Messy Politics in Bali

(12/13/2008)

Political posters, banners and billboards are becoming an eyesore in Bali in the period leading up to local legislative elections in 2009. Intersections, roads and byways across the island are cluttered with the pictures and names of those seeking to represent various their parties in coming regional and provincial house of representatives.

As reported by Kompas, no less than Bali's governor, Made Mangku Pastika, and the Chairman of the Bali Election Commission (KPU), Lanang Prabawa, have repeatedly called on political parties and their aspiring candidates to "clean up their acts" and not destroy the local environment with their over-exuberant self-promotion.

Joining the chorus bemoaning the political eye-pollution rampant on Bali's streets is the Head of the Bali-Nusa Tenggara Environmental Office, Sudirman, who has called on the people of Bali to NOT elect candidates for the provincial or national legislatures if they show a disregard for the environment in how they conduct their campaigns during the coming election period. Sudirman said that a candidate's concern for the environment can be judged from the very beginning in the way in which they hang posters and their pictures on roadside trees.

Sudirman cited on case in which a single tree had no less than 35 political posters nailed to its trunk. "This situation shows that the candidates from a number of parties lack proper concern for the natural environment," explained Sudirman.