Kristen Gray came under fire on Sunday, when Indonesians took to Twitter to condemn her after her posts went viral and sparked a fierce online debate on the intersection of identity, rule of law, colonialism and minority grievances.

The Twitter users accused the 28-year-old of making money from her posts, which suggested foreigners could move to Indonesia on the cheap amid the global health crisis and strict travel restrictions.

Gray’s thread, posted on her now-locked account @kristentootie, prompted ire among Indonesian netizens who castigated her for overstaying her visa and evading Indonesian tax rules while generating illicit income during her stay, as well as for promoting international travel to Indonesia during the coronavirus pandemic and attendant policies.

Indonesia has been seeing record daily increases in the COVID-19 tally in recent weeks, with 12,568 new cases and 267 deaths on Wednesday. Gray’s posts included “boasting” about living in a tree house in Bali for US$400 a month, claiming it was far below the average rent for a studio apartment in Los Angeles.

This prompted accusations of contributing to the socioeconomic gap between foreigners and Balinese, who earn a monthly minimum wage of around Rp 2.5 million ($177).

Parading her “free and easy” lifestyle online was also said to fuel the allegedly growing resentment in Bali toward foreigners. According to the comments from Indonesians on the thread, the general impression among the Balinese appeared to be that foreigners tended to treat the resort island as their personal playground for fun and financial gain, while showing ignorance of and disrespect toward Balinese values and customs.

Joining the debate, local feminist author and academic Intan Paramaditha said that the rage many Indonesians were feeling was deeply rooted in the nation’s history of colonial subjugation and capitalist expansion.

“Travel is often seen as fun and innocent due to the popular narrative of ‘escape’ and ‘finding oneself’, but it is in fact about power, inclusion and exclusion [and] depends on your national identity, race, gender, class and religion,” Intan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Explaining further, she said that travel was embedded in colonialist exploration, which was seen as an important factor in supporting European colonial expansion.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, many European scholars, photographers and officials visited colonized lands to return with reports about the cultures they encountered, which were invariably described as childlike, backward and despotic.

In her thread, Gray had expressed her grievances about coming from a triple minority background as queer, African-American and female — a fact that sparked further debate online. Even so, this did not prevent her from using her American passport to set up a comfortable life in Bali.

Meanwhile, the central government is attempting to jumpstart the economy of its most famous holiday destination, from encouraging domestic tourism to speeding up preparations to reopen the resort island, despite limited progress in curbing COVID-19 infections.

But this was not evident in the way authorities handled Gray’s case.

Following the brouhaha on Sunday, the Bali Immigration Office moved to deport Gray and her partner for “spreading information that unsettles local residents”, including painting the island as “queer-friendly”.

Local reports quoted Gray, who spoke briefly at the immigration office late Tuesday, as suggesting that her sexual orientation was the reason behind her deportation.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia