Elba, L.A., 6.ii.2001 still grieving.

Dear Chris,

Thrilled to hear that 60% of the old gardeners were signed back on (inc. 3 supervisors)". It seems they accepted terms (i.e. no pay for adat holidays) that INDOSEKAR could never forge through.
Hopefully now youÕll heed my advice and put at least one ÔDewaÕ back in who could be the keeper of the trimming aesthetic/reminder of the (some 500) important view-holes BEFORE THEY CLOSE UP.

DonÕt please be cross with INDOSEKAR. They are not, as you know, hard-nosed slave runners. They gave FSR-J twelve excellent years and a world famous garden. The mad rush/inconvenience at the end was beyond their control (orchestrated, as we know, by hard line elements). A change of guard was inevitable, given the circumstances, and hopefully our garden wonÕt lose its magic.
My last two discussions with Colin and you (well my second last with you) lead me to believe that you were going to heed my advise to leave some, rather fold some, WIJAYA loyalists (loyal to the aesthete i.e. the property) Ð your decision to change your mind (teach me a lesson?) has left me disturbed but only me and who am I? But a disenfranchised (aesthetic) war lord. I lay vanquished but not repentant. My only wish was to preserve the tropical worldÕs greatest hotel garden. Foiled at the 11th hour by M. MarsaÕs heinous betrayal (not just of me) and your, more predictable, backlash.
IÕm concerned. That you will now swing in, with your enhanced mandate, and chop down the trees that pepper otherwise pedestrian panoramii; that you will issue an edict forbidding me from using the lower court; that you will paint all of Stephen LittleÕs doors like Beach Blanket Babylon. Oh Cruel world.

I have ALWAYS been supportive (my putting my nose into it in the final hours of the fall of the aestheteÕs would have muddied the waters (Neil agreed) and it was strongly advised against by the Balinese confreres: let the locals handle local problems. We tried, as Colin will attest, for an elegant win-win solution but were foiled by treachery. (not unknown in these parts).
IÕm loath to front up for fear of some unsavory reproach or ultimatum (my years with Hyatt have traumatized me) so I would ask first for some ideas from you (in writing?) on what future role might be. I could spruce the flowers in the executive toilet or pass you green bulbs for a son et lummiere (tee hee)? Dawn raids with the commandos might help, assuming you stack the deck with a design loyalist most imp. Ð either Dewa Kadek (Dewa SedanaÕs brother, a former FSR-garden G.M. and Assistant P.M. during the project years) or Ketut Kotak or Dewa Dana (now in Singapore but soon to return). I seem to being offered a lot of work overseas THANK GOD! So periodic rather that pastoral would suit.
Your thoughts please. All the best,

Made, Elba, 6/2/2001
CC: Mr. Neil Jacobs, FSR-S

From: "Christopher Norton"
To: ptwijaya
Cc: "Neil Jacobs"
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 5:50 PM
Subject: The Gardens - Four Seasons at Jimbaran Bay >

Dear Made;
Hope you are doing well in LA. I hear that you are concerned about the gardens. There is no reason to be concerned. > They look better than they have looked in a long time. The gardeners (we hired > 100% back...not 60%) are working diligently, their morale is good and they take direction well from the new management team.

The entire situation was extremely difficult. I still do not understand why you abandoned our most precious gardens in the times of greatest need and crisis, if you were so worried.
Made, I am angry with you because despite my repeated requests, you were not > here when I needed you most. I am disappointed with you because you dropped us like a hot potato after all those years of support and patience. I am still in > shock about the short notice we were given to deal with this potentially > dangerous situation. The Indosekar management void left your previous staff of 10 years and us, your previous client of 8 years, in a very bad position.
I am thankful to our senior management team that worked literally around the > clock for five days and nights to identify a company willing to take over this > mess (last minute) and to deal with all the problems.
I am thankful to the 80 or so of our line staff (cooks, dish washers, housekeepers, pastry chefs, security guards, engineers, waiters, bartenders, > massage therapists, sales people, my secretary and many more) that volunteered > on several days to join me and Colin at 7 AM. They ventured into the abandoned gardens and picked up trash and leaves in the pouring rain, before starting their regular jobs to serve our guests.

Please call me when you get back to Bali if you want to talk some more. Until then, I really do not feel like exchanging long emotional letters, faxes or e-mails with you.

Regards,
Chris
Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay:
Conde Nast Traveller 2001 Gold List
No. 1 Resort in The World.

From: PT.Wijaya Tribwana Internasional
To: Chris Norton
Cc: Isadore Sharp ; Wolf Hengst ; Neil Jacobs ; PT Tribwana Indosekar
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 1:31 PM
Subject: THE GARDENS - FOUR SEASONS RESORT AT JIMBARAN BAY

Mr. Christopher Norton
General Manager
Four Seasons Resort
Jimbaran - Bali

Dear Chris,
Thank you for your email (attached for easy reference). Hopefully this response will be helpful to Four Seasons management in the future. WeÕre tried our best Ð you couldnÕt ask for three better companies in Bali, in terms of fairplay and dedication (i.e. Four Seasons International, P.T. Indosekar and P.T. Wijaya Tribwana International) Ð and twelve years is a pretty good run. There have been lots of awards and lots of kudos for both sides. I felt very proud, for my team, when you recently offered that "we are part of what you are".

It is easy to blame me, personally, for this inevitable shift Ð gee, how long can you force people to work for under $100/month in the worldÕs No. 1 resort? The timing has been unfortunate (well fortunate for me, as watching the changing of the guard (as I say, inevitable under the present economic circumstances) would not have been pleasant, and might have been dangerous (physical threats had been issued against my supervisor, by the hard-liners, as I have told you; one supervisors had been maimed; Neil Jacobs and I concurred, two weeks ago, that the, perceived* "boss foreigner" sticking his head in would not have helped.)
DonÕt please he too cruel: you know my only interest in all this has been artistic; its very upsetting losing a garden one has created, from nothing, and nurtured for twelve years (since the start of the project phase); I would have readily forgone the $300/month and ÔpassÕ on the death threats if it wasnÕt for the joy of slowly bringing a major garden to maturity. No other landscape designer does this, with the same level of linkage (design-build-maintain).

I have always gone to great pains to explain to management the delicate nature of maintaining correct balance in an artfully natural garden (The Bali Hyatt and The Oberoi are the only two others I know, and they lost their "ordered" look some months after our departure there, after 18 years and ten years respectively). Michael Burchett, Neil Jacobs, Colin Clark and hopefully you will remember my pruning and preening.
Kindly allow me to address the issues raised in your e-mail as I think a level of fairness should prevail Ð so as not to preclude the possibility of being asked back by future managers.

To address your points:

1. TIMING (And please see my letter of November 2000, some three months before push came to shove, and 6 February 2001 (attached)). ItÕs not honest to say we "dropped you like a hot potato". We had been locked into meetings with the extremely recalcitrant and unrealistic labour reps for months. It was definitely in their interest to stall (last year, in your own words, you "bought peace" at the 11th hour; this year you might just have bought time. I hope IÕm wrong.) I advised Colin of my work commitments ( a huge India, U.S., Mexico, Australia and Hong Kong trip) and I presumed he told you (you were away, I recall, for ten days during the final protracted attempts, involving some fifty meetings, to find a win-win solution) this penultimate round of talks, involving Putu, Dewa, Colin, Don and myself finally broke down when Bp. Ketut Marsa (the landscape contractor at the Four Seasons Sayan), whose career I started 25 years ago, inexplicably stood us all up. (Colin will recall the flurry of calls over that week (i.e. D-Day minus ten days)). Your insistence that I "wasnÕt going anywhere" was understandable, but beyond my control.
   
   
2. RE: Emotional DonÕt please be angry. ItÕs no-ones fault really. ItÕs inevitable that I get the blame (large moving target dept.) and that you recall vividly what we didnÕt or couldnÕt do, rather than our considerable achievements over twelve years.
   
   Colin to his credit was never threatening like you. Your accusations of "breach of contract" when we were all just trying to keep a lid on it were tense-making. Your angry denunciations of P.T. Indosekar director Drs. Putu Suasta did not help (he is widely regarded as BaliÕs best mediator (he was called in by the Governor to quell recent riots at the Bali Cliff Hotel, The Kartika Plaza and the infamous Bali wide May 20, 1998 unrest which he almost single-handedly defused). I was encouraged by his repeated assurances that he would, as a Balinese, handle Balinese manpower problems. I truly believe his involvement as a respected reformasi figure helped the transition. I may be wrong. I donÕt think your calling him, basically, a liar and then refusing to apologize when presented with the facts helps the hotelÕs standing in the Indonesian community.
   
   
3. RE: "100% staff staying on" Its not true. The two extremely hard working and loyal managers and 50% of the supervisors (the 50% that counted) were sacrificed. I say "sacrificed" because you reneged on your invitation to P.T. Indosekar to provide technical assistance under the new 2001-2001 maintenance contract (with a fresh team this was agreed before I had to leave). "No way IÕm having any of those gardeners back" you said to me on 15 January. P.T. Indosekar had eight supervisors ready, as requested, on 1 January. Neither Putu, Dewa nor Nyoman Miyoga were consulted on your change of plans. They were all in Bali. They are not bitter: betrayal is part of everyday business life in Indonesia but IÕm ashamed that I forced them, for the last two years, to basically defy the union and assist me in creatively maintaining the grounds with just the commandoes to assist. Your thumbs up (and DonÕs) for their work as late as December 2000 was much appreciated. By copy of this letter, and on behalf of Four Seasons (IÕm still your consultant until 1 March), I thank P.T. Indosekar (Dewa Sedana, Dewa Sucita and Wayan S.H. in particular) for putting the job ahead of personal safety. The Balinese garden art world is in your debt.
   
   
4. "New Management" They are a very competent company. Your ignoring my suggestions for some involvement by the old creative guard does run the risk of the gardenÕs losing their shape and view-holes (beyond just healthy tidy maintenance).

Everyday is Critical. Once they are cut the wrong way (our sculpting techniques are with the existing gardeners, as long as they remain loyal, but the vital reshapings are, IÕm confident in saying, unique to me, with my commandoes.)
By copy of this letter I implore all friends of the gardens Ð I have beseeched you in the past ("if anything goes wrong") Ð to please look at this situation realistically, without emotion.
I know I am often testy BUT THE WORLDÕS MOST AMAZING TROPICAL HOTEL GARDEN IS AT THE STAKE HERE.
One attack of municipal passion and the whole 12 years of delicate training pruning, preening goes down the drain.
Please, friends, donÕt let this garden, as a kinetic artwork in slow progress, disappear.

Yours passionately,
Made Wijaya
Sanur, 20.ii.2001

CC:
-Bp. Soetikno Soedarjo
-Mr. Isadore Sharp
-Mr. Wolf Hengst, President, Four Seasons Hotels International
-Mr. Neil Jacobs, Vice-President, Four Seasons Hotels IntÕl
-Drs. Putu Suasta
-Bp. Dewa Sedana
-Drs. Nyoman Miyoga

* RE: PERCEIPTIONS: I have always been perceived as the boss of P.T. Indosekar. Putu Suasta, Dewa Sedana and Nyoman MiyogaÕs perceived passivity (niceness) has been helpful in doing a great garden but distracting, I surmise, in managementÕs belief (all three GMÕs never quite got it) that only the foreigner (me) was in charge. I have always deferred to the Balinese incredible manpower harnessing and managing capabilities. There are no foreigners, involved in the fortuitous logistical masterpieces that are Balinese temple festivals and cremations.

P.S. : If it is true that the hard-liners have been made supervisors to broach a temporary peace then the wrong message has been sent to the loyal, decent 85% who worked on, and to P.T. Indosekar, and to the Indonesian marketplace.

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Friends of The FSR-J Grdns
RE: BUNCHES OF CUNTS
- The beat goes on (beware the curse)

Colin Clark now heavily implicated in the deal with the devils. Is there any hope for Bali??

S i g h
Made
cc: Sixty Minutes (Nike Shoe Div.)