GWK : Garuda Wisnu Kencana (Huge Balinese Temple)

The beautiful and serene park, overlooking Jimbaran Bay, was originally meant to be the best cultural park in Indonesia, and maybe, one day, the world.

The 100 or so visitors milling around the 20-hectare Garuda Winsu Kencana cultural park in Jimbaran looked small in comparison to their surroundings. “It’s like visiting a cemetery,” said a young girl watching the sunset from the park, which sits on a hill south of Denpasar.

But now it is just another remnant of the New Order regime, part of an ambition to build world-class landmarks to compete with iconic structures like the Statue of Liberty in New York. Under the auspices of Soeharto, local artist I Nyoman Nuarta was commissioned to create a huge statue of Wisnu, the god of creation, sitting on Garuda, the mythical bird that carries him, with a final height greater than that of the Statue of Liberty. The project was started in 1996-7 and came to an abrupt halt on the 14th of May 1998 when the Rp collapsed along with the government.

The park was also to be equipped with a performance center with 7,500 seats, and ampitheather, a street theater, galleries, restaurants and other artistic attractions. Problems began to emerge almost as soon as construction started in 1997, with the budget ballooning to hundreds of billions of rupiah.

The park was initially the idea of the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Foundation, a grouping that included then minister of tourism and telecommunications Joop Ave, then mining and energy minister IB Sudjana, along with Nuarta and several other influential individuals and businessmen close to Soeharto.

It was to be built in the rocky and hilly area of Jimbaran, which present new logistical problems. The hills had to be cut flat to create the area required for the statue, which is still not finished today. Only the head and torso of Wisnu have been completed.

Land clearing was also an early problem. A 250-hectare plot of land, 100 hectares of which belonged to Badung regency, and the rest to residents, was required. Ten years later, there are still disputes over the matter.

“The clearing program with the local residents has not yet been solved properly,” said Anak Agung Ngurah Rai Riauadi, the park’s public relations manager.
Management of the park’s construction was not effective because so many people shared their ideas and wanted to see them put in place, “which were of course very difficult to accommodate,” he added.

The monetary, social and political crises between l997 and l998 worsened the situation. The fall of the Soeharto administration badly affected the project badly. Today, only 20 percent of the original project has been completed, and construction was halted entirely in September 2004.

Only a few years ago, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to find investors to continue the project. “I promise to you that we will finish the project. It is the pride of the nation,” the President said in a speech. Nothing has happened since then.

I Made Mangku Pastika, former head of the Bali Police, was then appointed chairman of the foundation, while Edi Sukamto, owner of the Kuta Galeria Shopping center, was made the park’s director. “We will continue building the park in May 2008 to commemorate National Awakening Day,” said Mangku Pastika.

However, money will always be a lingering problem for the project. Only a very few investors are eager to invest in cultural projects.

The Use of Shoes Made in Indonesia Campaign

Bandung. Some civil servants in West Java are welcoming a proposal barring foreign-brand shoes at work — even if the provincial governor floored others by proposing push-ups as a penalty for defying the rule.


The plan, set to take effect on July 1, was meant to encourage the use of locally made footwear at government offices, based on a 2009 presidential decree promoting domestic products.

“I am [not afraid of the] sanctions that come with the rule because I already use locally made shoes every day. I have three pairs,” said Nana Adnan, secretary of the province’s animal husbandry office.

“There are many upsides to the policy — helping entrepreneurs, encouraging purchases just right for civil servants’ pockets,” he said. “And quality-wise, they are not inferior to imported products.”

Ade Sukarsah, employed at the provincial headquarters in Bandung, also said he was in the habit of going to work in plain-toes from Cibaduyut — a shoe-producing subdistrict.

“I don’t have many [foreign-label] shoes, maybe only two pairs,” he said on Saturday, a day after the proposal was announced.

“But if it’s for work, I only wear shoes made in the country,” the officer added.

West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan had said on Friday that routine shoe checks would be conducted at government offices once the plan was implemented to ensure that the thousands of provincial-level employees would abide by the new policy.

The newly launched campaign was dubbed “The Use of Shoes Made in Indonesia.”

But the exact punishment for violating the rule had yet to be worked out, he said.

“The penalty can take various forms, including push-ups,” Heryawan said. “What is important is that there will be sanctions.

“This way, we are asking all people, especially civil servants, to side with the people” who work in local shoe manufacturing, the governor had said.

He said it would be up to officers-in-charge to ensure that their employees were toeing the line, adding that checking shoe brands would be “easy.”

However, Heryawan said district- and municipality-level officers will not be required — but encouraged — to follow the rule.

Ali Rahman Sidik, a cobbler in Cibaduyut, said he supported the initiative, but lamented that the government could have helped the industry more by specifying shoemaking districts where civil servants could buy shoes.

“I expect revenues [for Cibaduyut producers] to rise by around 25 percent [with the new rule],” he said.

“But if our subdistrict had been specifically mentioned in the circular as a place to support, revenues could rise by up to 75 percent,” Ali added.

Cibaduyut has 460 shoemaking businesses which produce an average of 4 million pairs of shoes a year and employ around 3,500 workers.

The shoemaker also said he hoped the same policy would be implemented at schools in the province and nationwide because this could boost the domestic shoe industry further.