T

ime flies! It seems like my grandson Amartya was only born yesterday, but on Oct. 3 he turned two, and his parents invited me to Singapore, where they live, to celebrate. “Bring your beachwear Mama”, my son Aditya said, “we’re going to spend the weekend in Bintan.”

Oh what fun! I googled “Bintan” to find out more about it, and lo and behold, it’s part of the Riau Islands of Indonesia! I laughed at my own ignorance, but little did I know it was only the beginning of many surprises related to the island.

From day one I was really impressed by the wide expanses of unspoiled natural beauty, excellent road infrastructure and the cleanliness of Bintan. Due to the proximity to Singapore (a one hour ferry ride), 50 percent of tourists to Bintan are from the neighboring city-state, which is famous for its
cleanliness.

Many Singaporeans regard Bintan, this little island that is famous for its sandy beaches, as a place for excellent seafood and top-end resorts. This “little island” is actually two and a half times the size of Singapore and has a rich cultural and historical heritage, which escapes those who come just to chill out for the weekend and take a break from their exhausting daily grind.

Indonesia wants to promote Bintan as the next best tourist destination after Bali. Oh yeah? A pretty ambitious call. To make a place a tourist destination with repeat visitors, you need a bit more than quiet beaches and seafood.

Oh yes, they have several sporting events like the Tour de Bintan and Ironman Triathlon … but those kinds of events you can do anywhere, providing you have the natural surroundings, infrastructure and of course hotels.

What about the local culture? True I only came for a weekend, but in Bali, the signs of the local culture are everywhere, even if you’re only there for a day. Even if you’re staying in a chain hotel, you know you’re in Bali from the local attire and offerings hotel staff place once or even twice daily in various parts of the hotel.

I was intrigued, because I felt that Bintan does have a lot of tourism potential, but there was something missing. Where were the locals? Had they all been purged? The driver of the car we rented, who was also our guide, is from Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. He has been working in Bintan for six years and is married to a local.

So I decided to do some research on Bintan.

It turns out that the development of Bintan as a resort started during the New Order (1966-1998). The development was initiated around 30 years ago by a consortium of Singaporean companies with an Indonesian partner, the Salim Group, owned by Liem Sioe Liong. Ah, President Soeharto’s crony capitalist!

Apparently the villagers from the local ethnic group were evicted without compensation, despite the fact that, at that time, the land rates were still very low. They were treated like squatters and were simply relocated to god-knows-where.

Tough luck for them if they happened to be a family of fisherfolk and were relocated inland — hopefully they could find an alternative means of employment after having fished for generations. Bintan and the Riau Islands, which it is a part of, are famous for their Orang Laut (sea nomads).

After Soeharto fell in 1998, the locals protested this forced eviction. The Indonesian partner was supposed to deal with this but they did nothing and the protests gradually died down.

Despite the change in government, the agreements between the Singaporean and Indonesian partners remained. Some anthropologists who were hired as consultants tried to influence the development so that the local people could return, but so far to no avail.

So basically, the tourists who lounge in luxury can do so at the expense of the cultricide of the locals. Suddenly, my great weekend doesn’t feel so great anymore.

The saving grace is that the development has been slow. The first phase witnessed the building of the Banyan Tree, Sedona and Club Med, among others. The Swiss-Belhotel where we stayed, and others in the Lagoi area are part of phase II, which will be followed by other phases. The hotels are predominantly chain hotels, while local hotels are mainly in the area outside of the Bintan resort area.

According to an anthropologist friend of mine who knows a lot about Riau, there is actually still a village of Orang Laut in Tanjung Berakit on the east side of the resort area.

However, recently there has been a decision to build another ferry terminal near this village. There are rumors that Russians are involved in buying up the land near the new ferry terminal.

This is worrying for the Orang Laut village, because they are living on land that has development plans attached to it.

Okay, let’s say that both the developers and the government don’t care about the Orang Laut. But even from a commercial point of view, it would be advantageous to bring the Orang Laut back to provide some local color, which is what has given Bali its unending charm, despite the trash and traffic problems choking parts of it.

Otherwise tourism in Bintan will become sterile, unattractive and ultimately, unprofitable.

In the 1990s, some Singaporean anthropologists launched an eco-tourism initiative, which was then called the Kampung Experience. Now they have renamed it the Bintan Heritage Tours and offer it on an ad-hoc basis because the people running it also have other jobs.

When we respect our own culture, we are respecting ourselves. How can you expect others to respect us if we don’t respect ourselves? We get all riled up when Rio Ferdinand, former Manchester United defender tweeted a photo of himself with nasi goreng (fried rice) with the caption: “Nasi goreng lunch.. Keeping it local in #Singapore.”

Hey, let’s go beyond nasi goreng as a signifier of cultural identity, okay? When I gave a talk on Sept. 29 entitled “Indonesia’s Curious Identity Crisis” as the first of the Indonesian Heritage Society Lecture series, I was very pleased to get a question from a young woman who asked how we get young Indonesians to be proud of their own culture. I guess the first step is to be exposed to it.

Next time I visit Bintan with Amartya, my grandson, I will make sure I take him to meet the Orang Laut.
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The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.