Pekanbaru

Well, no sooner had I arrived home from Japan I was off again to Pekanbaru...for those of you that are unfamiliar with Indonesian geography it is in the Province of Riau which is part of the island of Sumatra...now that the geography lesson is over, on with the story!

I was in Pekanbaru for work on an illegal logging, money laundering, people trafficking workshop...all of which I new were issues in Riau already but was nevertheless surprised at the extent of the problems faced by local law enforcement...

Illegal logging is devastating the natural growth forests of Riau at such a rate that it will not be many years into the future that the forest of Riau will be gone, taking with it the wildlife that it has supported for millenia...Tragedy does not seem to do justice to the extent of the damage being done...but what is tragic is the extent of involvement of government officials in the facilitation of the rape and pillage of Riau's natural environment...it does not seem to be a case of just a "few bad seeds" but rather a "lot of bad fruit"...yet, there is hope because there are people committed to doing what is "right" and sometimes at great personal risk and cost...

The Central and Regional Governments need to get their heads together and come up with a comprehensive and integrated legislative plan and policy to address each of these issues. The problem is not that there is no law in this area but that it is spread out over many laws and regulations and it is unclear and confusing for law enforcers which way they are supposed to turn when a crime is committed...is it corruption, is it a crime against the environmental law, is it an ordinary crime, is it an extraordinary crime, or is it something else all together. This sort of confusion means that law enforcement has generally not been seen to be a deterrent to those intent on profiting from these ventures...

Pekanbaru was not all work and no play...the city is no different from any other regional center in Indonesia; if you ask the right people, they will point you in the right direction. The other thing to remember about Riau is that it is looking to further develop its oil and gas resources meaning that more oil and gas companies are likely to be exploring their opportunities in this region - good for business and good for the development of a raging nightlife! I was surprised at the number of venues available ranging from cafes to live music pubs and to your head thumping beats of disco (whatever happened to the Bee Gees - that is more my disco style)...I guess wherever you have youth you will have venues of this kind...

Don't be fooled that this is a region a fair way away from Jakarta so prices are going to be cheap; there are cover charges and drinks were comparable to hotel prices in Jakarta (30,000 Rupiah for a bottle of water and 70,000 - 120,000 Rupiah for mixed drinks and cocktails) so definitely not for the faint hearted.

The hotel prices were also comparable to Jakarta but the service was not...I expected much better service considering a room sets you back almost 500,000 a night (the only saving grace was that someone else was picking up the room tab)...the bar staff were rude and slow, which was not good, but even worse was that on different nights the bar was out of coca cola, out of beer, and out of snacks...on a different night I wanted to order a drink and was told the bar was closed and then an Indonesia guest came in and was served a drink (I am guessing it was a regular or someone important) but all the same, still somewhat rude...

However, what is a workshop in Indonesia without the obligatory group meal and karaoke fest...it never ceases to amaze me that there is at least 2 or 3 excellent singers in each group, and this group was no exception...the food was great, the singing was excellent, and the dancing a challenge (I need to improve my dancing style to get into the dangdut groove)...

Another interesting 4 days...but back to the real world and back to the real world problems of work and Jakarta...