(5/14/2011)
The Balinese community surrounding the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park and the GWL Union comprised of workers at the park are demanding that the long-unfulfilled promises to complete the monument's construction be kept.
As reported by Bali Post, the chairman of the GWK Union, Nyoman Suka Artha Negara, said that from the outset of the project, the local community willingly surrounded their lands to allow the plans for the park to proceed. Started in 1997, the GWK Park is still far from completion and the people living in its shadow are becoming impatient.
Negara reminded that that the initiators of the project first promised the monument would be completed by 2005. But now, in the year 2011 only an estimated 15% of the statue and the park have been completed. The grand statue sits in four separate parts: the head of the Lord Wisnu, a torso, an arm and the beak of the Garuda bird. "Much has been promised by many pledging to fight to finish the monument, but little has been accomplished," he complained.
The various parties involved in the project are promising to renew their effort to complete the statue and the park by lobbying the Badung House of Representatives (DPRD-Bali), the regent of Badung, the House of Representatives for the Province of Bali (DPRD-Bali), Bali's governor and the National House of Representatives (DPRD-RI).
Built by the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Foundation and managed by PT Garuda Adimatra Indonesia (GAIN), the monument is based on a concept that would, when finished, result in a statue standing 300 meters above sea-level on a 100-hectare plot.
The project was begun in 1997 under the Suharto presidency.
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