Komodo the Real Wonder of the World

Government of Indonesia through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism withdraw the Komodo National Park (KNP) as a finalist in the selection of the seven natural wonders of the new or "New seven wonders of nature" (N7WN).

"This decision was taken because the organizer of the campaign the New 7 Wonders (N7W) Foundation has committed unprofessional, inconsistent, and not transparent, and do not have the credibility that can be accounted for," said Minister of Culture and Tourism (Minister of Culture), Wacik, in Jakarta, Monday.

According to the minister when the decision was officially announced in a press conference, although TNK-election campaign resigned from the new seven natural wonders of the New 7 Wonders Foundation insisted, but the KNP remains a "world heritage" or a Unesco world heritage recognized in 1991.

In August 2008, Kemenbudpar the Official Supporting Committee (OSC) / Lead Agency to support the KNP as one of the seven natural wonders of the new selection is done through "online voting".

Kemenbudpar has conducted a series of campaign activities "online" and "offline" both at home and abroad to promote and support the KNP and have produced results on July 21, 2009 at KNP was chosen as one of 28 finalists N7WN campaign after setting aside 440 of 220 nominations countries.

On his way up the polemic, N7W foundation in early December 2010 had agreed to Indonesia in Jakarta this case as the Host Organisation (Official Host) declaration of seven wonders of the natural world.

The committee then requires the Government of Indonesia to pay a "license fee" as the host of the declaration of 10 million U.S. dollars and prepared 35 million U.S. dollars as the cost of organizing the event declaration.

Though new Kemenbudpar simply expressed an interest to host but did not sign any agreement or registering a proposal "bidding" as required official N7W foundation in the Official New7Wonders of documents Tender Bidding Host Worldwide.

The request was later rejected by Kemenbudpar as judged unrealistic, but as a rejection reaction, the foundation N7W in late December 2010 threatened to eliminate the KNP as a finalist N7W.

According to Wacik, two things really are not related because of the existence of the KNP as a finalist campaigns and bidding N7WN N7W foundation to make Indonesia as the host of a two different things and should have no relation at all.

On February 7, 2011, the foundation decided to retain N7W KNP as a finalist but did removal action Kemenbudpar role as OSC.

The decision was considered to be one-sided and unfair because it is not based on the obvious reasons, besides the N7W not revoke or cancel the agreement Standard Participating Agreement which is the only official document that has been signed at the beginning of a campaign that states Kemenbudpar the OSC of the KNP on the campaign N7WN.

Kemenbudpar then appointed lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis to confront the issue.

Todung argued, Kemenbudpar never do the "wan-achievement" in the Standard Participating Agreement has been agreed.

"We've sent a letter summons was answered by the` legal `consult them in London. We reply to the letter and until today there is no response from them," he said.

He added that the foundation acts as an OSC N7W remove Kemenbudpar violate the principle of universal law.

"No agreement is canceled unilaterally because there is no violation that occurred here," he said.

Campaign Stops

Kemenbudpar discover some facts about the foundation N7W a very commercial-oriented, although the self-proclaimed non-profit foundation. Besides the implementation of the campaign N7WN not consistent and transparent.

As an international organization, it assess the foundation's very odd when it was discovered that the foundation does not have a domicile N7W / office a clear and managed by only a handful of people (probably only a virtual office) but want to deal with millions of dollars of transactions.

"The world will still recognize the dragons as` the one and only real dragon in the world 'and this fact will not be replaced. For that we remain committed to developing and promoting the KNP as a conservation area and an international tourism destination in Indonesia. Through branding ` Komodo The Real Wonder of the World ', we will promote the KNP to the whole world, "said Wacik.

He said he had acted as "lead agency" for the KNP on the campaign N7WN determined not to proceed with the foundation N7W campaign.

Director General of Marketing Kemenbudpar Nirwandar states KNP as a finalist for three years N7W has heavily promoted to foreign countries.

"KNP has been known to the world community and visits to destinations that are also rapidly increasing," Sapta said.

In the 2007 campaign in which the initial program performed a new number of foreign tourists visiting as many as 16,000 people, in 2008 and 2009 increased to respectively 21,000 and 36,000 foreign tourists.

While in 2010 the number jumped to 45,000 foreign tourists.