Publicity:

There’s a growing resistance – particularly among young Bali locals – to rampant development on the island and tourism at any cost so they’re mobilising.

They’re angry about the environmental and cultural impact of millions of international visitors, the staggering hotel and commercial development that’s gobbling up their island and they’re uneasy about a creeping ‘Kuta cancer’ that’s spreading, they fear, from the Bintang boulevards of the island’s busiest beach all the way to the spiritual heartland of Ubud up in Bali’s high country.

“I remember when I lived 200 metres away from Kuta Beach and at night I could clearly hear the sound of the waves from my room. Now you can hear people say f***off!” JERING, Bali Rock Star

On a deeply personal odyssey back to his favourite surfing getaway, Indonesia Correspondent Matt Brown meets the leaders of a new generation determined to stop the overcommercialisation of Bali and to put a lid on development.

Matt surfs the now sullied waters of Uluwatu with local board-rider Mega whose time on the global pro surfing tour has opened his eyes to concepts like sustainability and environmental responsibility.

“If every place is like Kuta with high-rise buildings everywhere then Bali is not like Bali anymore. If that happens it’s like, our souls are lost.” MEGA, Bali Surf Pro’

Over in family-friendly Nusa Dua, in the shadow of another massive 5-Star hotel development Matt hears from impassioned activist Gendo.

“(Even) when we know Bali is being destroyed, Balinese people are like lemmings. An animal that, consciously, knows when he gets near the ocean, he’s (going to) kill himself. But they keep on doing it.” GENDO, Environmental Activist

Up in the relative peace and tranquillity of Ubud Princess Arry Nova Dewi Putra fears the encroaching development. “We don’t want Ubud to turn into Kuta” she cautions.

Bali surf resort

00:00

Matt Brown

MATT BROWN: “Get some waves?”

00:03

Brown and Mega Semadhi catch waves

Music

00:05

BROWN: It’s home to some of the best surf in the world. It’s also home to Mega Semadhi who knows better than most – certainly way better than me – how to ride the waves of Uluwatu, Bali.

00:30

Mega Semadhi

MEGA SEMADHI: “It’s like dancing to the moon. Yeah.”

00:46

Semadhi surfing

00:49

BROWN: Mega is a home-grown champion – one of Bali’s top pro-surfers. He’s living the dream.

00:54

Semadhi

MEGA SEMADHI: “Surfing has taken me to other countries, like Hawaii and Australia.

01:04

Brown and Semadhi in the water

01:08

If I don’t go surfing… this is difficult… perhaps I’d be a fisherman or a farmer just like my grandfather.”

01:15

Underwater footage

01:25

Semadhi paddling board

BROWN: His grandfather – even his father – knew a very different Uluwatu.

01:29

Surf resort

A sleepy, off-the-beaten-track corner of Bali – before the crowds and the surf tourists came and over time dramatically reshaped the place.

01:34

Semadhi

MEGA SEMADHI: “We go surfing to enjoy ourselves but if it’s too crowded it’s difficult.

01:45

Semadhi in water

Music

01:54

Underwater footage

01:57

Brown and Semadhi surfing

MEGA SEMADHI: We rush and compete for the waves. And in the end we’re fighting. It’s not fun. It’s unpleasant.”

02:02

Music

02:12

Brown to camera

BROWN: “Over the last 40 years, millions of surfers have come here chasing their own slice of paradise. But the influx of visitors is not being well managed and now it’s threatening the very things that make Bali beautiful.”

02:27

Dissolve to: Uluwatu archive Surfers walk toward surf spot

Music

02:43

Archival: Surfers in Bali

BROWN: In the 1970’s, many of the first generation of surfers took a winding dirt road south from the main centre, Denpasar, to find this rugged and remote coast.

02:58

Music

03:09

BROWN: Its reliable breaks and crystal clean water quickly became the stuff of legend.

03:13

Dissolve to: Surf resort Bali

03:19

Overlay: Photos of young Brown travelling to Bali

I first came here fresh out of school, but returning today it’s obvious Uluwatu’s popularity has come at a cost the locals can no longer ignore.

03:21

Surf resort at dusk

03:32

Brown and Mike O’Leary walking down stairs

MIKE O’LEARY: “When we come here in 1979 there was absolutely no pollution at all.”

03:38

BROWN: Australian Mike O’Leary is a local well and truly.

03:46

CU in garden

He found his first pilgrimage to Uluwatu simply enchanting and he decided to make Bali his home.

03:50

Boat and waves

MIKE O’LEARY: “Bali was known for its gentle spiritualism. Back in those days you could actually feel,

03:57

O’Leary

well, ghosts or spirits, you could feel that in the air.

04:08

Archival: temples and dancer

Back in the ‘70s and the ‘80s.”

04:12

Music

04:13

Cut to black

04:20

Surfer

MIKE O’LEARY: “I think it’s probably one of the top

04:21

O’Leary
Super: Mike O’Leary Environmentalist

six best known surf breaks in the world and it’s a must-see on every surfer’s tour of the world.”

04:28

Surfer

BROWN: All that attention

04:35

Surf resort

has had a dramatic impact and Mike O’Leary’s worried it’s just too much for this place to bear.

04:39

Brown and O’Leary walking down stairs

MIKE O’LEARY: “Between ten and fifteen thousand people a month are heading here.”

04:46

BROWN: Out of sight of the cafés and surf shops that have sprung up over time

04:50

Cesspool below surf resort

ample evidence of a little backwater bursting under the strain.

04:54

MIKE O’LEARY: “Yeah just come in here Matt. This is where the bit of a cesspool here that the surfers don’t see. Everyone sees the great environment of Uluwatu out in the surf but they don’t see the accumulation of the cooking oil, sewerage and other liquid wastes.”

05:00

BROWN: “It stinks doesn’t it?”

05:16

MIKE O’LEARY: “It stinks. It stinks and I think it’s been going for the last thirty years and I think it keeps seeping out.”

05:17

Testing waters off Uluwatu

05:25

BROWN: Mike and a bunch of other surfers have raised money to test the waters and found human effluent

05:28

Scientist and O’Leary

is seeping down to the surf.

05:34

MIKE O’LEARY: “That’s sewerage. That’s full of E-coli?”

05:37

SCIENTIST: “Yeah.”

05:38

O’Leary, scientist and others in cave

BROWN: While they’ve already set up a garbage service they’re still struggling to fund a new sewerage system.

05:40

In many ways, Uluwatu is a microcosm of Bali’s mounting problems.

05:47

O’Leary
Super: Mike O’Leary Environmentalist

MIKE O’LEARY: “Bali, like the rest of the world, has become very serious. Money orientated.”

05:54

Plane landing at airport

06:01

BROWN: Alarm bells have been ringing for decades but Bali is now being stretched to breaking point.

06:08

Busy city streets in Bali

Since the late 1970’s the population’s grown from around two and a half million up towards the four million mark.

06:14

Airport arrivals

And the number of tourists has exploded: from a hundred and twenty thousand a year to well over two and a half million including eight hundred thousand Australians.

06:25

Rubbish dump

Together, they generate thousands of tons of rubbish each day. And the waste problem is quite simply out of control.

06:36

Rubbish trucks passing as Brown walks through polluted mangrove swamp. Brown to camera

“As the tourists pour in, the rubbish is piling up and spilling over, and its turning these environmentally sensitive mangroves into a putrid swamp that stinks to high heaven. This is just a few kilometres away from the Kuta tourist trap but it’s light years away from tropical paradise.”

06:49

Dissolve to: rubbish on beaches

The rubbish floats down the rivers and out into the sea, piling up on the world famous Kuta beach.

07:13

Dissolve to: busy streets in Kuta

Kuta is the epicentre of Bali’s transformation.

07:24

Building sites in Kuta

Its radical, ceaseless redevelopment has sparked intense debate about what it now means to be Balinese.

07:30

MEGA SEMADHI: “If every place becomes like Kuta with high rise buildings everywhere, maybe then Bali will not be like Bali any more.

07:39

Semadhi
Super: Mega Semadhi Surfer

If that happens I’ll be very concerned. It would be like… we’ve lost our souls.”

07:50

Kuta beach

BROWN: And among the board-hire businesses dotting the Kuta sand we find another local worried about the future of his island home. For Jering, Kuta has become a model for how not to develop Bali.

08:02

Dissolve to Archival: 4 Corners footage early Kuta

JERING: “I remember the time, I live like probably 200 metres away from Kuta Beach

08:21

Jering

and at night I can clearly hear the sound of the waves from my room.”

08:28

Kuta discos

Now you can hear people say ‘fuck off’! [laughter].”

08:34

Music

08:38

Cut to black

08:41

Jering starts up his motorbike

Music

08:42

Jering riding through Kuta streets

BROWN: Jering is a Kuta boy, born and bred. And he sees the commercialism and sheer scale of development in Kuta as a creeping cancer, now destroying other parts of the island.

08:50

Music

09:03

JERING: “What I see,

09:12

Kuta street

the mainstream, the Kuta or Bali mainstream, the mentality

09:12

Jering
Super: Jering Astika
Musician

is selling, selling, selling. And so I found a point where, dude, I have a right to say no to this because that’s wrong and I want to fight this.

09:17

Archival: Jering and band performing for big crowd

Music

09:29

BROWN: Jering is one of Indonesia’s biggest rock stars. His band ‘Superman is Dead’ is a huge national act. He’s also out the front of another push – a growing local resistance to development and tourism at any cost.

09:37

JERING: “There's a lot of people I know that are really religious and going to temples a lot. But they’re just selling out, you know, they’re selling out the land.

09:59

Overlay: Jering

Is that a true Balinese, you know? Are you protecting your island?”

10:10

Archival: Jering and band performing

10:13

Wipe to: Kuta nightclub strip

10:23

Jering walking along nightclub strip talking to people

BROWN: It may seem odd that a young bloke who makes a living out of a raucous good time is taking a stand against the ‘Kuta-isation’ of Bali but then throughout the island it’s the younger generation that’s speaking up.

10:28

Nightclub strip in Kuta

JERING: “It’s what you do, it’s not what you wear. It’s what you do, it’s what you’re saying, it’s what your messages are about. If it’s for Bali, if it’s for your community, if it’s to protect. I mean like, if it’s for a greater cause for

10:44

Jering talking to men outside nightclubs

everyone else in Bali, then you are a Balinese you know.”

10:58

Archival: Gendo’s Environmental Group

11:04

BROWN: Demonstrations and protest are not a normal part of Bali’s culture. They’re spiritual people, not activists, but Jering’s been working to change that – alongside his friend Gendo – one of Bali’s best known environmentalists.

11:12

GENDO SUARDANA: “What made us angry is knowing that Bali is being destroyed systematically.”

11:30

Music

11:41

Gendo
Super: Gendo Suardana Environmentalist

GENDO SUARDANA: “Balinese people are like lemmings – the lemming syndrome. Lemming – an animal that consciously knows when he gets near the ocean he’s killing himself. But he keeps on doing it.”

11:42

Tourist resort at Nusa Dua

Music

11:59

BROWN: Across the Bukit Peninsular from Kuta’s nightspots lies Nusa Dua – a quieter, family destination now dominated by huge international resorts.

12:10

Music

12:20

Construction site at Nusa Dua

12:26

Gendo and Brown walk through construction site

BROWN: Here Gendo is tracking the construction of yet another super-sized development – the 740 room Mulia hotel. He’s the biggest thorn in the side of the government and developers . His activities have even landed him in jail, but he remains. determined to rein in the industry.

12:33

Brown and Gendo on beach in front of construction site

GENDO SUARDANA: “I am furious, and I reject these kinds of projects. Bali must reject big projects like this. Bali doesn’t need any more big hotels – it needs to preserve its culture by doing simple tourism. Something like this is unnecessary.”

12:55

Archival: 1970’s five star resort in Bali

BROWN: In the late 1970’s Bali had just one five star hotel.

13:11

Construction sites

Now there are 41. Gendo says they’re guilty of a dreadful waste of water, with each guest flushing away three times the amount used by the average Balinese family. And it’s a luxury Bali can ill afford, as much of the water in this dry part of the island is piped in from agricultural areas further north.

13:19

GENDO SUARDANA: “The sources of agrarian culture are land and water – key resources. If these are gone there’ll be cultural degradation .

13:44

Gendo

It’s automatic that the culture will change without them. What does it mean tens of years into the future? Bali might become a distant memory.

13:56

Construction site

I don’t know why Bali is consciously destroying itself and heading towards the valley of destruction.”

14:11

Temple at Nusa Dua

BROWN: Not far from the construction zone Nusa Dua’s main temple is perched on a cliff. There’s a rule designed to keep big developments a respectful distance from such hallowed ground, but Gendo says big money and jobs have local leaders turning a blind eye.

14:23

GENDO SUARDANA: “As a Balinese I am very concerned when it comes to imagining the future for Bali – especially for those of us who believe in reincarnation.

14:48

Gendo

We’re the ones who’ll suffer the destructions we created in this life.”

15:01

Gendo in Ubud

Music

15:06

GENDO SUARDANA: “The cultural fortress of Bali – in my opinion and according to my beliefs – is the land.”

15:17

Music

15:25

Ubud general views

15:31

BROWN: A few hour’s drive from the hustle and bustle of southern Bali, up into the rolling, rising slopes of the island you’ll find its cultural heart – Ubud.

15:36

Ubud has become a favoured destination for travellers seeking a peaceful, quiet and more authentic Bali.

15:52

Music

15:59

BROWN: Gendo was born and raised here among the farms and rice terraces where Bali’s brand of Hinduism even shaped agricultural practice.

16:03

Subak irrigation is as complex as it is deeply spiritual, binding farmers, water and rice to the gods, who in turn keep the fields fertile and green.

16:16

Hotels encroaching on rice paddies

But farmers have been selling their land to developers, fuelling a real estate boom that’s driven prices through the roof. Thousands of acres of Bali’s rice fields have been turned over to villas and hotels.

16:32

GENDO SUARDANA: “Agricultural lands in Ubud are running out because of the villas and hotels.

16:52

Rain falling on rice paddies and temple

17:02

The saddest part is that right now, Subak Temple does not have rice fields around it any more because the fields are now hotels, restaurants and accommodation.

17:07

Gendo
Super: Gendo Suardana Environmentalist

Right now, Ubud is slowly turning itself into Kuta.”

17:26

Time-lapse traffic in Ubud

Music

17:32

Scenes in busy Ubud

NOVA: “As people

17:36

Arry Nova Dewi Putra

from Ubud, you know, we just don’t want Ubud to turn into Kuta.”

17:38

Nova and Brown walk through Ubud

BROWN: Arry Nova Dewi Putra is a member of one of Bali’s ceremonial royal families. She’s watched her Ubud change from farming community to tourist hot-spot in a relatively short space of time.

17:41

NOVA: When I was a child I used to go to the rivers, with my great grandmother. We’d

17:58

Nova
Super:
Princess Arry Nova Dewi Putra

take a bath there you know. Like together with everybody in the village. It was nice and I don’t.. experience that for my kids now.

18:05

River in Ubud

Because the quality of the water, the river is no longer safe for them to be doing that kind of activity – playing in the river.

18:13

Nova

It is a shame, you know, because I can see now, that my kids cannot do that.”

18:23

Night time in Ubud

Music

18:28

Balinese traditional dance and gamelan orchestra

18:33

BROWN: Still Nova, for one, is hopeful that time honoured traditions will provide the strength to endure.

18:40

She believes Ubud’s reputation as a cultural centre holds the key to its salvation: that the nightly performances of gamelan and dance have built a reservoir of cultural heritage, which will sustain Ubud and preserve its magic.

18:51

Tourists watching dance performance

BROWN: “It’s not just a tourist cliché?”

19:11

NOVA: “No It’s not just for tourists, you know, it’s actually for

19:14

Nova
Super:
Princess Arry Nova Dewi Putra

all of us to inherit all this value – who can really, you know… we know our own tradition”

19:17

Balinese traditional dance and gamelan orchestra
Fade to black

Music

19:27

Fade up from black: Scenes at temple

19:38

MADE PASTIKA: “Balinese people believe that everything in Bali has their own soul.

19:49

Made Pastika
Super: Made Pastika
Governor, Bali

This life is offering. Everything we do in our life is offering to God. To other human being and also to the environment.”

20:00

Made Pastika at temple

BROWN: In a temple in the capital, Denpasar, is a man who should have the power and authority to guide Bali’s future.

20:12

Made Pastika after all, was the police chief who helped bring the Bali bombers to justice. Now he’s Bali’s governor.

20:28

MADE PASTIKA: “Tourists is not destroying Bali.

20:38

Made Pastika

The greedy investors are destroying Bali. Tourists is okay. They are good people.

20:42

Gamelan orchestra at temple

But the greedy investors, that is the problem.”

20:50

BROWN: “Isn’t part of the problem that greedy investors are all mixed up in the political system of Bali and of Indonesia?”

21:03

MADE PASTIKA: “Yes of course, there is an

21:10

Made Pastika

influence of that. But still the people on the right side are still strong.

21:12

Made Pastika at temple

And we hope this become more and more strong.”

21:19

Waterfront resorts

Music

21:30

BROWN: Made Pastika knows he’s up against some powerful forces – exploitative foreign investors and a who’s who

21:35

Luxury hotel

of local influence. This luxury hotel is part owned by Tommy Soeharto, son of Indonesia’s late dictator.

21:42

Taxi drives past luxury hotel

Music

21:51

BROWN: This one belongs to the Bakrie Group – whose favoured son runs one of the nation’s biggest political parties.

21:54

Construction sites

A few years ago Governor Pastika issued a decree banning new hotels from this part of the island, but developers and local mayors have taken little notice and the cranes keep on coming.

22:01

Music

22:16

MADE PASTIKA: “You know, everybody want to invest in Bali.

22:20

Made Pastika
Super: Made Pastika
Governor, Bali

On one side maybe that is good. Creating jobs, moving the economy. But at the other side because some of these investors are greedy.

22:24

Late afternoon at beach

Exploitation of environment, exploitation of the land, exploitation of the people, exploitation of the culture. That is the problem.

22:36

Made Pastika

Those who really love Bali, they will invest with their heart.”

22:51

Street outside Jering’s bar

22:58

BROWN: Jering has invested plenty of heart

23:02

Jering and Brown inside Jering’s bar

in his own business, turning his family’s old bed and breakfast into a rockabilly punk venue.

23:04

Locals at Jering’s bar

‘Twice Bar’, as it’s known, is popular with local kids unwelcome in the tourist traps on main street, where foreigners walk in for free, but Balinese must pay for entry.

23:12

JERING: “And it just takes

23:27

Jering
Super: Jering Astika
Musician

a lot of our dignity and pride and somehow we feel like this is not our home, you know, this is another country.”

23:30

Jering performing at his bar

JERING: “What I love most about Twice Bar is first, anyone can just go in there.

23:41

It’s a symbol of resistance. You know, locals have the right to have fun in Bali. That’s what I’m trying to say. My statement is like – tourists is not God here, you know.”

23:58

BROWN: Jering’s loyal followers – the punks and rockers – are not the archetypal Balinese featured on postcards and travel brochures.

24:15

JERING: “You know, we’re adopting like western culture, but it doesn’t mean we have to be the slave of Western civilization right?

24:30

What I believe is, you know, you can look not like a Balinese, you can

24:41

Jering

talk not like a Balinese, but what you do and what you care about is for the island and for the community.”

24:46

Jering performing at his bar

24:54

Underwater footage

Music

25:04

Wave breaking

25:07

Brown swimming

BROWN: It’s the young locals, who know more about the world than their parents

25:10

Semadhi surfing

ever did, who also know they need to fight for their unique home and future .

25:14

MEGA SEMADHI: “Surfing has changed my way of life.

25:26

Dissolve to: Semadhi

Surfing took me abroad so I know what life is like in other countries. When I come back to Indonesia it gets me thinking.

25:33

Semadhi surfing

25:45

I need to hold onto this and appreciate what I have more.”

25:47

Semadhi surfing

Music

25:51

Cut to black

26:03

Credits

Reporter – Matt Brown
Camera David Anderson
Additional Camera (underwater) Sean Gilhooley
Research Ake Prihantari
Editor Nick Brenner
Producer Vivien Altman
Additional archive footage courtesy of Brian Tissot
Concert vision – Supermanisdead.com

Originally from Australia, long time Bali resident and environmental activist, Michael O'Leary founded the R.O.L.E. Foundation in 2007.