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span class="inline inline-left">Komodo National Park would likely get dropped as a New7Wonders of Nature candidate after Indonesia refused to pay a US$10 million fee required by the competition’s organizer, according to the government.

Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said on Monday that Indonesia decided to decline hosting the ceremony announcing the competition’s winners since it was too costly.

“Any threat [based on] our refusal to host the declaration of the vote winners is unacceptable,” he said at a press conference at the ministry.

Wacik said the ministry received a letter dated Dec. 29, 2010, from the New7Wonders foundation saying it would “suspend” Komodo National Park from the list of finalists by Feb. 7, 2011 if Indonesia refused to pay a $10 million license fee.

“It’s not fair and irrational,” he said. “I refuse to be extorted by anyone, including this NGO,” Jero said, referring to the New7Wonders Foundation.

The New7Wonders Foundation should not suspend Komodo National Park from the list only because the Indonesian government refused to host the announcement, he said.

“I will sue the foundation if it suspends the Komodo National Park from the finalists’ list,” he said, adding that the government had appointed a noted lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, to settle its dispute with the foundation.

Komodo National Park is the natural habitat of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) and currently ranks 26th of 28 finalists.

The ministry’s director general for marketing, Sapta Nirwandar, said the government was ready to host the announcement ceremony as long as it could fulfil requirements.

Indonesia would have to pay a US$10 million license fee and an additional $35 million for venue preparation. “It is obviously too expensive,” he said.

New7Wonders Foundation has the right to suspend participants who fail to meet the requirements they agreed to when registering their natural wonders in the competition.

“We haven’t violated any contract,” Jero said. “We haven’t signed any contract relating to an offer to host the declaration of the winners of the vote. So no contract has been violated so far.”

Despite the dispute, Jero said the government would continuously campaign to make Komodo National Park one of the world’s natural wonders.

The government has spent Rp 10.5 billion over the last three years to promote Komodo National Park as a candidate to be one of the seven natural wonders.

New7Wonders president Bernard Weber responded to the ministry’s statement on Monday, saying that Indonesia had reacted by giving misleading and nasty information about its financial commitments. Weber accused Indonesia of spreading prejudice to cover up the government’s lack of responsibility.

In a press release made available to detik.com, Weber alleged that a “prominent” private consortium appointed by the ministry had signed a contract in December for Indonesia to host the announcement ceremony. He refused to divulge the name of the consortium.

Weber, however, said the foundation would keep Komodo on the list until the final round. He previously threatened to drop Komodo from the list.

Separately, UNESCO director Hubert Gijzen said in a letter to The Jakarta Post in January that people should understand the importance of why Komodo was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“Contrary to the Seven Wonders, [the] World Heritage listing is not based simply on a popular vote, but it is the result of an independent and thorough expert review process,” he told The Jakarta Post. (ebf)