is likely a pedophile, that pedophiles can be highly dangerous in many ways, that he had my home address, and that we have two very young children, I went to my own lawyer here in Portugal to do something about it, to protect my family. I can not publish what they said or did, but assurances have been given to me that if Bert Vierstra ever travelled to the Iberian Peninsula or indeed other countries outside his normal travel areas (which I presume to be Indonesia and the Netherlands), he would be questioned; I therefore suspect Bert Vierstra is himself the subject of an Interpol watch order as, at one time, the Dutch police were contacted in relation to this episode.

We have now moved to Spain, although still have our home in Portugal which is, as Roy Thompson has published, up for sale. Although not the main reason, Bert Vierstra's threats and actions were a factor in our doing this. Bert Vierstra is very lucky I received those assurances as I very nearly paid to have him "stopped" in Bali; you can read about this on my Bali Death Threats blog page.

Mark A. Wilson, British Consul Bali, big mouth bar steward

2009-04-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Many people may wonder why or even if I actually genuinely have serious problems with unlawful / illegal acts against me in Bali. Surely the British Government would protect me, their citizen? This will hopefully set things straight.

Mark Wilson is the British Consul and pub owner (the Cat & Fiddle, Sanur) in Bali, and I say a slanderous big mouth. This blog is partly about naming people I would like to file criminal complaints against in Bali, and Mark Wilson is one such person. I say and would do this partly, I admit, as he represents British foreign policy (or agenda more like). So this blog page is also to have a go at Britain's foreign policy and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office that does less for their citizens abroad then almost any other country, with the notable exception of the Australian Government which even goes so far as to inform on their own citizens to the Balinese police so they face drug charges and the death penalty in Indonesia, rather than prosecution and jail at home (vis- à-vis the "Bali Nine").

Why would I file a criminal complaint against the British Consul, Mark Wilson? The truth is I can not file a complaint against him as the British Consul, as he enjoys diplomatic immunity during the moments he acts as consul (and only during that time). I can and will I hope file a criminal defamation complaint against him as owner and barman of the Cat & Fiddle Pub in Sanur one day. Why? Because, as the regular host to one Jack Daniels, I took great exception to a report from a third party that Mark Wilson had been describing me as a "nutter" to a number of his clients. Oh sure, certain people will make great capital from this revelation, but it is not funny.

First of all, one of the people Mark Wilson opened his fat trap to in this fashion did not describe Mr. Wilson as the barman and owner of the Cat & Fiddle, but as the British Consul. However, when I complained to the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office about this act they claimed Mark Wilson had not made the statement as British Consul of course. So why does bar tender Mark Wilson spout off that I am a nutter? It transpires he is repeating his customer Jack Daniels' line that I am the owner / operator of Bali BS and Fugly Bali without proof, and that somehow standing up for my legal rights, refusing to pay bent (corrupt) cops some money to leave me alone somehow makes me a "nutter". As I have never been medically certified or even examined for mental problems, as he has no proof I am the owner / operator of Bali BS and Fugly Bali (as there can be no evidence against me), what I am told in writing Mark Wilson said is slanderous in both the civil and criminal sense.

I would not normally mind except to retort Wilson is a big mouthed, perhaps drunken bar keep of a tiny pub on a tiny island. But it does not help matters when his words are taken as those of the British Consul and that consequently the likes of hooch customer Jack Daniels can say to his Balinese police "friends" who are out to afflict my human rights as a result of his corruption bungs (bribes); "Look, even the British Consul is against Mark Austin".

I met Mark Wilson in Bali in 2o02 when I had problems with the police conducting an unlawful investigation against me involving the illegal seizure of my British passport, and I did not think much of Wilson then. Mark Wilson describe my email, the one that started all of this (see: email) as "a little bit harsh (on the police)" because it mentioned some police officers were corrupt. My God Wilson wake up; there are enough human rights groups out there stating most if not all the Indonesian police are corrupt and commit serious human rights violations (rape, shootings, murder, torture, etc.), yet you feel my email was a little harsh on your "friends" in Brown uniforms!

Ah yes, but then isn't that closer to the truth about Mark Wilson and why he says and acts the way he has over me? For not only did this third party let me know what Wilson had said about me, but he also claimed Mark Wilson admitted being a victim of Balinese police corruption and involved in a little bit of the same himself! Not very hard to believe of course with confirmation from the Jakarta Post, in relation to the imported booze shortage in Bali over Christmas 2008, that a massive 3/4 of the imported booze on sale in Indonesia comes in illegally, without paying duty, with counterfeit duty stickers. So how much of Mark Wilson's booze is illegal hooch? And isn't that just the perfect material and likely reason Wilson is alleged to have paid a few coerced police bungs himself? So my not paying corruption bungs is the reason I am a nutter is it Mr. Wilson?

The prospect of the British Consul being a police corruption victim is hardly good news for Brits who might one day need his help. However, when I put the specter of their British Consul being both a defamer and victim of corruption himself to the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, their response was;

"With regard to your e-mails of 30 March and 2 April, in which you refer to remarks allegedly made by the 'British Consul to Bali'. We take such allegations seriously and have spoken to Mark Wilson, our Honorary Consul in Bali, about them. We do not accept there has been any impropriety on behalf of Mr Wilson, and we are assured that any matters relating to your case have been kept strictly between consular officials. It is also unclear what you mean, in your e-mail of 30 March, by describing Mr Wilson as the 'victim of police corruption'. However, this is a matter for Mr Wilson, and given that he has not reported any such incident to us, it is a matter on which we are not free to comment further."

If you read it carefully, you will no doubt see the careful wording describing Mark Wilson on the one hand in his official capacity as Honorary Consul, and almost seamlessly then as pub owner on the other hand. Notice too the lack of a categorical denial that Mark Wilson said the things others claim he has and / or been the victim of police corruption himself (as a pub owner of course your majesty) in Bali!

Finally, I have to admit defeat for now with the British FCO in that I was trying to force them to intervene in my case with the Balinese police, which is why I took such offense to the reported words of Mark Wilson. After the FCO told me they could not intervene in the domestic judicial process of a foreign country (Indonesia) while openly interfering in the domestic judicial process of some less economically and strategically important countries (vis- à-vis Gillian Gibbons / Sudan - remember, the Sudanese Authorities were not acting unlawfully against Ms. Gibbons), I managed to convince two British Members of Parliament (one the Liberal-Democrat Shadow Foreign Affairs Spokesman, the other a member of Old Labour) to file a complaint with the British Parliamentary Ombudsman against the FCO's decision not to intervene. The complaint has now been provisionally denied on a technicality (of course). Apparently, as it stands, British citizens living outside the UK are not entitled to the same legal rights and with that the support of the FCO and Parliamentary Ombudsman as those resident in the UK! This apparently is changing and as an expatriate I will one day be eligible for the same rights from the British Government as UK residents; yippee!

It is ludicrous the FCO say they can not intervene with the Indonesian police solely because they are threatening me with unlawful and even illegal acts, that I have to travel to Indonesia and have the police actually commit those acts against me before the FCO can do anything for me! No thanks guys! And anyway, I have recently acquired another country's citizenship and will qualify for one other in a year's time, so I will no longer need the FCO's "help" thanks. I find it totally amazing just how much more protection other EU member states afford their citizens overseas than Britain does and it is a sick joke I am entitled to greater human rights protection as a British citizen from Spain and Portugal (while resident in those countries) then I am from the UK.

Of course selective British FCO help for their citizens depending on which country they are in or being afflicted by has nothing to do with British Foreign Policy, has it?! The fact the British Government now provides soft loans directly to elements of the Indonesian police, allowed under the so called "War on Terror" does not show them to be duplicitous supporters of human rights abuse at all right? The private pension scheme and employment reliance on major British Corporations through their offshore subsidiaries (exempt from EU law of course your honour) to make billions of reportedly dishonest dollars from human rights abusing "partners" such as Indonesia, a country that does not like to be criticized on pain of less preferred contract award status in the future; this has nothing to do with one rule for the Sudan, one for Indonesia correct?

God bless the EU

Roy Thompson, a very nasty “man” in Ubud Bali

2009-04-11T00:29:00.000-07:00

News Flash: Roy Thompson has been exposed as a criminal on another blog site operated by his best friend! Roy Thompson Bali Illegally Sells Indonesian Antiquities on eBay

Roy Thompson is the reason I closed my company’s charitable reservations site Travel Ethos. In the four days leading up to Christmas 2008, while others were wishing “Good will to all men”, Roy Thompson falsely accused me of defrauding the charities my web site supported, said he was going to have this published on the Internet including through his partner-in-crime Jack Daniels’ Bali Discovery Tours Web Site and “Bali Update” ezine (sent to thousands of people), that he was going to contact as many hotels / villas on the Travel Ethos web site as possible and inform them of the same, and finally would be filing a criminal complaint against me for charity fraud with the Balinese police.

Roy Thompson, who lives in the village of Bunutan-Kedewatan near Ubud in Bali (Indonesia), then took the step of emailing the Thai Charity my site supported, the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, an organization which takes children off the streets and gives them a life aside the child sex industry, and repeated his malicious, false allegations to them. The people of Bali can therefore thank Roy Thompson for this blog, as I would not have published it if it were not for him.

The documented fact is, my company’s web site Travel Ethos, when it sent invoices (guest stay commission claim statements) to the hotels and villas of Bali and Thailand, these only ever stated that the accommodations providers pay directly into the charity’s nominated bank accounts; no other bank accounts were detailed or even mentioned, so no money was or could ever be defrauded by my company or I as Roy Thompson claimed.

Above excerpt from a Travel Ethos commission statements to hotels & villas in Bali.

Roy Thompson stated his justification for doing this was that I had called him a drug dealer and his wife, Ni Nyoman Eri a whore on the Nasty Bali Blogspot web blog, a clear rip off of my own Nasty Bali and other web sites, but not one of my making or doing as Roy Thompson claims. I suspected then and I believe now the Nasty Bali Blogspot site was actually composed and published by Roy Thompson, taking material from other sites, in order to be able make a case against me. Although I did, I am ashamed to admit, describe Roy Thompson as a small time drug dealer and Ni Nyoman Eri a whore / sex industry worker, I only ever did this in an email to him, not to anyone else, and only because he kept emailing me with insults. I regret, apologize for and retract this statement to Roy Thompson, which I did in a moment of frustration following a deluge of insulting emails from him to me. Regrettably Roy Thompson saw fit to publish this email on his own anti-Mark Austin Mad Hatter Blog, which is part of the reason I suspect he is behind the Nasty Bali Blogspot, as I do not believe anyone in their right mind would publish text which describes their own wife as a whore.

Roy Thompson would find a number of ways to make sure his emails of hate were received by me after I had banned his email address on my PC, such as opening up new email accounts and abusing the “Contact Us” form on my travel forum; over Christmas Eve and Day 2008 he sent no less then 17 hate emails to me and Travel Ethos with no more than a 5 hour gap in between them; instead of spending Christmas with his family like everyone else, Roy Thompson bombarded me yet again with hate mail. Here are two of his first emails to Travel Ethos, others can not be shown for legal reasons and because they contain profanities;

Roy Thompson has made defaming and making trouble for me his occupation. In April 2007 he published my passport photograph and information on his blog; see the data published at the top of his blog regarding my date and place of birth, which clearly comes from a (actually my) passport;

The photograph has since been removed; Roy Thompson now denies ever publishing these things though last time I looked at his blog the passport data on my date / place of birth was still there. Roy Thompson does a lot of things he subsequently denies.

If you are in any doubt that the photo and personal data came from my passport, here is one of Roy's emails which came into my hands after it was forwarded on by his friend, Bert Vierstra, a Dutchman resident and alleged pedophile in Lovina;

Roy Thompson told a 3rd party that he got my passport scan from one of Made Pastika’s sons (Made Pastika is the former police chief and current governor of Bali), who Thompson is on record (in another email) as claiming (Pastika's son) is one of his close friends. Actually, another more reliable source informed me that Thompson got my passport scan from Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours, who in turn paid for it from the Balinese police’s Cyber Crime department chief, Tri Kuncoro.

Scans of my passport and credit card, the former which the police took during their unlawful detention of me in 2002 and the later I understand they got as part of their “investigation" into me from the hotel I stayed at, were used to defraud me (my credit card). On my Budi Setywan (former police chief of Bali) blog page you will find copies of police documents which prove the police sell / sold details from my investigation file to third parties, to try and get at me but also to make a profit (corruption bung) from credit card fraudsters (criminals).

I live in hope one day I will be able to file Indonesian criminal complaints and a civil compensation case against Roy Thompson (and others); to understand why this is not currently possible, please visit my Balinese Police / Indonesian Law blog page.

Jakarta Post - Javanese Patsies

2009-04-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

The Jakarta Post makes itself out to be a neutral English language newspaper upholding the principles of freedom of speech. They are not, they are Javanese Patsies. I refer specifically to my experiences with their web site, the Jakarta Post.

The Jakarta Post;
1) Does not publish anything about dissident Indonesian regions such as West Papua (Irian Jaya) which does not meet the Indonesian Government's strict guidelines (only publish what we say you can).
2) Does not publish any facts about police or TNI (army) corruption except for cases in the courts and / or what the Indonesian Government gives them.
3) Does not publish anything which shows the judiciary, government and Indonesia's major corporations commit corrupt fraud unless the government says they can.
4) Edits statements made by 3rd parties so as to change the context and with it the meaning of what was being said.
5) Often publishes people are guilty of crimes before they have been convicted (think slander and Indonesia's legal presumption of innocence).

In April 2009, I gave up posting certain factual rebuttal messages to articles on the Jakarta Post after they a) edited my messages (which they claim they never do) and b) declined to publish quite appropriate responses to articles they had published.

Let me give you an example, in April 2009 they published an article on "How to Name and Shame Indonesian style". I posted a response stating it was dangerous for people in Indonesia to publish a name and shame because of their extremely abused criminal libel law. In that message I stated that people should be careful and make sure they only publish their Indonesian name and shames outside Indonesia and with it outside Indonesian jurisdiction. I also pointed out that even putting themselves outside Indonesia's jurisdiction and very nasty criminal codes did not mean protection even then. I pointed out documented facts on how the Balinese police had unlawfully placed an Interpol watch order against me for a name and shame about them I published outside Indonesia on the basis this somehow terrorized people and therefore I was a terrorist! Correct, I have the proof of this.

So the Jakarta Patsies' article was both badly advised and extremely dangerous, but would they let people know the risks? Oh no, because this would mean publishing something about the police they did not have permission to. It is also clear the Jakarta Post are very much restricted on what they write and allow to be said regarding West Papua.

To show how nasty and even unlawful the Jakarta Post truly are, you need only look at their article regarding Thai woman Chanraem Suwanson, a woman arrested by Indonesian Customs officers at Juanda Airport, Surabaya. Please read their story and see how a) they state her guilt as fact, not allegation, b) they publish a photo of her (against her human rights) while the goons in uniform wear masks to protect their identities, and c) how the officers are handling the bags of narcotics bare handed, thus destroying any fingerprint evidence and making the evidence inadmissible in a court of law (though Indonesian courts overlook such things; think Schapelle Corby). Did the Jakarta Post Patsies allow my comments pointing these facts out? Why no, they did not.

During the phony 2009 elections (phony because no left of right, non-Muslim and / or regional parties are allowed to stand), the Jakarta Post went on and on about how the police were investigating an attack on a West Papua police station by Papuans (armed with only spears, clubs, etc.) left one police officer dead, yet they would not report the AP and other wire stories about how many Papuan civilians, including a 10 year old child, were murdered by Indonesian police firing indiscriminately into a crowd protesting unfair elections. The Jakarta Post also refused to publish the story, widely covered outside Indonesia, about the 5 old Australians being held in West Papua (after having been acquitted of spying - they went to Papua openly but without visas / permits and never got further than the airport) because the prosecutors were not happy! The point being this proved Indonesia does not have a judicial presumption of innocence as they claim. Of course the Jakarta Post declined to publish messages about these events in Papua as well. Absolute proof the Jakarta Post does not report openly and evenly.

In another case and at the same time, the Jakarta Post published details of the trial of Pilot M. Marwoto Komar, the bad ass pilot who crashed a Garuda Indonesia airplane at Yogyakarta Airport killing 21 passengers, including several important Australians. But despite the facts of the time being reported by newspapers outside Indonesia, the Jakarta Post refused to publish my message which simply said "1) Why is Marwoto Komar wearing his Garuda pilot's uniform in court? I thought Garuda had fired him! 2) Who is paying for Marwoto Komar's lawyers? Elsewhere I have read Garuda are! 3) Why was Marwoto Komar charged with deliberately crashing his plane? It seems this prosecution was designed to fail! 4) Why isn't the Garuda fuel bonus scheme at the time of the crash being disclosed and used in the defence? It was widely reported elsewhere Garuda had a bonus program for pilots who landed first time and saved precious expensive fuel. 5) Marwoto Komar was sentanced to 2 years for criminal negligence, which jail is he going to; a regular nasty Indonesian jail or the so-called "Tommy Suharto Suites", a luxury penatentiary where prisoners have there own private street exits/ entrances?

In another, their article was about being proud to be Indonesian. I simply asked the questions "Why are you proud? 1) Indonesia was founded by WW2 Axis war criminals (Sukarno and Hatta) because the USA wanted them in power for political and economic gain while other Axis war leaders were humiliated and put to death! 2) Also, Indonesia's only claim to its territories / provinces is that they are former Dutch colonies. Yet they also state what the Dutch colonials did was evil. So why was it evil for the Dutch to supress indigenous people's aspirations of self-determination by force, but somehow it is not for Jakarta? 3) Many organizations such as Human Rights Watch say Indonesia has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Are you proud of that? 4) Transparency International and others say Indonesia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and Indonesian police, judiciary, politicians and political aprties are the most corrupt in Indonesia, to the extent commerce and even life itself can not take place without corruption. Are you proud of that? 5) The USA, Britain and Australia earn billions of dollars via de facto single award contracts for natural resources, etc. at the expense of the Indonesian people. Their corporations abusing offshore subsiduaries to circumvent their parent company country's own laws on corruption, money laundering, etc. Putting money into the pockets of wealthy influential western business leaders and corrupt Indonesian officials while the everyday Indonesian is just above the bread line. Are you proud of that? 6) Because Indonesian passports can be bought and sold openly, Indonesians face increased visa checks and costs when wanting to travel overseas. Are you proud of that? 7) When my wife tells someone she is Balinese they typically are very curious and happy. When she tells them she is Indonesian they generally frown or look down. Are you proud of that?" Of course, the Jakarta Post declined to publish the message, despite the fact it gave balance to the sea of euphoric twaddle and falsehoods including how Indonesians were perceived with great respect around the world.

The Jakarta Post are patsies. Do not believe what they publish, they have sold out on the principles they falsely claim to uphold.