Jerinx, the drummer of the Bali punk band Superman is Dead (SID), did not waste his opportunity to meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo and urge him to prevent the controversial reclamation of Bali’s Benoa Bay.
SID has been extremely vocal against the reclamation and the band mates are some of the front men of the Tolak Reklamasi Teluk Benoa campaign.
At the meeting with Jokowi on Wednesday, Jerinx strongly protested the massive development project poised for Benoa Bay, according to Kompas.
“We asked the President to immediately revoke presidential decree no. 51/2014, as the reclamation plan is clearly threatening the nature of South Bali and Bali in general,” Jerinx told reporters after his meeting, as quoted by Kompas.
The decree took Benoa out of conservation zoning and had been issued by Jokowi’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“And now a new island will be built in addition to eliminating the livelihood of local fishermen, marginalizing the local community as well.There will be hotels built, a Formula 1 track, and some Disneyland sort of rides that do not connect with the concept of Balinese tourism. People come to Bali not for Disneyland or F1, but for the culture and Balinese traditions. This is what we stand for,” Jerinx said.
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Jerinx says that investors are under a false pretext that Benoa Bay is not feasible to become a conservation area. He also says the Bali Mandara Toll road which is supposedly made to break up congestion in South Bali is actually just to subterfuge direct access for developers to the island.
“Until now, South Bali is still jammed and the toll is just the way to the potential new island,” he said.
In response to Jerinx’s plea, Jokowi reportedly requested more data to learn about the situation. We hope that’s not a blow off but instead an earnest attempt of Jokowi to educate himself further about the controversial reclamation and that he’ll soon take action.
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