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No extravagant ceremony to welcome Obama: Official
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All ready: Army personnel talk among themselves after the final rehearsal of security measures for former US President Barack Obama's vacation in Bali on Friday. Obama and his family will have a five-day holiday in Bali before they go to Yogyakarta on June 28. (JP/Ni Komang Erviani)
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Bali official has said no extravagant ceremony had been prepared to welcome former US President Barack Obama and his family, who are expected to arrive on the resort island for vacation on Friday afternoon.
The Bali administration’s people’s welfare and governance assistant, Dewa Putu Eka, said Obama expected privacy during his vacation. Hence, only four officials would give welcome greetings to Obama and his family upon their arrival at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport.
They are Bali Governor I Made Mangku Pastika, Ninth regional military command (Kodam IX) Udayana commander Maj. Gen. Komaruddin Simanjuntak, Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Petrus Reinhard Golose and I Gusti Ngurah Rai Air Force Base commander Col. Wayan Superman.
“Although this is a private visit, we will still apply the standard operational procedure for securing former state leaders, but it will be limited. There will be no welcoming ceremony with a special traditional dance performance, for instance. Once they arrive, they will directly go to the hotel,” Putu Eka said as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.
He further said that Obama had requested that media companies not cover his arrival. He only approved officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Bali administration to make a documentation of his arrival at the airport.
Obama is scheduled to arrive in Bali at 5:55 p.m. local time on Friday. He will holiday in Bali until June 28 then he will continue his trip to Yogyakarta and Jakarta. He will be traveling to Bali with an entourage of 13 people, including his wife and children. (ecn/ebf)
