Visa-on-arrival policy

I read the book A year of living dangerously three years ago when my wife and I retired and moved to Lombok. We wanted to learn more about Indonesia's history. I will always remember the part where the people of Lombok were hit by a bad famine, with thousands in the south of the island dying of starvation. The government in Jakarta did nothing as ""they did not care for the people of Lombok"".

Famine is a natural disaster, an act of God, an event us mere mortals are unable to control.

However, omitting Lombok from the new visa-on-arrival policy is a deliberate act, which will damage Lombok's second major industry, tourism. This will have the effect of taking food from the mouths of Lombok's inhabitants. It will have the same effect as the famine all those years ago... But this time the problem has been instigated by the government of Indonesia.

Tourism in Lombok has already endured enough with 9/11, the Bali bombings, war in Iraq and then SARS. With hotels such as The Holiday Inn only having 26 percent occupancy in 2003, who in Lombok needs this shortsightedness from Jakarta?

Immigration officers in Lombok have always been polite, helpful and fair to us both over the past three years and are more than capable of dealing with the new visa policy at Mataram airport. Will the government please review this most unfair and potentially catastrophic policy?

L.T.G. HUGHES Kerandangan, Lombok NTB