Balinese encouraged to vote for eco-friendly candidates

Irawaty Wardany ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Fri, 06/06/2008 9:47 AM  |  Bali

Environmental activists have urged the Balinese to vote in the upcoming gubernatorial election for candidates with a strong commitment to environment issues and a clear agenda on protecting the island's ecological diversity.

"To commemorate World Environment Day on June 5 we are conducting a campaign with the theme 'Don't Elect Environmental Disasters'," Agung Wardana, head of the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) told The Jakarta Post here Wednesday.

He said the campaign was aimed at educating the public to remember environmental issues when choosing candidates.

Slated to be held July 9, the election will be the island's first direct gubernatorial election. The Bali General Election Commission (KPUD) has announced three pairs of candidates for the election: Cokorda Budi Suryawan and Nyoman Gde Suwetha, Made Mangku Pastika and AA Puspayoga and I Gde Winasa and Alit Putra.

"So far we have yet to see the inclusion of environmental issues in any of the candidates' priority programs," Agung said.

As part of the campaign on Thursday morning the activists performed a theatrical piece at a busy road intersection in Denpasar to promote environmental awareness.

More than 20 activists participated in the performance acting as governors whose hands were tied, literally, by greedy investors. They repeatedly asked passing motorists to vote for the candidates with strong environmental concerns.

The play, Agung said, underlined the possibility of the candidates having made a deal with investors. The latter funds the candidates' campaign and, in return, once she or he was elected, the candidate would agree to any projects proposed by the investors.

"We want the public to be aware of such possibilities and they should try to check the sources of the candidates' campaign funds," Agung said.

He added that Walhi did not want to take sides with any one candidate so they let people make their own judgments.

"I think people know more about these candidates. I believe they know which candidates have issued development licenses that don't meet environmental standards," he said.

He added that Walhi was realistic about the outcome of its campaign.

"We did not expect that our campaign would be able to shift the public paradigm. But at least we have warned the people on the importance of environmental issues," he said.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) commemorated World Environment Day by conducting a mangrove planting campaign in Nusa Lembongan Island.

"Our activists and local people worked together to plant mangroves and collect mangrove seeds from the fruits," TNC outreach specialist Marthen Welly told the Post.

He added that they had also created a mangrove seed bank.

"We hope that people who visit the island can plant mangroves too, and they can take the seeds from the bank in Lembongan village," he said.

He added they used the seeds to grow saplings to plant along the island's shoreline.

He said that there were currently 500 seeds in the bank and they expected to nurture up to 2,000 in total.

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