TNI ready to defend the border

The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Friday it was ready to guard the Indonesia-Malaysia border in West Kalimantan following allegations that the neighboring country had seized Indonesian territory.

Military chief Agus Suhartono said that the military patrolled the borders there based on the 1978 memorandum of understanding with Malaysia and had managed to keep them intact.

However, he said that the military would support the government if it wanted to secure Tanjung Datu and Camar Bulan as part of Indonesia, adding that the TNI was ready to defend the two disputed areas according to the 1906 van Doorn map.

Agus, speaking on the sidelines of a hearing with members of the House of Representatives’ Commission I overseeing foreign affairs, hoped that the dispute over Camar Bulan and Tanjung Datu could be classified as an “outstanding border problem”, and thus be discussed with Kuala Lumpur.

“There are findings that differ from the treaties, and [the government] should bring these new findings to a discussion with Malaysia,” Agus said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Representatives from the Netherlands and England drew the van Doorn map to set the borders of Indonesia and Malaysia. The van Doorn map, which was approved by the Dutch and English governments in 1906, demarcated Camar Bulan and Tanjung Datu as Indonesian, then ruled by the Dutch.

The debate over Indonesia-Malaysia borders ensued after Maj. Gen. (ret.) T.B. Hasanuddin, a House lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle who had just returned from a working visit to West Kalimantan, alleged that Malaysia had claimed ownership of both Camar Bulan and Tanjung Datu.

The government has denied the allegations, but some lawmakers insisted that Malaysia might have seized Indonesian territory.

Responding to Agus’ statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene told The Jakarta Post that while Camar Bulan belonged to Indonesia, the Tanjung Datu area had been split between Malaysia and Indonesia since the beginning. Michael described the 1906 van Doorn map as “merely a map and not a treaty”.

“There was no Dutch-English treaty in 1906. The only treaties [between the Netherlands and England] on record were in 1891, 1915 and 1928,” Michael said.

“Tanjung Datu has always been split [between Indonesia and Malaysia], including in the 1978 treaty,” he added.

Over the past few days, the Indonesian media — possibly still traumatized by Malaysia’s triumph in the Sipadan and Ligitan islands dispute in 2002 — had been busy denouncing the Malaysian government since T.B. Hasanuddin’s statements were made public.

Malaysian media, to a lesser extent than in Indonesia, also responded bitterly to this issue. Malaysia’s The Star, for example, quoted Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin as saying that Malaysia was often used as a “punching bag” by certain quarters in Indonesia whenever a political issue surfaced.

While the Indonesian media has aggressively blamed the Malaysian government for the matter, Indonesian legal expert Hikmahanto Juwana said on Sunday that Indonesians living along the border might be responsible, citing the possibility that they moved the markers for economic gain, such as illegal logging. (sat)