Golf: Complicated game

Golf: Complicated game

In a rapidly growing country, such as Indonesia, one can
expect the mushrooming up of golf courses. But the trend has
sometimes provoked public concern and anger across the
archipelago because the courses are built at the cost of the
interests of local villagers.

Many people believe that the development of golf courses is a
demonstration of arrogance amid the ugly reality of poverty.

However, never has there been as controversial and complicated
a golf-related issue as the development of the course on Big Bira
island in Jakarta Bay.

This time the construction caused concerned among
environmentalists first and later the concerned authorities. Last
year, as the construction started, the influential Indonesian
Forum for Environment (Walhi) condemned the activities because
the developer, a private company called PT Pulau Seribu Paradise,
had blatantly disregarded the disastrous environmental
consequences. The forum said that the development of the golf
course was highly destructive to the natural eco-system of the
island, which is among the 78-island Pulau Seribu chain that
belongs to a 108,000-hectare national marine park.

The case took an astounding turn on Tuesday when Jakarta
Deputy Governor of Development Affairs Idroes said that the golf
course had been developed without a building permit. Earlier
reports said the environmental impact analysis for the nine-hole
golf course was still being processed by the City Environment
Office. The analysis is mandatory and must be submitted by a
developer to ensure that any development will not produce
unwanted repercussions in the surrounding area.

So, the question now is: How could this breach of law have
taken place on an island just a few miles away from the seat of
the central government?

At this point no one seems to be able to shed any light on the
confusion.

In cases like this, with the Jakarta administration too weak
to take concrete action, the public tends to believe there must
be powerful persons -- with close relationships or affiliation
with certain people in the ruling elite, or huge amounts of ready
cash -- behind the illegal development.

The truth of this David-versus-Goliath situation has clearly
been confirmed by the fact that even the Minister of Environment
Sarwono Kusumaatmadja had not been able to solve the problem on
his own.

He complained to President Soeharto last week about the poor
environmental condition of Bira Island, mostly the result of the
razing of vast tracts of forest vegetation to make way for the
golf course project. The head of state, according to the
minister, was very concerned at the destruction of the island and
has threatened to prosecute the developer if it refuses to abide
by the law.

While Minister Sarwono, with the President's statement as a
powerful weapon, is busy handling the case, nobody can say yet
whether such a problem will repeat itself here.

We sincerely hope this will not be the case. If a minister is
forced to go to the head of state to borrow from his authority
and to get support from him in every such case of blatant
flaunting of the law, what will be at stake is not only the fate
of an island, but the government's good name.

The problem actually should have been solved by the Jakarta
administration. If only it had been courageous enough to do its
job.

Golf is said to be an exciting game, but the construction of
courses can involve a complicated marathon of painstaking work
and a number of sensitive aspects like the impact on the
environment and the local populace.