UBUD ~ The remains of two Balinese royals were cremated on Tuesday before some 250,000 loyal subjects after being carried through this hillside town in huge spinning pyres representing the universe.

The bodies of Ubud royal family head Tjokorda Gde Agung Suyasa, who died in March after a long illness, and a lesser relative were cremated near their palace here in one of the largest royal funerals in local memory.

“This is the biggest ceremony that I have ever seen in my life. I don’t think there’ll be anything like this again until I die,” said artisan Wayan Suta, 42, who was in the crowd with his six-year-old son.

“They are our kings so I needed to attend to express my respect.”

Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in the preparations, including the construction of the papier-mâché pyre towers which formed the centerpiece of the spectacular funeral procession.

The two-kilometer funeral march took the bodies from the town’s main temple, where they had been lying in state since Saturday, to the royal cemetery where the pyres were set alight.

The royal family of Ubud, the heartland of traditional Balinese arts, is one of the most revered in Bali.

It is descended from royalty from the neighboring island of Java who fled the fall of the Hindu Majapahit Empire in the 15th century.

Until Saturday the bodies had been lying in state at the palace, waited on by members of the royal family with offerings of food and coffee.

*Articles Source : http://www.thebalitimes.com

DENPASAR ~ The Denpasar District Court threw out the final appeal on Thursday of three men sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, officials said.

Officials said the bombers had already exhausted the appeals process and their latest petition was invalid, bringing them one step closer to execution by firing squad.

“We received the decision of the supreme court yesterday. It basically says that there’s no second or third judicial review,” court chairman Nyoman Gede Wirya said, without elaborating.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said the decision brought the executions of the three men closer, although he gave no indication of when the sentence would be carried out.

The three members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron - were convicted in 2003 and are being held in an island prison off the south coast of Java.

The men remain defiantly unrepentant over their lead roles as plotters of the attack that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists at bars and nightspots in Bali.

They have said they will not seek presidential clemencies and are looking forward to becoming martyrs.

“You can say that their executions are closer if they don’t file any request for a clemency to the president,” Attorney General Office’s spokesman Bonaventura Nainggolan said.

*Articles Source : http://www.thebalitimes.com

DENPASAR ~ Bali’s much-lauded ex-police chief I Made Mangku Pastika was voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday as the island’s next governor, replacing incumbent Dewa Made Beratha, whose term concludes in August.

Counting of ballot papers is not due to be completed until the weekend, but with over 60 percent tallied as of Thursday, Pastika is assured of victory.

The win represents a second straight triumph in Bali for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, whose maternal grandmother was Balinese and who herself has announced a second run for the presidency in elections to be held next year.

Government and private offices were closed by order of Beratha, to enable people to vote, as more than 2.6 million registered voters went to polling stations across the island to cast their votes for one of three candidate teams.

Police reported no disturbances or unrest, saying the election day ran smoothly in all eight regencies. Some 7,000 police officers were deployed at more than 5,600 polling stations around the island, Bali Police spokesman Antonious Reniban said.

Pastika, a charismatic individual and devout Hindu, was heralded for staunch cooperation with Australian Federal Police following the bombings of October 2002 that resulted in the swift arrests of dozens of suspects that were later jailed or sentenced to death, had largely run on a platform of security.

In recent interviews with Australian media, Pastika said security was still not optimal in Bali and that if he were voted Bali’s next governor, he would take sterner measures to secure the island.

Pastika’s running mate was current Denpasar Mayor A.A Puspayoga, who will be sworn in as Bali’s deputy governor.

Voting day was unseasonably rainy in many parts, with thick, gray cloud cover. That did not deter voter turnout, however, with the Bali Election Commission reporting that participation was high at just over 77 percent.

Cok Budhi Suryawan and Nyoman Suweta of the Golkar Party and Gede Winasa and Alit Putra of a coalition of parties were also running for the island’s top job. They are predicted to come in second and third place with 25 percent and 18 percent respectively.

Pastika, who was appointed the country’s drug-busting chief after his stint as Bali Police chief, appeared to be the most populist candidate, largely due to local and foreign media coverage of him for his work in rounding up bombing suspects. Some voters The Bali Times spoke to just before Wednesday’s vote said that despite widespread advertising of all three contenders, they were unaware of the other candidates.

“I’m voting for Pastika … because he’s the only one I know. I haven’t heard anything about the others,” said a waitress serving seafood to tourists at Jimbaran Bay.

Analysts said Pastika’s win augured well for Bali’s booming tourism industry, saying his international outlook, strong command of English and adherence to strict security would bolster the vital economic sector.

*Articles Source : http://www.thebalitimes.com

]]> http://blog.balicarrentalonline.com/2008/07/31/former-bali-police-chief-voted-island%e2%80%99s-new-governor/feed/