A Bali running club would not take Indonesian members

Entourage, a running club based in Canggu on Bali's south coast, organised early-morning "silent disco" runs in May and June, where everyone runs to the same music through their own headphones. Indonesians who asked to join say they were refused, and they posted the screenshots. After the outcry online, immigration authorities blacklisted two Dutch nationals linked to the club, which in practice bars them from entering Indonesia. The South China Morning Post reported the case this week.

What spread was not the running. SCMP writes that the row revives long-standing concerns about how Indonesians are treated on their own island, and that it has resurfaced claims that racism and colourism are alive in Bali. Colourism means treating lighter skin as higher status, a bias people usually feel in small moments rather than see written down. A club on Indonesian soil that Indonesians could not join gave that complaint something solid to point at, which is why the screenshots travelled so fast.

The blacklist also shows the harder problem underneath. SCMP says the case underlines the challenge facing officials trying to rein in foreign-run activities suspected of breaching Indonesia's immigration and business rules. Banning two people is quick; checking foreign-run ventures across the island is slow, and it only happens when someone posts proof and the internet does the finding.

Why it matters

If you live or work around Canggu, this is a story about who gets let in and who gets hired in an economy built on foreign money. The useful lesson is practical: the state moved within days once screenshots were public, so evidence and attention still work better than a quiet complaint. Watch whether immigration keeps checking foreign-run businesses in Bali once the outrage dies down, because that is the difference between one blacklist and an actual rule.