indonesia's first disneyland was a fake news

Besides the non-stop coverage about tomorrow’s Jakarta election, only one other story managed to grab the Indonesian public’s imagination over the weekend – an announcement that Disneyland was coming to Indonesia.

The announcement that a brand new magic kingdom was coming to the former Majapahit Kingdom came from the regent of Boyolali in Central Java, Seno Samudro, who said with seeming certainty, that construction on the Rp 6 trillion project would begin in September.

Like the rest of the Indonesian media, we reported on the story, though we cautioned readers to take the news with a grain of salt considering that Seno was the only official to actually confirm the news.

But even the State Palace issued a statement welcoming the news, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung Wibowo saying the project would be a great investment opportunity for Indonesia.

But Pramono at least knew enough to add, “If it’s really true, then praise God.”

And then, of course, it turned out to not be true at all.

Late yesterday, the Walt Disney Company’s  Southeast Asia director of communications, Sesha Kanthamraju, issued a statement to Kompas saying, “Though Indonesia is a priority market for The Walt Disney Company in Southeast Asia we do not have plans to open Disneyland in Indonesia at this time.”