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RESPONSIVE |
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Shaun Keating,
Yantonius Martamin,
Paulus Tjitradjaja
Singapore, Indonesia
12 October 2002 |
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| 'Have you seen my friend?' |
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The people of Standard Chartered Bank have experienced, first
hand, the greatest traumas of our times: New York, September
11, 2001, HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Bali bombing on October
12, 2002. Sadly, that is what it means these days to be a global
institution. It also means that bad things aren't happening
to ‘them,' they're happening to us, to our family.
This is the story of how one branch of the Standard Chartered
family helped another. It's also an example of the critical
value of local expertise, of cultural sensitivity, of language
and communication. It's not a happy story. It's a tragedy. But
it's also a story of responsiveness, courage, care and concern.
Bali is an Indonesian paradise. It draws vacationers from all
over the world. Among those vacationers on October 12, 2002,
were employees from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.
It was the end of Rugby season. Rugby teams had arrived from
Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore. Shaun Keating
and Timothy Arnold were members of the Singapore Cricket Club.
A group of 15 Club members had flown down to join in the end
of season celebrations.
Most of the bars and tourist shops in Bali are located along
Jalan Legian. At the time, two of the most popular bars were
Paddy's Irish Pub and the Sari Club. Shortly after 11 p.m. on
Saturday, October 12, a dark minivan carrying over 50 kilograms
of explosives was parked outside the Sari Club. Moments later
a suicide bomber entered Paddy's Irish Pub. Once inside the
club, the bomber detonated the explosives in his vest. This
first explosion drove hundreds into the street. The terrorists
then detonated the explosives in the minivan. Many who died
in the second explosion had been fleeing the first. The explosions
killed 202 people. Eighty-eight Australians died. People from
22 different nations perished. Among those who died was Timothy
Arnold. Timothy Arnold worked for Standard Chartered Bank in
Singapore.
I met with Shaun Keating in Singapore shortly after the first
anniversary of the Bali bombing. Keating and Arnold were colleagues
at the Bank. They also played rugby together at the Singapore
Cricket Club.
I asked Keating how he and Arnold found themselves in Bali.
Keating explained, “There's a tournament held annually
in Bali. It's called the Bali 10s. It's a game of rugby where
you put 10 people on the field as opposed to 15. Normally, each
half of a game lasts 40 minutes. With the 10s, each half lasts
only 10 minutes. The 10s are a great tournament as you play
up to four or five games in a day. The camaraderie is fantastic.”
In 2002, the tournament was scheduled for October 12 and 13.
The Singapore Cricket Club sent a team of 15 down to Bali for
the Bali 10s tournament. Timothy Arnold was among this group.
Shaun Keating and a few others travelled down separately, some—like
Keating— bringing their wives.
“We played all day Saturday. That evening, most of the
team went to Kuta (the area where the night life is located).
My wife and I went out to meet up with some friends of ours.
We were thinking of joining up with the others later on. Ultimately,
we decided to head back to our hotel…And then, about midnight,
I had a telephone call telling me there had been an explosion.”
Keating and his wife hadn't heard the explosion. Their hotel
was 20 minutes by car from Kuta. Keating assumed that it had
been a small explosion—nothing too serious. Nevertheless,
he turned on the BBC and watched as news of the explosion began
to appear on the television. It was soon clear that the devastation
was catastrophic.
Keating was reluctant to leave his wife alone at the hotel.
He was concerned that there might be further trouble in surrounding
areas. At daylight, Keating went to look for his teammates.
He met up with two of them who had been out searching since
early morning. One had injured his knee and decided not to go
out with the others. The other had walked out of Paddy's Irish
Pub only minutes before the explosion. The three of them were
joined by another teammate who had been out dining with his
wife when the bomb exploded. The four of them then set off in
search of their missing teammates. They found one teammate who
had been very badly burned, but could still walk. That afternoon,
Keating's wife and another teammate and his wife, accompanied
the injured man back to Singapore for treatment.
Keating and his teammates found three more survivors. All three
were badly burned. Seven of the group from the Singapore Cricket
Club had survived. Eight others died.
Fortunately, Keating had told his colleagues in Singapore that
he was going to Bali for a rugby tournament. Early Sunday morning,
his colleagues in Singapore went into action. They contacted
the Bank in Jakarta and asked if someone could go to Bali to
look for Keating and Arnold.
On Sunday afternoon, Keating received a call on his cell phone
from Yantonius Martamin. Martamin and Paulus Tjitradjaja had
flown into Bali from Jakarta. They'd been sent by the Bank to
look for Keating and Arnold. Keating was astonished at how quickly
the Bank had become involved. Astonished and relieved. Keating's
search for survivors was hampered by his inability to communicate
in the local language. Perhaps Martamin and Tjitradjaja would
have better luck.
I met with Yantonius Martamin and Paulus Tjitradjaja in Jakarta
just prior to my meeting with Shaun Keating in Singapore. I
had hoped to interview Martamin and Tijitradjaja in late 2002,
but they did not feel comfortable at the time talking about
the experience. It had been too traumatic and was still too
fresh in their minds. Martamin had led the Jakarta team in Bali.
Tjitradjaja provided essential moral and physical support and
encouragement. Tjitradjaja encouraged Martamin to tell the story
from his perspective. Clearly, Martamin had been at the grim
front lines.
“I woke up on the Sunday morning about 7 a.m. I was having
breakfast with my son, and I turned on the television and all
the news programmes were reporting on the bombing.” Martamin
is a member of Jakarta's Crisis Management Team. As soon as
he realised the extent of the tragedy, he called his CEO, Ray
Ferguson. Ferguson immediately called an emergency meeting of
the Crisis Management Team at his home. The Team discussed all
the possible implications of the bombing and how it might affect
their business—either directly or indirectly. They also
wondered if someone from the Standard Chartered Bank family
could be involved. The meeting adjourned at noon with a promise
to meet first thing Monday morning to review the situation again.
Martamin decided that it might be a good idea to be prepared
to fly to Bali. He asked Tjitradjaja to purchase two plane tickets
to Bali. Martamin also went to his ATM and withdrew as much
cash as he could. Considering the circumstances, he thought
he would need to take as much cash as possible.
At 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Martamin received a call on his
cell phone from Chris Eriksen in Dubai. Eriksen was Group Head
of Security at Standard Chartered Bank. Eriksen told Martamin
that several Standard Chartered Bank employees were in Bali
and that one, Timothy Arnold, was still missing.
Martamin and Tjitradjaja caught the 6:30 p.m. flight to Bali.
By the time they reached Bali, the Bank's Crisis Management
Team had identified the hotel where Arnold was registered. They
also faxed a photo of Arnold to the hotel Martamin and Tjitradjaja
would be staying at.
Martamin and Tjitradjaja arrived in Bali a little before 8 p.m.
They managed to rent a car and find their hotel. Martamin knew
Bali well. But he had never seen it so quiet and so charged
with anxiety. Clearly, something terrible had happened.
They retrieved the fax of Arnold's photo and began asking everyone
they met if they had seen Arnold or knew what had happened to
him. Initially, everyone was reluctant to respond to their request.
Martamin decided that they should sit down, have a drink and
develop a strategy. They didn't want to get in the way or alienate
anyone. They wanted to find the best way to find their colleague.
“We decided that we would not say that we were from the
Bank. We didn't want to complicate things. We would tell people
that we were looking for our friend, not our colleague. From
that moment forward all we said was, ‘Have you seen my
friend?'”
The first hospital they visited was the Sangla Hospital. It
was a scene of chaos, confusion and horror. So many injured,
so many dead. “We were very systematic. We visited each
and every room and made sure that we got a good view of whoever
was in the room—no matter how badly injured they were.”
The most difficult moment for Martamin was when he came upon
a young girl who was badly injured. She was the same age as
his son. Her parents had been killed. Martamin added, “Whoever
you are— when you go through such a crisis, you become
brother and sister. In that circumstance, we are all a family.”
Martamin and Tjitradjaja approached each nurse, every doctor,
every policeman and member of the military. They held up Arnold's
picture and asked, “Have you seen my friend?”
They visited every hospital in the region several times. Each
time they returned to a hospital, there would be a revised list
of the dead and injured. Finally, at Sangla Hospital at noon
on Monday, Martamin and Tjitradjaja met up with Keating and
his teammates.
Both groups had made separate rounds of all the hospitals. Keating
was fairly confident by this time that they had found all the
survivors. Now the task was to identify the bodies of the victims.
Nevertheless, Keating asked Martamin if he and Tjitradjaja would
check the hospitals again. Keating and his teammates would begin
checking the morgues. They would keep in touch—and keep
each other informed as to their progress—by cell phone.
Martamin and Tjitradjaja spent almost 20 hours on that Monday
looking for Arnold. They returned to their hotel exhausted but
unable to sleep. Martamin called his wife and son. He had nothing
to tell them; he just needed to hear their voices.
Monday became Tuesday. The search continued. Martamin recounts
the search among the dead clearly, almost clinically. It was
not an easy task to do—nor are they easy memories to live
with.
By Tuesday, it became clear that Arnold had probably been a
victim of the blast. Keating returned to Singapore. Martamin
returned to Jakarta briefly on the Wednesday. He returned to
Bali later that day with Stuart Horseman, also a member of the
Crisis Management Team, as Arnold's family were flying into
Bali from England on the Thursday.
Timothy Arnold was 42. He had two brothers and three sisters.
His parents, his two brothers and two of his sisters arrived
in Bali on Thursday, October 18. Martamin, Tjitradjaja and Horseman
were there to meet them.
One of Arnold's brothers wanted to continue the search for his
body. Martamin neither discouraged him nor encouraged him. Martamin
felt that his role was to be there as support. He wasn't going
to tell them what to do. It was their brother and son. If they
wanted to continue the search, Martamin would help.
Finally, the family asked to visit ground zero, the site of
the blast. Martamin says that Arnold's father was a very strong
man—he held the family together. But when he saw the crater
the bomb had left, he wept. Timothy Arnold's body was never
found. His remains were identified three weeks after the bombing.
They had been matched with a DNA sample taken from his mother.
It was such a senseless tragedy. But It's also a story that
illustrates the remarkable character of the people of Standard
Chartered Bank. It's about their sensitivity, their care and
concern. And it's about their sense of family.
How do you end such a sad story? At 2 a.m. on that Monday morning,
Shaun Keating was waiting in the intensive care ward of Sangla
Hospital. One of his teammates was in the intensive care ward
waiting to be flown out to Singapore. While Keating was waiting,
three mothers in labour were admitted to the ward. On that night,
in that ward, three babies were born. Amongst all the sorrow
and pain, fathers smiled with pride and mothers wept with joy.
As Keating said, “Life goes on. There's no other way to
see it.” |
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