The Visa On Arrival (VOA) that many visitors to Indonesia pay $25 for is a roaring success according to the minister of justice.
In this article gives his impressions of how the first 6 months played out. He seems pretty up beat about the whole thing but as the article points out he’s not taking all variables into account.
I’d like to give my assessment of his assessment. Here are my talking points:
1. The VOA does negatively affect tourism. Anytime you put a barrier in front of customers it affects them.
2. The Indonesian government likes the VOA as it is the shortest ‘line to money’ they can possibly get. Take 25 bucks of every arriving tourist, even before they get to smell the outside air. This goes directly to Jakarta…sweet as mate!
3. Justice minister Mr. Yusril Ihza Mahendra belongs to a hard core Muslim group whose declared goal is to turn Indonesia into a ’sharia state’ operating under strict Islamic law. He actually wants to destroy the tourist industry and any move that will put the brakes on and be approved will be wonderful for him. I think he’s wasting his time as most people I talk to who are Muslim are pretty cool and accepting and not the hard core variety where everything is a dour sin.
A ‘breaking news’ item this afternoon told about the latest developments in the legal battle to keep the Bali bombers in jail. One guy has had his conviction overturned and this could be a repeating scenario.
I am meeting Lara and Steve later tonight at Rumours for dinner. They are great people and who knows where we’ll end up.
Here’s our 10 day weather forecast.
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Damn, where’s everybody at? I can hear the tumbleweeds rolling around in the background….
You would think more people want to comment on these issues.
Damn, where’s everybody at? I can hear the tumbleweeds rolling around in the background….
You would think more people want to comment on these issues.
Hi Bob,
Yeah I agree!. In fact it would be great if more people posted comments on the Baliblog regarding whatever post Nick puts up (I’m sure you’ll agree with me Nick!). At the moment there is only a handful of dedicated people posting.
Baliblog is there for you folks. Wanna know anything, voice your opinion or whatever regarding Bali, then c’mon, go for it!.
I hate to say it….”But I actually said it would not surprise me if they went free!”
Of course I do not agree as it will not only send the wrong message to Indonesia, but also to the rest of the world & the deranged whom are going to follow suit!!!
I can remember when there was some semblance of peace and harmony in this world…or was I dreaming then?.
Tracey,
It was all ’show’ [the trials] to appease the world’s anger. Justice never prevails in Indo. It happened during the Suharto era, and even though democracy (he, he…) has some evolving form, there will still be no justice.
What I should have written in the previously in this post was:
…it happened during the Suharto era [justice being a spectre], and before that Sukarno, and now that democracy (he, he…) has some evolving form, there will still be no justice.
Tracey,
Here is the article regarding Idris getting off for the Bali bombing from the Jakarta Post’s Today) perspective:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20040824144528&irec=3
Come on all you silent Bali Blog readers letshear your comments good, bad, silly and sensible,whatever you like. I am sure there are quite a few of you out there in cyberspace.
Regs Mark
Regarding the Bali bombers…just do what they said they were going to do with them in the first place and then let some kind of semblance return.
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Regarding the Bali bombers…just do what they said they were going to do with them in the first place and then let some kind of semblance return.
G’Day Nick,
Already posted that article up on the previous post [masakan jawa], but I do agree with your views.
You’d think that the Indo Govt would encourage tourism instead of hindering those with the cash so to speak.
As I commented earlier, itwould be good if at least a third of the VOA profits were put back into the Balinese community. Perhaps using the Banjars as fiancial mediators etc.
Regarding the Bali bombers…just do what they said they were going to do with them in the first place and then let some kind of semblance return. As it is now, the bastards are on easy street!. That’s not funny…..