Almost 20 years after the Bali bombings, the Indonesian owner of the Sari Club site has agreed to sell some of the land to build a peace park in memory of those killed in the attack.
Sukamto Tjia has effectively signed an agreement to sell 560 square metres of land — in the exact spot where the Sari nightclub stood before — for 45 billion rupiah ($4.4 million).
But there's a catch: The money needs to be secured by the end of March.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously offered financial assistance to buy the site, and now the federal government says "any new proposal would need to be formally developed and carefully evaluated".
In 2019, Mr Morrison told the Bali Peace Park Association (BPPA) — which represents survivors and victims of the bombing — to "bring him something" in the form of a ballpark figure, and he would consider it.
The Perth-based BPPA has been trying to buy the land for years but has had limited funds and could never agree on a price with the owner.
However, recently, Australian man Dallas Jackson-Finn — who founded the BPPA but fell out with its members — was able to negotiate a price on behalf of survivors and victims.
"It's prime commercial real estate. We've factored in loss of income, compensation and it works out at about 17 cents per Australian."
The land under negotiation is smaller than the 700 square metres the nightclub originally occupied.
Mr Jackson-Finn says design plans have been completed for the proposed peace park, meaning that, if the sale goes ahead, the park could be finished in time for the 20th anniversary of the bombings in October.
"It will be a beautiful tropical garden," he said.
The design also incorporates a mural to tell the story of the bombing, and tranquil 'reflection corners' where people can sit and remember those who died.
But there remains uncertainty over whether the deal will be funded.
Calls for federal government to fund purchase
The Prime Minister's Office is yet to say whether the federal government will still honour its offer of financial assistance to buy the site, or whether it would contribute to the $4.4 million needed to secure the sale.
Former prime ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd both offered $450,000 towards the purchase of the Sari Club site.
State and territory governments previously matched this with their own offers — amounting to $450,000 between the — but it is unclear whether those offers still stand.
The federal opposition yesterday urged the government to allocate "sufficient funds in the budget" and to work with the Indonesian government and other stakeholders to establish the peace park before the 20th anniversary.
Labor backbencher Luke Gosling said the 88 Australian lives lost "and the scores more maimed in the Bali bombings of 2002 must not be forgotten".
"The bombings were horrific," Mr Gosling said. "Australia and Indonesia have a long history together and it's in the national interest to have a Bali Peace Park built on the Sari Club site as a living memorial."
A DFAT spokesperson says the Australian government has supported and assisted plans for the peace park and had previously been liasing with the Bali Peace Park Association (BPPA).
"The BPPA has informed the Australian government that the association has now formally and legally closed," the spokesperson said.
"BPPA has terminated its interest in acquiring the land following prolonged negotiations and has indicated that Australian government-committed funds would not be required."
In a recent letter to Mr Gosling, Foreign Minister Marise Payne also pointed out that a number of memorials to the Bali victims have been established in Indonesia, Australia and London.
Landowners reject claims they've been greedy
Late last year, the BPPA finally abandoned talks with the owners to sell the land after years of trying to secure a deal for the land.
They accused the owner of making an "outrageous" demand for millions of dollars in compensation above the site's true commercial value.
"We're not prepared to pay any more than what we've offered," said BPPA's Keith Pearce, whose son Duane survived the bombing, but was with the Kingsley Football Club, which lost seven members in the Sari Club.
"So we've decided to terminate what we were doing to try [to] purchase the land."
The family that owned the bombed Sari Club site in Bali had demanded $9 million in compensation — on top of the $4.9 million price tag already agreed for the land — before it would commit to a sale.
However, Mr Jackson-Finn says the site's owner is legally entitled to compensation for the income he has lost for every year since the 2002 bombings.
"Pre-COVID, you could easily get $100,000 plus a year to lease that land. It's prime commercial real estate," he said.
"My frustration is how the association called him greedy when, in fact, he wasn't greedy.
"There was a generous offer put on the table. Sukamto Tjia is a businessman. We've got to understand that.
"And to expect him to just hand over 1,500 square meters — that deal was never going to happen.
"You've got people [who] have never lived or worked in Indonesia, who have no understanding of the significance and what you're dealing with up there."
Mr Jackson-Finn said the proposed peace park would be almost directly across the road from an existing memorial board that lists all 202 victims of the 2002 Bali bombings, from both the Sari Club and the nearby Paddy's Bar.
The land under negotiation, although smaller than the original Sari Club, would be entirely separate from a proposed multi-storey bar and restaurant that Mr Sukamto has long planned to develop on the rest of the site.
"What we offered the BPAA is the actual ex-Sari club land. We take a little bit of land out of the sale because we need entry access to the land we own behind it," the owner's son, Ronald Sukamto, told the ABC.
"If we build a five-storey building, and we lease per floor for $US100,000 ($140,000) a year, we would have $US500,000 per year and we won't own the asset on it, but we still own the land."
Mr Sukamto rejects claims that his family has been greedy, by holding out for a higher price.
"It's easy to compare Indonesia with your country, Australia, but to those who call us greedy… try to come to Bali and check out the location.
"From there, you might be able to see how big the business potential is and whether the price we are asking is higher than the market value."
Ronald Sukamto says he estimates his family has lost up to $US2 million in income from just leasing the Sari Club site to developers.
"If you asked me whether we're sad that we haven't got any money from that land in the last 19 years, we're not sad about the money," he said.
"We are sad because there were a lot of victims who died — we never wanted the tragedy to happen.
"We definitely didn't want it to happen on our land, but it did."
