The Komodo is one of the Wonders of the World

The Komodo is an ancient giant Lizard that only lives on the Island of Komodo and nearby islands in the Indonesian Province of East Nusatenggara.

In order to protect the Komodo, the Indonesian government has declared the places where the Komodo lives as the Komodo Island National Park.

Former Minister of Culture & Tourism, now Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources, Jero Wacik, has been eager to promote the National Park i.e. by nominating it in the selection of New 7 Wonders of the World (N7W) organized by the New 7 Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland.

In 2009, the said Foundation announced that the Komodo Island National Park has been selected as one of the 28 Finalist from a total of 440 nominations from 220 countries.

In 2010, Indonesia was chosen as the official host of the announcement of the winner of the competition, but the Ministry of Culture & Tourism refused because it claimed that they have been asked by the Foundation to pay them US$ 10 Million for License Fee and US$ 47 Million for celebration of the event.

On 15 August 2011, Jero Wacik (Democrat Party) announced that Indonesia has decided to withdraw from the competition. He told reporters that the Foundation has taken actions that are not professional and transparent. He also said that the it was "not credible" and "unaccountable".

An independent Komodo lovers community protested Jero Wacik's said decision, so they appointed former Vice President Jusuf Kalla (Golkar Party) as the Komodo Ambassador.
He said that the winner of the above global competition shall be determined by text messages (sms) send to support nominees. He said that Komodo Island needs 100 million supporters latest by 11 November 2011.
According to Jusuf Kalla's supporters i.e. Emmy Hafidz, 100 million text messages have been received until last Saturday, she expect by 11 November there will be 120 million tex messages recieved.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture & Tourism announced that they are not involved in new promotion of the Komodo Island by Jusuf Kalla, and the Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland Djoko Susilo warned that his embassy doubt the credibility of the Foundation.

Considering the above, and the fact that the Komodo has already been famous as an ancient giant Lizard that only lives in the Island of Komodo and surrounding island a.k.a the Komodo Island National Park, I felt that it is not necessary to waste so much time, energy and money to participate in the competition organized not by UNESCO which is supposed to be the most credible world organization to do that.

It would be a lot much better to use the time, energy and money to help preserve the Komodo and to help develop the Komodo Island National Park.


Photo:  Courtesy if The Jakarta Globe
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