Lombok and the island of Sumbawa comprise the province ofNusa Tenggara Barat (NTB), one of the poorest of Indonesia’s provinces (Corner, 1991). Lombok occupies an area of approximately 4740 square kilometres (NTB BPS & BAPPEDA, 1993: 6).At itswidest points, the island is roughly 80 kilometres west to east, and 70 kilometres north to south. Lombok is traversed by a volcanic mountain range, dominated by the imposing Mt Rinjani, which, at 3775metres high (NTB BPS & BAPPEDA, 1993: 6), is the highest mountain in the Indonesian archipelago outside West Papua. Rinjani is an active volcano.Lombok, being located near Bali, Indonesia’s most popular and wellestablished destination for foreign visitors after Jakarta, has been promoted as a ‘Bali Plus’ destination, or as ‘the next Bali’. Like Bali,most of the resort areas for Lombok are planned for coastal areas (JCP, 1987;Wall, 1997). Like Bali also,most Conflict, Power and Tourism in Lombok 483 early tourists on Lombok were welcomed by local entrepreneurs who set up home-stays, small guest-houses, and stalls to meet demand (Cushnahan, 1999; Kristiansen, 1998).
The first starred hotel on Lombok opened as recently as 1989. The Senggigi Beach Hotel (nowHotel Senggigi Aerowisata), is ownedwholly by the Indonesian government airline Garuda andmanaged as a joint venture with the Dutch based firm Utell International (hotel spokesperson, author’s survey, 1999). Ten years later, more than 30 hotels from low-budget to five-star rating, mostly privately owned, were operating in the key tourism area of Senggigi. As indicated, this development of tourismfacilities has not followed a smooth path
on Lombok. Since the second Five-Year Development Plan (1974–1979) of the Soeharto government, tourismhas been advocatedas a vehicle for economicdevelopment (Kristiansen, 1998).However, the ‘New Order’ of President Soehartowas characterised by KKN, ‘Korupsi,Kolusi, dan Nepotisme’ (corruption, collusion and nepotism; Robertson-Snape, 1999;Robison, 1986).As a politically stable authoritarian government for over 30 years, Soeharto’s government could oppress opposition, and fast-track tourism development through regional and local planning systems (Hall & Oehlers, 2000: 79). In addition to Soeharto’s immediate family, other relatives and cronies became extensively involved in tourismdevelopment
on Lombok, as they had on Bali (Aditjondro, 1995).
As Lombok became more popular as a tourist destination, speculators, who often included government officials, police and soldiers, especially from West Lombok, Bali and Java, began to buy large parcels of land in anticipated resort development areas (Kamsma & Bras, 2000; Sudarsono et al., 1999). For example,
in the 1980s, land in the now main tourism area of Senggigi Beach on Lombok was bought by speculators for Rp300,000 per are,2 often under pressure and intimidation, and on-sold for ten times this amount (journalist, personal communication, 1999). In 2001, land in central Senggigiwas offered for sale forRp12 to16 million per are (Invest Millennia Group, 2001). Farmers in the Kute area have been fighting a case for land title or higher compensationfor their land, allegedly often purchased under intimidation by the Lombok Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC) for Rp190,000 to Rp350,000 per are in 1989 (Abdurrahmin, 2000; journalist, personal communication, 1999). LTDC is a joint venture between a private company, PT RajawaliWira Bhakti Utama (PT Rajawali), which holds 65%, and the regional government of NTB, which holds 35%(Abdurrahmin, 2000;Kamsma& Bras, 2000).The former President Soeharto’s oldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana (Tutut) and her husband Indra (Jakarta Post, 1998) and Soeharto’s second son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, have had interests in PT Rajawali (Reuters, 1991; journalist, personal communication, 1999). PT Rajawali owns the Sheraton Resort Lombok at Senggigi (hotel manager, personal communication, 1999). PT Rajawalihas also been amajor shareholder of PT Istana PutriMandalika,which holds 80% equity in the first starred hotel, Novotel Coralia in the Putri Nyale Resort at Kute (Wall, 1996). Furthermore, PT Rajawali has been a major shareholder with the NTB provincial government in PT Pengembangan Pariwisata Lombok (PT PPL – Tourism Development Lombok). PT PPL was set up to develop infrastructure in the Kute area, and also held almost nine million square metres of land in central Lombok (Jakarta Post, 1998), the site of a 484 Current Issues in Tourism proposed international airport. This airport, a gateway to the southern coastal resort areas, has been postponed until at least 2005 (government spokesperson, personal communication, 2000). The Southeast Asian economic crisis which precipitated the collapse of the Indonesian rupiah, increased levels of foreign debt, threw millions into unemployment, and saw a decline in living standards across Indonesia (Hall, 2000: 157). This contributed to increasing political instability and the overthrow of Soeharto in May 1998. Since then, further tourismdevelopment on Lombok has been ‘on hold’, partly because of legal problems in relation to land acquisition issues and partly because capital has dried up, or fled. One hotel, part of the Sahid group, in the centre of Senggigi, has remained untouched, halfconstructed, for more than two years.
The transitional government of President B.J. Habibie, who had been Soeharto’s vice-president, lasted less than 18 months. During this time the East Timor crisis erupted, following a referendum on independence. President Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as ‘Gus Dur’, took office in October 1999. PresidentWahid led a new period of democratisation of social and political life. Since Soeharto’s demise, many corruption watch groups and newspapers have reported extensively of corruption allegations, but it is acknowledged that it will
take a long time to resolve issues and to undo tight links between business and politics for most of Indonesia’s élite (Murphy, 1999). At April 2001,Wahid’s own leadership was in crisis,3 and Indonesia was still beset by great economic and political instability across the archipelago, which continues to impact significantly on tourism, both in terms of development and tourist numbers (see also Hall & Oehlers, 2000).
Tourist arrivals across Indonesia declined from a high of nearly 5.2 million international arrivals in 1997 to 4.6 million in 1998 (Statistics Indonesia, 2000). Whilst national tourist arrivals climbed back to 5 million in 2000 (WTO, 2001), arrivals on Lombok continued to fall to below the 1995 peak of 245,049 foreign visitors (see Table 1). Although these numbers cannot be validated with 100% accuracy due to conflicting methodologies for collecting tourism data, a task shared by three government agencies, they do indicate a trend for arrivals (see also Tourism Resource Consultants, 2000).Nationally across Indonesia, tourist arrivals were cumulatively affected by the economic and financial difficulties following the Southeast Asian economic crisis of 1997; political unrest culminating in theMay 1998 riots in Jakarta and the subsequent overthrow of the Soeharto government; the 1999 East Timor crisis; continuing unrest in Indonesia, especially Maluku, Aceh and Kalimantan; environmental aspects such as smoke haze; and local security issues given international
media attention (Hall, 2000; Tourism Resource Consultants, 2000).
The notion of any tourism industry, let alone a sustainable one for Lombok, was further dampened in January 2000, as tourists, together with expatriate workers, as well as Christian and Chinese residents, fled Lombok when Christian and Chinese businesses, churches and homes were attacked during three days of rioting, widely reported in local, national and international media, for example, the Jakarta Post (2000a–2000h) on 18–23, and 25, 29, 30 January 2000, see Juniartha (2000); the SydneyMorningHerald 19–22 January 2000, see Cole-Adams and Dent (2000), McDonald (2000), Murdoch (2000), Reuters (2000a, 2000b) and Williams (2000); and the Australian (2000a–2000c)on 19–22 January 2000, see also Chauvel (2000), Greenlees (2000) and Toohey (2000a, 2000b).
