Foreigners trying to obtain a freehold title on land in Indonesia should note that current law is abundantly clear on both the intent and letter of the law: namely, foreigners cannot directly hold a freehold title on Indonesian land.

Despite the lack of equivocation by the Government on the continuing prohibition of foreign land ownership, it is more than a little ironic to discover companies who erect booths in the arrival halls of Bali's airport, place ads in local publications and distribute brochures - all including the term "freehold" in reference to Bali property. For the reasons included here, we believe anyone using the term "freehold" in connection to a local property transaction should be held immediate suspicion for employing tactics that clearly illegal in many other jurisdictions.

The bottom line: "freehold title" in Indonesia is called "hak milik" in Indonesia and we believe that in order to prevent further confusion that only the Indonesian term "hak milik" should be used in promotion what is, after all, an exclusive privilege for Indonesian nationals. On the simple assumption that all Indonesians speak their own national language, the very use of the English term freehold title in connection with any Indonesian property offering should be seen as highly suspect and its use set cautionary alarm bells ringing in the head of any potential property investors.

What's Going On Here?

Once a deal is finally made, those offering "freehold title" to foreigners on Indonesian\property typically create a legal construction that, in the end, offers nothing resembling the free and direct ownership offered by agents in Bali to a foreign owner. Using a local nominee, local notaries and legal consultants will typically create a multi-party construction that:

. Puts the "hak milik" or "free hold title" in the hand of an Indonesian nominee. It is the Indonesian nominee whose name is on the property title and who free holds the parcel, not the foreigner who is the purchaser "in fact" of the property.

. The notary will also typically create an irrevocable power of attorney in which the nominee owner surrenders all rights to use, sell and lease the subject property to the foreign purchaser. Is such an irrevocable "power of attorney" legally iron clad? The answer is that there is little in Indonesian law that can ever truly be considered "iron clad" and should you eventually transfer your property to a new party you'll still be very heavily dependent on the good grace of the Indonesian nominee owner to attend the notary and sign over the deed to the new owner or his nominee.

. The notary also typically draws up a loan agreement for a large sum of money that is theoretically on loan from the foreign owner "in fact" to the Indonesian nominee. In principle, this creates a lien on the property held by the Indonesian nominee who should remain in benign abeyance for so long as the Indonesian nominee owner stays tame and cooperative. While superficially attractive to a foreigner eager to own a home in Bali, these loan agreements may not have much force of law and are extremely vulnerable to any future vagaries of the "personal bond" between the owner "in fact" and his Indonesia nominee.

Two other legal pitfalls may await such loan agreement arrangements. First, because the loan is fictive the foreign owner may be hard pressed to demonstrate to a court that the alleged "loan" was ever made in the first place to the Indonesian nominee. Also worthy of note is that current Indonesian law also prohibits foreign borrowings by Indonesian entities without prior approval from the Foreign Investment Coordinating Board - an approval virtually always absent in the purchase of land through an Indonesian nominee.

Caveat Emptor - Let the Buyer Beware!

In the face of a legal environment in which foreigners are clearly not allowed to hold title on Indonesian land, any effort to circumvent the intent of the law is wrought with danger and potential future heartache.

The good news in this sad tale is that the law does permit the lease of land and property to foreign individuals and companies for periods of 25-30 years. While not guaranteeing the personal satisfaction of direct ownership of a Bali property, such leases can be registered in the name of the foreign renter and are generally felt to provide a high level of security to the foreigner for the duration of the lease.

In any case, always seek competent legal advise before embarking on any property transaction in Bali. Engage the lawyer to give you a legal opinion before asking him or her to draw up the paperwork to check your property deal.

The Indonesia Supreme Court has rejected a request for a judicial review filed by - one of three terrorist sentenced to death for their role in the October 12, 2002, that claimed the lives of 202 people and seriously injured scores of others.

In rejecting Amrozi's request, the Court found that there was no compelling new evidence being set forth in the request, effectively ignoring the defense team's contention that Prosecutors has erred in charging Amrozi with the anti-terrorism law of 2003 for a crime committed in 2002.



With the latest ruling from the Supreme Court Amrozi has exhausted every legal obstacle separating him from a final date with an Indonesian firing squad.

The only conceivable remaining respite would be a Presidential pardon for Amrozi, a move seen as highly improbable given the widespread support in the community for the execution and the militantly unrepentant attitude of the condemned man for his crime.

Still pending before the Supreme Court are similar petitions for judicial review filed by the remaining two Bali bombers, Iman Samudra and Ali Gufron. The latest decision rejecting the arguments filed on behalf of Amrozi, cannot portend well for the fate of the remaining two condemned Bali bombers.

All three men are being held on death role on Indonesia's remote "devil's island" of Nusakambangan.

The Indonesian-language DenPost reports that HIV positive cases have increased 30% in the space of just two years. There are an estimated 4,041 people in Bali currently testing positive for HIV, up from the 3,000 cases recorded in 2005.

Local experts report that new cases are dominated by infections via sexual contact, primarily via contact with female prostitutes. This is a change for past patterns of new infections when 40-50% of old cases were blamed on the share use of needles among intravenous drug users.

The report quoted local experts who estimate 10% of female sex workers in Bali are HIV positive, up dramatically from an estimated 3% in 2001.

Officials are linking the higher rate of infection among sex workers to Bali's growing population and the burgeoning number of cafes, karaoke, massage parlors and entertainment venues.

The HIV experts also estimated that 100,000 customers are served by female prostitutes in Bali each year with perhaps only 20-30% of those "transaction" employing the use of a condom.

Following several pronouncements expressing confidence that the target of 6 million foreign visitors to Indonesia would be achieved in 2007, Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism is now expressing some misgivings as to whether national tourism targets can be achieved.

Quoted in the Indonesian-language Bisnis Indonesia, Wacik said: "It won't be easy...if (however) we had managed to secure 4 million foreign tourist by the end of July it would have been no problem. There must be an effort and hard work from all parties."

The Minister explained that as of the end of July 2007 only 2.57 million foreign tourist have visited Indonesia, leaving a deficit of some 3.5 million tourist that must be achieved in the remaining 5 months of the year to stay on target.

The Road Ahead

Despite bird flu fears currently plaguing Bali tourism, Minister Wacik said the Government would maximize the benefits of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart September 25-28, 2007 and the U.N. Conference of Global Warming and Climate Change set for early December 2007 - both events slated to take place in Bali.

A Eastern European couple sailing their yacht from New Guinea to Singapore were rescued by Bali's Search & Rescue officers when their main sail tore and engine failed in heavy seas in Bali's Badung Straits on Monday, September 4, 2007.

The couple, George Denk Jiri (Czechoslovakian) and Judi Soucova (Slovakian), found themselves adrift for 13 hours trying to seek help via radio connection with shipping agents in Bali Benoa harbor.

According to the Indonesian-language Nusa Bali, the Benoa Port Administrator immediately dispatched a rescue boat to commence a search of the ship at peril in Bali's oceans. After an extensive search the 12 meter-long sailing yacht was found and towed into Benoa harbor at 10:00 p.m. where the couple will undertake necessary repairs before resuming their journey to Singapore.

Silence is an ever-increasing process of distillation and condensation: purification.

For I Made Galung Wiratmaja (born 1972), silence represents the need for extreme liberty and extreme intensity of feeling: absolute (spiritual) freedom. His paintings deal with the problem of creating essential silence in art. In this place and space he transforms the perception and understanding of different kinds of "being" by making explicit their hidden connection. Ultimately silence is here understood as an articulation of the immaterial.

The directing of art toward silence is inseparable from the understanding of art as a kind of iconoclasm. Iconoclasm is connected with the "mystique of purity," and view silence itself as purity's instrument. Deliberate silence is a major way of sustaining the elusive (spiritual) atmosphere of an artwork by ruthlessly reducing the artistic ("tasteful outer beauty") to an absolute minimum. Indeed silence attempts to eliminate beauty altogether.

Paradoxically the absolutely silent becomes the radically beautiful.

The silence evokes an ecstatic sense of immediacy, an experience of radical beauty, breaking all the habits of mediation conventionally associated with perception. The achievement of silence is the logical conclusion of the process of negation. Conclusive silence is the irreducible outcome of reductive abstraction.

For Wiratmaja, the purity of silence implies that art can free itself "from the prison of things" (i.e. the noisy sound of reality). Silence is also art's way of suggesting its transcendence of the conditions of its creation and appearing to be self-created. Finally silence transcends the limits not only of reality but those of art itself, to the point of annihilating art in attempting to realize its deepest essence.

Silence - an exhibition by I Made Galung Wiratmaja.

Ganesha Gallery at the Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay

Open daily October 1 - November 1, 2007

For more information telephone ++62-(0)361-701010.

Click Images to Enlarge

Following recent protests from Seminyak residents regarding bar and restaurants disturbing the peace with loud music until the early hours, North Kuta residents in the vicinity of the Petitenget Temple are lodging similar protests with authorities against three popular nightspots identified in the Indonesian Bali Post only by their initials: Bar HU, Bar DD and Bar LR

Speaking to the local press, the sub-district chief for North Kuta, Drs. A.A. Rai Yudha Dharma confirmed he had received the noise complaints and had issued summons to the operators of the three night spots to present and answer questions from his office.

Following a personal inspection of the area, Dharma confirmed that music from the business was penetrating as far as the nearby sacred Petitenget Temple.This fact also confirmed by local community order officers who said loud music from the three night spots was a long-standing problem in the area.

According to the Bali Post, local residents have repeatedly protested the noise emanating from the restaurants hosting late-night music parties only to see the number of such establishments increase in recent months. Guests and residents in the numerous villas now found in the Petitenget area have also joined the chorus of protest against the loss of late-night peace and quiet.

Made Sukadana, a local community leader who headed recent public protests against noise-polluting bars in Seminyak, acknowledged the role music plays in tourism but cautioned that local environments should not be automatically sacrificed merely to satiafy business interests.

The Beverly Hills Villas are set on 4 hectares of land in Jimbaran Hills overlooking Bali's landmark Garuda Wisnu Kencana Monument Lush spacious gardens adorn the perimeter of Bali's latest resort, affording both a sense of privacy and exclusivity.

The resort is comprised of:

. 14 one-bedroom villas of 350 m2.

. 10 units two-bedroom villas of 700 m2.

. 1 three-bedroom villa of 800 m2.

Each unit boasts a secluded tropical garden accessed through a Balinese door on which your name has been carved, underlining the Resort's underlying concept of presenting "your villa in Bali." The private villas also offer a large pool; a traditional bale bengong with a thatched room in the garden for relax or a massage; a teak-wood swing for two; a kitchen; dining area; a spacious bedroom with its own mini-bar; safety box; tea-coffee making facilities; flat screen TV and a DVD player. The bathroom hosts an oversized terrazzo bathtub; a huge separated shower; and two massage beds for spa treatments in the privacy of your own villa. Overseeing the entire operation is an ever-attentive butler, on duty 2 hours a day.

A team of 20 spa therapists are on duty at The Beverly Hills Villas from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The Resort's View Restaurant is set in the main building above the Reception offering views of the GWK statue and sunsets over Jimbaran Bay. A resident pianist at the restaurant set a romantic mood for diners enjoying the extensive menu of Asian and European cuisine.

Managing The Beverly Hills Villas and Spa is Virginie Sandstrom, a French national with 16 years experience running hotels and villas, many of those years in Indonesia.

More information: The Beverly Hills Villas and Spa

'Sekala-Niskala' or The Seen and The Unseen is the theme adopted for the Fourth International Ubud Writers & Readers Festival where participants will be wooed with four days of inspiring discussions, performances, literary lunches and readings in one of the world's most beautiful settings.

Discussions on world religions, mysticism and the power of the paranormal will grace the stage alongside other global issues will be explored in keeping with the theme, Sekala-Niskala/The Seen or Unseen.

Sekala-Niskala is the Balinese principal that holds that we all live equally in two worlds; the seen or conscious world Sekala and the unseen or psychic world Niskala.

Join like-minded writers and readers for four days and nights of intimate interviews with authors from all corners of the globe, as the unseen becomes the seen and more. Enter Egypt with writers from one of the world's most ancient lands, hear tales of life from the home of the Arabian Nights with Somaya Ramadan and Iman Mersal. UK writer, Patrick Gale, author of "Notes from an Exhibition" will lead you into the realms of troubled families and distorted relationships.

Indonesia's near neighbor of Indian will lead a captivating journey through one of the most mystical countries on earth. 2006 Booker prize-winning author, Kiran Desai will share her inspiration for her award-winning novel, "The Loss of Inheritance", while acclaimed author, journalist and former UN diplomat, Shashi Tharoor, will challenge with his thoughts on literature, leaders and world peace. Richard Flanagan, one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Australian literature will discuss his best-selling novel "The Unknown Terrorist."

Indonesian poets and writers will also be in attendance, alongside Asian voices from Singapore and the Philippines. Malaysian author, Tan Twan Eng, long-listed for the 2007 Booker-prize, will discuss Penang in the 30's and compare notes with Canadian award-winning writer, Madeleine Thien with her novel "Uncertainty."

From across the seas, Hagar Peteers from the Netherlands will whirr listeners with her words and, on the home front, the enigmatic Cok Sawitri will leave the audience breathless with her haunting performance poetry.

There will be sessions and workshops on the craft of writing for passionate readers and writers. Celebrate the written word at the free nighttime events and partake in literary shenanigans into the early hours of the morning at the Casa Luna Festival Club.

The 2007 Festival explores new frontiers with writers from the South Korea, East Timor and Sweden. They will join award-winning writers, poets, playwrights, filmmakers and performers from Indonesia, Asia, Australia, England, Canada, France, United States, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and beyond in an unforgettable exchange of culture and ideas.

More information: Fourth International Writers & Readers Festival

Anne Van Borselen was born 70 years ago in Surabaya, into a family of painters. On her mother's side, Anne descends from Imeria Sunassa - famous Indonesian artist. On her father's side, her great-great grandfather, J.W. Van Borselen (1825-1892), was the landscape painter of Holland's King William III.

Inspired by her artistic roots, Anne studied art in The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and Rotterdam. A life-long artist, her first precocious interest in drawing expressed itself at the tender age of five when she used charcoal to create drawings on her mother's otherwise pristine walls. Undeterred, her parents persevered and sent Anne to art school.

An entire lifetime later, Ann Van Borselen's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Europe and Indonesia as well as private commissions for businesses and public spaces throughout The Netherlands.



Painting on canvas, rice paper and panels, in mixed techniques employing acrylics, gouache, oil or ink in classic or abstract style, Anne also makes sculptures in bronze, stone and fibre. And, when in residence at Bali's famed Jenggala Ceramics, Anne paints works in ceramics and table wares.

Capable of maximizing effects of the limited choice of acrylic colors she puts on canvas, Anne uses gray, white, brown and black represents modesty in her artwork. "My paintings can be there or not there", Anne said, suggesting what she calls a transparent existence of artwork. A beautiful painting does not have to be bright and busy to call for attention, Anne explained, pointing to pre-historic paintings found in the French caves of Lascaux. In other works a choice of carmine red, pink and orange is combined with gray with striking effect.

In her ceramic pieces, Anne uses a wider range of color variations. A brilliant selection of bold colors has made her ceramic artwork beautifully eye-catching. The Renaissance maestros Angelo and Da Vinci have influence on Anne's chubby faces and voluptuous human figures. Whereas some of her abstract forms are inspired by Picasso, who Anne believes is a great master of human anatomy. Her abstract forms and figures gives the viewer the freedom to make their own interpretation of the artwork.

'Theater' - at Jenggala Ceramics

In her latest exhibition at Jenggala titled 'Theater', Anne conveys various stories of human figures. Life is a theater; and every individual is a director for their own life. There are good and bad, war and peace, drama and happiness.

Jenggala Art Gallery is proud to present 'Theater', an exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Anne Van Borselen open daily from September 14 - December 7, 2007.

For more information call ++62-(0)361-703311.

PT Garuda Indonesia have announced that they will purchase 20 Airbus A320 to strengthen their armada serving both regional and domestic routes flown by the National Carrier.

The Director of Operations for Garuda, Ari Sapari, told the Indonesian-language Bisnis Indonesia that the arrival of the new Airbus A320s will roughly parallel the planned delivery of 25 new Boeing B737-800NG expected to be delivered in 2009.

Sapari told the press that the order for the new Airbus A320 had been confirmed verbally with the planes' manufacturer following approval of the purchase by the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises.

The Garuda official was unprepared to disclose the price of the new airplanes saying the purchase was still under negotiation. Bisnis Indonesia estimates the total value of the contract for the 20 aircraft at US$1.3 billion with each plane costing US65 million.

The National Carrier has already concluded an agreement with Boeing for the purchase of 25 new B737-800NG with delivery set to commence in May 2009 and be completed by February 2012. The Company has paid a US$23 million deposit with Boeing with efforts now underway to create a consortium to lend funds to complete the purchase or to find a suitable lease arrangement for the aircraft.

Garuda's debts as of June 30, 2007 totaled US$737.38 million with an additional Rp. 180 billion (approximately US$19.56 million) owed to PT Bank Negara Indonesia and PT Bank Mandiri.

According to Bisnis Indonesia, the Airline's heavy debt burden traces back to an earlier Airbus purchase when, between 1988-1992, Garuda spent US$1.2 billion on six A330-300 aircraft. Aviation experts estimate the purchase price for the planes was "marked up" by US$74 million per plane, inflating the Company's debt load by US$444 million.

A long-standing pledge by the Airline to thoroughly investigate and reveals details of the earlier aircraft purchase remains unfulfilled.

While it's been long contended that no place can claim to be perfectly safe in the modern world, members of Commission I of the Bali House of Representatives (DPRD) were no doubt shocked to be told by Bali's Chief of Police, Inspector General Paulus Purwoko, that the death toll on Bali's roads hit 371 people for the year through the end of August 2007 - a number that holds the unenviable distinction of far exceeding the number who perished both terrorist attacks in Bali in 2002 and 2005.

During the same 8 month period of 2007, 607 people suffered serious injuries travelling on Bali's highways.

The report to local legislators was made by Bali's police officer on Tuesday, September 4, 2007, and reported in the Indonesian-language Bali Post.

Chief Purwoko said he feared that the people of Bali were becoming the victims of technology. The increasing number of vehicles crowding Bali's roads and a general disregard for traffic rules has resulted in the current very high casualty rates.

Also contributing to the carnage on Bali's roads is a high rate of motorcycle ownership that is the highest in Indonesia - averaging one motorbike for every 2 residents, and a pronounced reluctance among the Balinese to use public transport.

A Need for Mass Transport and Toll ways

The Chief of Police said the hoped Bali's lawmakers would seriously explore introducing a monorail, subway or toll road as means of reducing the massacre on Bali's roadways.

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