O

n Saturday, July 9, 2011, I visited the world famous Borobudur temple in Central Java and found that the management of the Borobudur-Prambanan-Ratu Boko tourist destinations was shamelessly and blatantly practicing racial discrimination, by making people who look foreign pay around seven times the price of the already pricey tickets that people who looked Indonesian had to pay.

This discrimination is in contempt of Indonesian law, because we ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1965, with the publishing of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia, Number 29 Year 1999 (UU RI 29/1999).

I tried to inform the management of Borobudur that they were breaking the laws of our country, and that the institutionalized discrimination that they were practicing was a disgrace, but the two managers that met, Iwan Meilana and Urip Nugroho, stubbornly refused to cease the institutionalized discrimination their company was practicing.

Even after I presented a printed version of the Anti Discrimination Act, they chose to persist in their actions in full knowledge that they were acting in contempt of Indonesian law.

I understand that the Borobudur-Prambanan-Ratu Boko tourist destinations are fat cash-cows for the company that manages them, but institutionalized discrimination must end. Many tourists will be willing to pay the discriminative charges, but if you are a tourist visiting these places, and you do not support racism and discrimination, please, raise your voice and protest the shameless racism that the management of Borobudur-Prambanan-Ratu Boko is illegally practicing. Racism and discrimination is illegal in Indonesia.

Bramantyo Prijosusilo
Yogyakarta