Complaints by tourists visiting Bali such as this one is actually not
new. It is only reported by a highly reputed Time magazine that has raised an
out cry for many people in Bali. We appreciate highly the response given by the
Governor of Bali. Mr. Mangku Pastika that he acknowledges the truth and
suggesting we should introspect ourselves so we can address the problem.
I used to write an article on the Jakarta Post entitled “Bali’s Tourism
Industries destroy itself”, which has raised pros and cons. In my opinion one
of
the causes of the problems of Bali’s tourism is lack of law enforcement. So
many
regulations have been adopted and issued such as beach setback line, traffic
regulation, zone regulation just to name a few. It is not surprising to
encounter that cars are parked under the no parking sign. One of examples here
I
would like to mention is that in the village of Kalibukbuk as the centre of
Lovina Tourist resort a café has been operating in the centre of so many hotels
around it. The café that plays music till 3.00 am local time has made tourists
staying there are complaining and eventually make up their mind to shorten they
planned stay and checking out. Hoteliers in this area call it “one man can
destroy the entire Lovina tourist resort”. Protests from hoteliers have been
submitted to the Head of the village, to the Police Precinct as well, a meeting
was held, the Head of the village has given his word that the problem would be
solved soon. But the reality, nothing is happened and the music goes on.
Tourists come a long way to Bali because among other things they want to
enjoy the beach. In several areas the beaches have been encroached by greedy
people by building hotels or restaurants right on the beaches by breaching the
setback line of the beach. They have killed the goose that lays golden eggs.
Where is the role of the Local Government?
I do hope that all of us will be aware of the problems we are facing
otherwise tourism in Bali will be history.
