Semarang – Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie doubled-down on claims that there was nothing out of the ordinary about jet-setting to the Maldives with a pair of Indonesian actresses on Sunday, explaining that he was merely showing the sisters how the island nation had capitalized on its tourism potential.
"The Maldives is a very small country, but it's tourists exceed the tourists who come to Indonesia," the presidential candidate told the Bakrie family-owned news portal Vivanews.co on Sunday. "We brought along those two sisters because they're very concerned about tourism. Oliv happens to enjoy diving while Marcella likes making videos about marine tourism."
The Maldives recorded a little more than 958,000 tourists in 2012 as political instability took hold. Indonesia booked more than 8 million tourists during the same period, according to the state-run Antara News Agency.
But Bakrie, forced to address the trip after a vacation video was leaked on the Internet last week, said Indonesia had a lot to learn from the small island nation.
The Indonesian tycoon was seen on video traveling to the Maldives with celebrity sisters Marcella Zalianty and Olivia Zalianty and Golkar Party lawmaker Aziz Syamsuddin where they reportedly enjoyed the comforts of the W Retreat & Spa – a pricey upmarket resort on Fesdu Island where the two-bedroom "Ocean Haven" currently fetches up to $8,400 a night.
The video appeared to take place in May of 2010 – when tourist visits to the Maldives numbered less than 800,000 annually, according to government reports. "If the Maldives can [be a popular tourist destination], why can't Labuan Bajo, Maluku and Bunaken?" Bakrie asked.
Marcella and Oliva hoped to apply the lessons learned in the Maldives to the Indonesian tourism industry, Bakrie said. Neither of the sisters have a stake in the nation's tourism industry and have made no moves to enter the competitive market in the four years since the video was shot.
Regardless, the Golkar Party continued to characterize the video as an attempt to defame the presidential candidate ahead of the election season. The chairman of former President Suharto's election machine, Bakrie – one of Indonesia's richest men – hopes to ride a wave of New Order nostalgia into office this July.
He said he had warned his family of negative campaigns during this election season. His family was prepared for such attacks, Barkie said as he stood alongside his wife Tatty Murnitriati and their sons Anindya Novyan Bakrie and Anindra Ardiansyah Bakrie at Semarang's Ahmad Yani International Airport.
"I already said while [declaring my presidential bid] in 2012 that my children and wife will bear the heavist burden from [the black campaigns]," he said.
His wife dismissed the video as a politically motivated attack on her husband. "There's nothing out of place in the video," Tatty told the Indonesian news portal Tempo.co. "They [the Zalianty sisters] are like my own kids. Many political rivals want to bring him down. They make attacks on his character, not only him as a person, but also on his family."
The husband and wife were affectionate before the cameras, sharing a hug and kissing each other on the cheek before boarding their flight.
Bakrie's daughter-in-law meanwhile reappropriated a stuffed bear seen in the leaked images as a campaign tool. The 67-year-old man was seen hugging a stuffed bear in one of the images posted to the blog "Aburizal Bakrie sik asik Marcella Olivia Zalianti di Maldives."
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/maldives-getaway-teach-actresses-tourism-bakrie/