I am indeed horrified by what has happened in Bali and hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice swiftly.

However, what does this bombing really mean for ordinary Indonesians? As the foreigners leave the country which they see as hostile for 'safer' countries, what choice do the locals have?

What is the government of Indonesia to do now? For a country well known for its atrocious human rights record, what does the West require of the Indonesian government when it asks the local authorities to clamp down terrorist organisations? For a country where civil liberties are almost non-existent, how much more does one clamp down?

It was America who helped Suharto into power, and in doing so, thousands of innocents were killed. In 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor. Although the occupation was declared by the UN to be illegal, no action ever followed and since then, a third of the East Timorese population were killed, with extreme prejudice, while Western governments remained silent, or, like Britain, sold arms worth billions of pounds to Indonesia.

So what should Indonesia or other nations do? Order a clampdown, and in doing so, kill more innocent people resulting in more people being pushed to the wall, which can only result in more madness like this?

Some say this is the beginning of a new era. This area is no longer safe. This region has never been safe especially for the millions of people stricken by abject poverty.

But who cares about justice? We just need to make sure those tourists keep spending their dollars here. We need to keep those foreign investments coming, and for this, we will pay any price.

But the thing is, it is not us, the elite, who pay the price; it is the poor and defenceless.

What price is too high to pay? We should ask ourselves this question, and perhaps we will learn something about ourselves and what we have become.