Our Future is in the Ocean

This fact was revealed by Desy Mantiri, the Secretary of Local Secretariat of World Ocean Conference, at a restaurant in Jakarta. Sinyo Harry Sarundajang who not long ago was elected as governor of North Sulawesi province likes to visit the islands under his territory and one day he reached the borders with the ocean territory of the Philippines. On one occasion, when visiting the northern-most island, the Island of Miangas, the Governor all of a sudden said that “our future is in the ocean”. At that time the idea was not that clear. Does that have anything to do with the life of the people in the North Sulawesi? Does it anything to do with the economy? Or is it about tourism? Or is it about something else?

At the end of October 2005, about two months after elected as governor, Sarundajang had to attend a working meeting with the ministers. In this meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the governors to search for policies in order to solve the impact of the increase of fuel oil prize in respective areas. This latest prize of fuel oil was effective for five months (the increase was announced in May 2005), and has noticeably affected the economy of the people.

Upon arriving from the working meeting, Sarundajang became more and more fervent in thinking of the ocean and the territory of North Sulawesi. “The future” that was mentioned in the Island of Miangas became more obvious. “The future” has many aspects: it’s about the economy, ecology and tourism. Although this province has many tourist sites, the promotion and facilities that support it is obviously far from adequate. The most obvious evidence is that not many tourists have visited the tourist site in North Sulawesi; way far lesser than the tourists who come to Bali and Lombok. As a result, the tourism in North Sulawesi is not truly an economic strength for this province. So what to do? “Manado must be promoted to the world by inviting the world to visit the area,” said the Governor.

This idea was in the subconscious mind of the Governor Sarundajang and when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited North Sulawesi, the plan in his head was revealed; the plan to “make the world visit Manado” by conducting a World Ocean Conference (WOC). The participants are all the countries in the world that have sea territory. The Governor knows that as many as 121 countries out of 192 country members of the United Nations have sea in their territory. The President immediately shares the same idea to carry out such an international ocean conference. This event will not only benefit Manado but will also bring something useful for the surrounding areas and Indonesia as a whole.

Talking about the WOC, not many people know what was happening before the revelation of the idea in front of the President. It started merely as a big idea, how about in Manado that has sea territory part of “the triangle of coral reeves” we organize World Ocean Summit. “The triangle of coral reef” is the term for the ocean territory of six Asia-Pacific nations which are 75% of the coral reef of the world. This idea was presented behind closed doors, directly or indirectly, by three key figures to the Governor Sarundajang. The three leading figures are: Joop Ave, former Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunication 1993-1998; Pieter Sondakh, a national entrepreneur of North Sulawesi descent, Sander Batuna, local leading figure of North Sulawesi who has great concern about the development of his soil. Sarundajang strongly supported the idea, but he had to figure out how to make the idea a reality.

Source: Venue Magazine