Power of Social Media

A video showing staff of a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, sifting through the baggage of a group of Indian guests is gone viral on social media. The 2 minutes and 39 seconds long video reveals that the guest had packed stuff from their hotel room, a villa to be precise, in their baggage on the notion that they could leave without being suspected of taking items away, as a matter of fact, stealing those items."Bali Incident" is all over the social media, resulting in a huge rage against the accused.

As a standard practice, while the guests were checking out, Housekeeping staff checked the room and noticed that the hotel's belongings are missing. Security was called, apparently, there was an argument, shouting etc until the hotel security personnel opened the bags and found the missing items. All this while, the proceedings were videoed and eventually made public. Not just in this case, but usually, all this is done in the name of technology, social media, communication, creating awareness & whatnot, and all this at the cost of humanitarianism and causing shame to the individuals by an individual or a group of people who instantly decide to become judiciary themselves.

Hotel management might have a legally protected right to go through the baggage of guests checking out & in some extreme cases, may report the matter to the concerned authorities. Recording the video and sharing it through social media makes the hotel management as erroneous and inexcusable as the accused guests in the video. Towards the end of the clip, with the voices overlapping, one of the accused men is heard shouting (seemingly) on the family, saying something like that he could buy all this and a woman is heard saying something like that the (young) girl has done it.

Gathered from various news pieces, I understand that the incident was reported to the local police however the accused were not booked. Eventually, the issue was resolved with mutual consent between the hotel and the accused. After taking the legal step and reaching a mutual resolution, posting the video on social media is the worst that, The Royal Purnama Bali could have done.

On social media, Indians are expressing a lot of anger against the accused family for causing embarrassment to the country. While this anger is justified, the critics should also not forget that after the issue had settled, the hotel is not rightful to post this video on social media, at least not without hiding the identity of the accused group.

Not that I have any wish for this to happen but I wonder what if the critics decide to turn against this Balinese hotel for trying to bring shame to Indians in general for a regrettable act of a group of nine people that also included a couple of teenagers, as seen in the video.

Not that I am suggesting but I wonder what if the Indian holidaymakers decide to strike Bali off the list or maybe just The Royal Purnama Bali?

In 2011, travel.cnn.com reported that "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", a Bollywood blockbuster shot in Spain increased Indian tourism to Spain by 32%. Media in any form is powerful.

I am neither an Indian or an Indonesian and I am not trying to accuse or defend any of the two parties. All I am saying is that the accused had not acted responsibly and by sharing the video on social media hotel did the same, that too after taking the legal course. The act of both parties is equally condemnable.

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Police report on facebook; https://www.facebook.com/polsek.polseksukawati/posts/440009373510836