“In regards to the Benoa Bay reclamation project, we announced where we stand when the Bali Governor was elected on August 24, 2018. We were there, and we supported the elected governor in a statement, which is to say that the Benoa Bay reclamation project cannot be implemented,” DPRD speaker, Adi Wiryatama, said yesterday, as quoted by Radar Bali. 

Adi also responded to a criticism raised by the Balinese People’s Forum to Reject Reclamation (ForBALI), which claimed that the council have never received them to have a dialogue. 

“There are members of civil society who we have yet to receive, whether during working days or holidays, and we would like to apologize,” Adi said. 

ForBALI promptly responded to Adi’s recent statement, which they labelled as “misleading.” 

“To ensure that the Benoa Bay reclamation project is not implemented, there must be a checklist,” the organization said in a statement. 

That list includes a revocation of the location permit, putting a stop to the developer’s environmental impact assessment, known locally as AMDAL, and finally, a revocation of the 2014 Presidential Regulation that permitted the reclamation. 

“Without those, the speaker of the DPRD should never say that the Benoa Bay reclamation project will not be implemented,” ForBALI said.