Monitoring outlying islands difficult but necessary: TNI

The Indonesian Military (TNI) says it does not have the resources to monitor the nation’s 92 outermost islands, warning that a failure to do so could see the territories fall into foreign hands.

“It’s not impossible that they could fall into foreign hands,” National Military chief Adm. Agus Suhartono said at a discussion forum in Bandung, West Java, on Wednesday.

The forum, titled “Guarding the Archipelago’s Rim” and held at the Indonesia Menggugat building, marked the end of the Wanadri archipelago expedition, which ran from December 2007 until December 2010.

Of the 92 islands, 31 are inhabited and 13 are occasionally visited,
Agus said.

He said it was difficult to monitor the islands because their inhabitants did not recognize the authority of the Indonesian government.

“The economic conditions [on the inhabited islands] have not been developed, that’s why this requires a prudent policy that would allow local governments to develop them,” he said.

Indonesia ramped up efforts to make its presence felt around its outlying islands after it lost Sipadan and Ligitan islands to neighboring Malaysia following an international court ruling.

The International Court of Justice announced that the islands should belong to Malaysia.

Indonesia has since increased military presence around its outlying islands.

Agus said the military would designate the surveillance of uninhabited outlying islands to the Navy.

“If the islands are rocky and are not inhabitable, we will just patrol them. We still need to patrol them to establish our political claim,” he said.

As for inhabited outlying islands, he said the military would station joint forces to control the areas.

Indonesia currently operates two submarines — the 30-year-old Cakra and Nenggala. Indonesia’s other two submarines are undergoing repairs in South Korea.

The military is looking to add another two in 2014. “We want to develop submarines in a project that involves not only foreign but domestic technicians,” Agus said, adding that offers for a joint project had come from South Korea, Germany and France.

This year the military was allocated a greater percentage of the country’s defense budget, Rp 19.77 trillion of Rp 42.5 trillion, which allows the purchase of two more submarines.

“We shall gradually enforce our military defense system by bringing in warships, armored vehicles, amphibious vehicles, [fighter] jets from 2010 to 2014. Hopefully, those can meet the lowest ideal number [of defense system],” he said.

Ipong Witono, leader of the expedition team which explored the country’s 92 outermost islands, said the team had discovered that the people inhabiting the islands were lacking government attention.

“They live humbly. Fishermen end up as the lowest level. We have documented our expedition for publication. We hope the seas can be preserved well,” he said.

During the expedition, the team set up two poles on every island they set foot on; one carrying the national flag and the other stating the island’s name, administrative region and coordinates.