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Ministry to Sue New7Wonders Over Komodo Snub
Elisabeth Oktofani | February 10, 2011

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DrDez
5:30am Mar 11, 2011

over a month on and ohhh so quiet

londoedan
11:18am Feb 10, 2011

There are plenty of blames to go around.

I personally think the New7Wonders organization is just a money making venture - something doesn't sound right - imagine if they charge $10 mill fee from each of the 20 nominee, that's $200 mill. Yes $10 mill is NOT a lot of money for a country to promote their tourism, but it's a lot of money for New7Wonders :-).

Now the Indonesian Govt. on the other hand is known for being "Penny wise pound foolish" - what's the big deal with $10 mill - it'll put Komodo on the map :-). Them charging the $25.00 visa on arrival should cover this and more!!!

@Dino_M: as for Indonesia hosting the World Cup or the Olympic??? Hmm, you must be dreaming... lol.

renzila
11:05am Feb 10, 2011

What a waste to participate on this kind of not endorsed foundation. Komodo is well know up to know we don't need this kind of stupidity circus

Dino_M
7:51am Feb 10, 2011

Full comments, some harsh stuff about the incompetence and even a bit of suggestion of illegal stuff...

Bernard Weber, President and Founder of New7Wonders, says: "Every action by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism last week strengthened the case for us to withdraw from Indonesia completely. If we depended on the Ministry, then today we would be forced to announce a complete pull-out."

Bernard Weber points out: "Normally, we would have expected the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as our then-designated New7Wonders Official Supporting Committee, to act responsibly, to honour its many pledges ... The Ministry's role should have been to support us, and to lead the search for a solution to honour the legally binding contract for New7Wonders Official Host, signed in December 2010 with a leading Indonesian Private Consortium — a consortium endorsed by the Ministry in the first place. Instead, they have reacted with malicious misinformation, invented financial commitments and prejudicial action to cover up for an apparent lack of moral responsibility and duty. In my view, with this behaviour, the Ministry has also reduced the chances for Indonesia to host other major global events that create goodwill in the world, such as the Olympics or the World Cup."

... " in the case of Komodo the evidence clearly points to the unsuitability of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as our authorised New7Wonders Official Supporting Committee, and therefore this status is revoked with immediate effect. This removal allows us to keep Komodo in the campaign."

... "Once we again see it is possible to do business legally safely in Indonesia, we will consider appropriate associations or foundations or other official bodies to take over the role of New7Wonders Official Supporting Committee for Komodo. As of today, all official promotional activities for Komodo as a Finalist in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign must be directly authorized by New7Wonders until further notice."


pitthung
2:33am Feb 10, 2011

What a waste of time & money, suck it up buddy, you're just not qualified. Don't play your nationality card, I had enough.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry will sue the organizers of the New 7Wonders of Nature competition for removing it as the Komodo National Park’s official backer in the competition, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

Todung Mulya Lubis, representing the ministry in the suit, said the Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation acted unfairly in dropping the ministry as the park’s official supporter. “It’s unfair because it was the ministry that first registered Komodo for the competition and signed the standard participation agreement,” Todung told the Jakarta Globe. “Therefore, we want them to reinstate the ministry as the official supporting organization.”

On Monday, New7Wonders said the ministry would no longer be allowed to officially support the park’s campaign because it had failed to meet its obligations.

In a statement posted on the foundation’s Web site, New7Wonders president Bernard Weber said the ministry had to be dropped in order to keep the national park in the contest.

“In the case of Komodo, the evidence clearly points to the unsuitability of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as our authorized New7Wonders Official Supporting Committee,” he said.

The ministry also failed to meet requirements in its bid to host the awards ceremony for the competition’s winning entries later this year. However, Todung said it had never signed an agreement to host the ceremony, adding that Komodo’s participation in the New7Wonders campaign and Indonesia’s willingness to host the awards ceremony were two different things.

“Their decision to drop the ministry as the official supporting committee is an attempt to discredit Indonesia’s government and has no legal basis,” he said.

Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said the legal action against New7Wonders “to uphold Indonesia’s reputation.”

He added that he had never signed a contract with the foundation that would oblige the government to pay $10 million in licensing fees and Rp 420 billion ($47 million) to host the ceremony.

However, New7Wonders has denied asking for the latter sum, saying the government’s only commitment if it wanted to support the private consortium organizing the ceremony was around $10 million.