Batam's Jaded Dream

Back in 1973, Presidential Decree no. 41 was full of big developmentalist dreams and hopes. Batam Island was the big ambition of the day, something our Indonesian Government projected to be "The next big thing after Singapore around the Malacca Strait"...

Big hopes indeed for Batam back then: A projected bustling freeport Island, torrents of investments pouring in, a resort heaven, shopping paradise, a bustling international hub...you name it.

Thirty-three years on - and Batam is in full swing, indeed. Third rate Indonesian, Singaporean and Malaysian businessmen coming for sex, shadowy businesses, shantytowns, illegal taxis, bustling sex trade, human trafficking, illegal gambling, and thousands of unemployed young men from all around Indonesia (Timor, Medan, Tanjung Balai, Central Java, Manado, Palembang, Padang..) scraping for bits and pieces of the (faded) Batam dream, with the usual baggage of sporadic ethnic clashes here and there...

Batam quite reminds us of those other less-fortunate ("cheap leisure proxies") Southeast Asian border cities...think of Hatyai (Thailand), or Poipet (Cambodia) - still, it was a strategic rallying point for anti-IMF/World Bank activists to lambast the ever paranoid and authoritarian Singapore government for harrasing and banning civil society organizations from monitoring the Big Money proceedings.

Global, not quite...
Hang Nadim Airport: Counter for Job Seekers. Is the system running at all?
A peek outside the hotel: Disposed tissues, cigarette packs, condoms. Helps in profiling your average Batam visitor...