Anand Mathai – The governor of Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat, seems intent on taking drastic action to boost his province's tourism industry.
After saying he wants to shut down NTT's famous Komodo National Park for one year in order to revitalize the park's wildlife (particularly its iconic Komodo dragons), his latest attention grabbing initiative is one aimed at making everybody in NTT speak English one day of the week.
In December, Viktor issued an official Governor Regulation (Pergub) concerning "English Language Day". The Pergub reportedly applies to schools, government institutions, private institutions, religious institutions and the general public and aims to get all NTT citizens speaking in English every single Wednesday.
The regulation officially went into effect today. The purpose of the regulation, according to NTT Tourism Service Chief Marius Ardu Jelamu, is to make English one of the primary mediums of communication in workplaces as well as in daily life throughout the NTT region.
"This is in order to familiarize our whole society with English and also to encourage our children to learn English. English has many values and uses. This is an international language that we must master," Marius said at a press conference in Kupang yesterday as quoted by Kompas.
The tourism service chief said that tourism had become a key sector in the province's economic development and this regulation was aimed at driving its growth.
Marius said he hoped that all of the mayors and regents in NTT, as well as workers in government agencies, schools, religious institutions, hotels and restaurants would get used to speaking English once a week. He even told the journalists at the press conference that all press briefing would have to be conducted in English if they were held on Wednesdays.
According to Marius, the regulation stipulates that sanctions, in the form of verbal or written warnings, be given to civil servants who violate the regulation and requires that they take English courses, at their own expense. On the other hand, he said that tourism institutions or villages that implement the English Day regulation well would be given awards.
NTT's very first English Day today apparently didn't go totally smoothly, with Lintas NTT reporting that several civil servants were unable to interact with Governor Viktor, who insisted on only speaking to them in English. However, Viktor did apparently conduct interviews with five reporters who obliged him by conducting them in English.