Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – One would expect applause for last week's announcement that Indonesia is planning to build a bridge linking Java with Bali, putting an end to the two-hour ferry crossing. Not so in Bali.

While Java, which supplies nearly all the island's food and manufactured goods, might welcome the chance for easier trade, the Balinese from politicians to com- munity and environmental groups are outraged. Balinese papers are full of headlines equating the building of the bridge with suicide for Bali and the death of its unique culture.

But how will such a sensible piece of infrastructure bring destruction for Bali? With the bridge, Bali fears, will come an invasion by the Javanese migrant. Record numbers of mostly Javanese migrants have already flocked to the tourist paradise in search of work. Unlike the rest of Indonesia, Bali has escaped the worst effects of the Asian economic crisis.

But opposition to the Javanese migrant is widespread. During the Suharto era, local governments and communities had no option but to accept the thousands of migrants being sent from Java to Kalimantan, Aceh, Sumatra, Sulawesi, West Papua to reduce overcrowding on Java.

But as regional autonomy laws kick in, giving regional and local governments more power, provinces are closing the gates on migrants. Regional governments from Sumatra to Sulawesi are displaying a growing regional and ethnic chauvinism, saying they will give priority to employing natives of their provinces.

Batam's city government demands a deposit from Indonesian visitors to deter penniless Javanese or Sumatrans arriving on the island in search of work. The moves are part of a growing assertion of regional cultures and the rights of regional governments to set their own policies after 32 years of the Javanisation of Indonesia, during which Javanese culture dominated government procedures and Javanese people were given the plum positions.

The anti-migrant sentiments illustrate that beneath Indonesia's much vaunted unity in cultural diversity lies major fault-lines that are becoming harder to manage. If Jakarta is really sincere about defending a unified Indonesia, then it will have to work with provincial leaders to curb the growing ethnic and regional intolerance.