Naval base lacks fuel, uses new strategies to guard waters

The Jakarta Post ,  Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands   |  Sat, 11/07/2009 1:02 PM  |  National

The small defense budget has forced the Navy to seek new strategies to perform its primary task of monitoring the vast Indonesian waters spanning from Sabang at the western most tip of the country to Marauke, Papua, at the eastern most tip while maintaining Indonesia's sovereignty over more than 17,000 islands.

The commander of the Tanjungpinang Naval Base in Riau Islands, Commodore Sri Muhammad Dorodjatim, said a fuel shortage was one of many obstacles the naval base had encountered in guarding the vast waters bordering with Malaysia and Singapore, mainly along the crowded Malacca Strait which was prone to piracy, smuggling and illegal dumping.

"The budget for our operations is always very small. This year the Indonesian Military only recieved 5 percent of *the amount* we annually propose to the House of Representatives," he added.

Of more than Rp 100 trillion (US$10.5 billion) proposed for defense budget this year, the government and the House only approved around Rp 35 trillion, which has been distributed between the Defense Ministry, the Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.

The small budget and the poor remuneration system have forced many low-ranking servicemen to work second jobs to meet their family's daily needs.

The naval base is supervising security over some 346,000 square kilometers of water spread from the Tanjung Balai Karimun waters to Natuna Island and all the way to the Pontianak waters in West Kalimantan with around 1,350 resource-rich islets dotting the expansive waters.

Illegal fishing and mining across the archipelago causes a loss to the state of around Rp 40 trillion a year.

"The illegal fishing in the Riau Islands waters contributes to that number. The government needs to remember, however, that this particular area has to be prioritized; this is a focal area, a strategic area for sea security," Darodjatim said.

He also said that despite the lack of fuel support from the Navy headquarters, the naval base had been managing its operations and sea patrols optimally by using the "waiting point" pattern.

In the waiting point strategy, boats wait in strategic locations while naval aircraft patrol the waters. They report any incident as well as its coordinates to personnel in the boats, who then make their way to the scene.

The naval base also makes use of information from the Navy's intelligence unit in anticipation of foreign infiltrators or acts of piracy and other crimes along the straits.

Darodjatim said he had come up with yet another strategy to patrol the marine territory.

"We empower the maritime society in the area and use local fishermen as our eyes and ears. If they are out in the sea and witness illegal fishing or any other crime, they will report to us and we will sort it out," he added.

The Riau Island waters are also prone to other crimes such as smuggling fuel, weapons and timber from illegal logging. The waters have also been an area notorious for piracy, especially in the Karimun, Singkep and Jemaja waters.

"But we have managed to significantly reduce the amount of piracy in our waters through an agreement with the Singaporean and Malaysian *navies*," Darodjatim said, adding that continued monitoring for such crime was still needed nonetheless.

The Navy last apprehended pirates in the Karimun waters in late 2008.

"But they were not actually pirates; they had committed an armed robbery at sea, Malaysia and Singapore were unfair in their reports by calling them pirates," Darodjatim said cryptically.

He added Indonesia had in the past seen international pirate syndicates in its territorial waters but they have become far less apparent in the last three years. (adh)

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