Foreign land ownership erodes Bali's cultural identity

By Bulan L.

DENPASAR (JP): Indonesian regulations encourage foreign investors to develop houses and apartments but prohibit foreign ownership of land.

Real estate developers have urged the government to open the land market to foreigners, but it seems that the government is still a long way from granting this for various reasons. One is that the government's chief concern is still in providing affordable housing for Indonesian people.

In practice, however, particularly in Bali, many land acquisitions by foreigners as well as leasing of property on which houses are built by foreigners have been concluded under the names of local people.

Indeed, Bali with a population of 2.7 million (1990 census) offers millions of attractions. It is the place where the rush for property acquisitions by foreigners is more likely than in any other places in Indonesia. Last year recorded a total of 2.1 million foreign travelers to Bali.

The real estate business started 20 years ago but only recently has it escalated to its present level. Ubud and Sanur were the favorite locations for foreigners in past years, but this business has now expanded to various places such as Kerobokan (near Legian), Klungkung, Pujungan, Tebanan and surrounding areas, even Negara, the western point of Bali. These favorite and hilly places have a magnificent panorama with spectacular views of rice fields, with some properties being near the beach.

In this real estate business, if foreigners lease a plot of land, they do so for a 20 to 30-year period with the agreement that after the expiration date the land, together with the house, shall become the property of the landowner. The government meanwhile is still undecided on whether to limit the leasehold to 10 years.

Paulo, an Italian who has been living in Bali for 15 years, admitted that he leased land in Kerobokan for 30 years. Six years ago he paid Rp 37.5 million for 25 are of land, or at Rp 50,000 per are a year. This antique dealer admitted that leasing land is far cheaper than buying land at Rp 10 million per are (an are is 100 square meters).

"If I had bought it, I would have had to pay Rp 250 million. That is too much, although I could have used my friend's name for ownership of the house," he said, "and besides, I am not going to stay here forever. I don't mind staying here for only 30 years."

Hans Peter, a Swiss, recently acquired a plot at more than Rp 1 billion in Sanur and built a luxurious Balinese-style house involving a well-known architect on this Island of the Gods. He admitted to having paid Rp 25 million per are of land of 0.5 hectare in size. The land and the house were then registered in the name of his friend, a native of Bali.

"I leave everything to him," he said, "In short, I trust my friend. It is up to him if one day he wants to cheat me, but I have deposited the original land certificate in my bank in Switzerland," he added.

According to Paulo, there are also those who notarize the agreement, known as Double Agreement. Miss Kaja, a Japanese lady traveling back and forth to Bali over the last 10 years, admitted to having two luxurious houses in Nusa Dua now worth Rp 300 million each. Both houses were brought under a friend's name, a Balinese man whom she has known for a long time. She also has a notarized agreement concerning the authorization of the house under the name of her friend, "but legally speaking, I am weak," she admitted.

Sometimes she gets anxious when hearing news about foreigners being cheated by so-called friends whose names were used on land deeds.

Most of the foreigners leasing land or owning houses in Kerobokan and surrounding areas are businessmen dealing in antiques and garments, but there are also those who build a holiday house.

Lease

Many lease from Wija Waworuntu, a well-known landowner who also owns part of the land that the Bali Hyatt is built on. Waworuntu is the owner of Tanjung Sari Hotel. He owns luxurious property in Sanur called Batu Jimbar Housing complex. Other well- known house owners in Batu Jimbar who have a leasehold agreement with Wija Waworuntu are Frank Morgan, a prominent lawyer in Jakarta, Adrian Zacka, owner of Amandari and Amankila hotels, and Bryce, one of the top executives at the Hyatt International Corporation in Chicago. These people built their houses on land leased from Waworuntu for 30 years or more. Most of the houses are luxurious Balinese-style buildings used for their owners business relations as well as for rent. Mick Jagger and his wife Jerry Hall, Steve Wyatt and Sarah Ferguson are known to have leased one of the furnished houses with round-the-clock security. The rent is US$1,000 a night.

The implementation of the law that allows foreigners to acquire property has caused land prices to escalate. Prices in such areas as Ubud have increased considerably, particularly in locations such as Sayan, Kedewatan, Campuhan, Penestanan and Mas. The lowest price in Campuhan is Rp 60 million per are. Ubud is preferred for its cool weather and magnificent views of rice fields and for the Ayung river which irrigates the rice fields. There are luxurious houses hidden behind high fences, but a spectacular view of terraced rice fields is visible from these houses. There are two foreign painters who live there, Antonio Blanco and Hans Snel who are married to Balinese women.

There are hundreds of foreigners living in Ubud now on leased land or on land purchased under other people's names. A German businessman, Jurgen Guyer, lives in a house in Sayan. He has leased two hectares of land for 30 years at Rp 300 million, or Rp 50,000 per are a year. As is the case with several other foreigners, he does not want to buy land as he is not going to live here forever.

"I only want to use the house for my holidays, and also this house is for my business relations visiting Bali," said the businessman dealing in slaughtering equipment.

An Englishman, a retired hotelier in Bali, owns a house in Penestanan, Ubud in the name of a local man in Ubud. This house was built almost 10 years ago.

"I only want to live here, I have fallen in love with Indonesia and I do not want to return to my country, so please do not disturb me," he said.

The real estate business has expanded throughout Bali, and not only in Sanur and Ubud. In the western part of Bali, in Pujungan (around 100 km from Denpasar), an Englishman called Daniel has a house in the hilly Pujungan from where one can see the sea at a distance. Before he married, he used a friend's name on the property deeds, but after he married a Balinese he had the deed changed to his wife's name. Daniel is aware of the large business opportunity here so he has also acquired two hectares of land for commercial purposes. Daniel has divided the land into several plots to be sold to interested people. He has constructed a wide asphalted road and has installed electricity. The land which he bought for Rp 300,000 per are is now offered at Rp 6 million per are, for sale to foreigners.

There are certainly unpleasant facts behind land acquisitions under somebody else's name. Take for example Carla, an American author who has been visiting Indonesia for the past 20 years. Two years ago she bought a piece of land in Klungkung, then built a Balinese-style house on it. But her "friend", a Balinese whom she trusted very much in the beginning, could not resist the luxury of the author's house and started to cheat her. He wanted to sell the house because it was registered in his name. Fortunately the American author acted quickly and, with an influential friend in that area, she took over the ownership of the land and house.

"I fought to get my house back," Carla said. She bought the land at quite a cheap price because she used the name of her "friend".

Conflicts

Despite the risk of being cheated, foreigners do not seem too concerned and have continued to cooperate with locals to acquire land or build houses.

There are many people who are enjoying the property boom at exorbitant prices. However, there are also many who are against the trend. They are mainly the cultural anthropologists and intellectuals of Bali, as to them land is closely related to culture and spiritual life.

Another issue is the anxiety of a possibility of conflicts between the culture brought along by the newcomers and the local culture. Many people are worried about a confrontation with the local culture which tends to be a collective and religious one. Many are also of the opinion that attention should be paid to preventing the diminishing of the local culture as is being experienced by the Hawaiian and Betawi people, the indigenous people of Jakarta.

When this matter was brought up to Ngurah Bagus, a Balinese prominent cultural anthropologist, he said that he did not approve of foreign acquisition of land. He argued that the status of land in Bali is different from that in other places. Land in Bali has many religious, social and cultural functions. The sale of land with ownership titles can cause damage to the social and religious entity, he maintained.

"The government should listen to the people. If this process is allowed to go on, the Balinese will have to be relocated. This will not only cause material damage but non-material damage as well, which is very important to the Balinese. The loss of land will make the Balinese a stranger in the environment where they were born, cut off from their environment, whereas in fact the Balinese are raised with a strong bond of banjar (village organization)," he said.

"If that happens, the Balinese will no longer be bound to the original area. Their social relations will become loose and this in turn will result in a social, cultural, political as well as power change," he added.

Putu Suasta, a young Balinese intellectual and businessman who always focuses on the cultural issue, states that the open economic system has left Indonesians with no choice.

"Whether you like it or not, we have to accept any law allowing foreigners to own property," he said. "This would be better than the underhanded way so far, which has caused a lot of cheating," he added.

According to Putu Suasta, at the moment Balinese are saturated with the rapid industrial agrarian development. The Balinese feel besieged by the purchase of their land. As a way out, he suggests two alternatives.

First, it would be better for foreigners to use a leasehold system with a limited term so that the Balinese still have a right to their land. And second, even if the land could be fully owned through acquisition, the government must regulate it properly and tightly so that it shall not be to the disadvantage of the locals, such as by making them feel colonized on their own land.

He added that this should be regulated since to the Balinese the land is a symbol, integrated with the cultural and spiritual life of the Balinese.

"Land is a symbol of the metaphysical world, land is the symbol of bhatara (the gods) where fertility is symbolized by Dewi Sri (the goddess of fertility and prosperity). There is a very close relation between the people and their land. Land is an offering. By turning rice fields into houses, for example, the Balinese have lost their religious symbols," he maintained.