Kalimantan border areas should be developed: Military

The government expects to pay serious attention to the development of areas in West Kalimantan that border other countries, a military official says.

Kalimantan military chief Maj. Gen. Geerhan Lantara said Tuesday a failure to do so could result in new threats in the future.

“Future threats will involve issues surrounding social welfare. We should keep up with our neighbor Malaysia and develop border areas to prevent huge social gaps that could lead to social problems,” he said.

The local government is still struggling to build infrastructure such as highways, electricity and even providing food with a Rp 1.3 trillion annual budget.

Meanwhile, just across the street, the Malaysian government is already steps ahead, with their infrastructure in order.

Lantara said if the development of border areas was abandoned, the monitoring of those borders would likely be ineffective as well. He said the price of such ineffective border monitoring could be high, as that would open the possibility of one-sided territory claims.

Indonesia and Malaysia are still settling territory disputes in five separate locations that span 966 kilometers of border between West Kalimantan and Malaysia.