Close neighbors: Two people head to a check point on the border of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea in Merauke, Papua. Residents on both sides of the border in Papua province frequently cross over to buy daily necessities. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama

Your comments:

There’s something fishy going on here. Although I expect all sorts of behavior from TNI, I fail to comprehend why PNG now threatens Indonesia over an incident that took place in November, and only now gives 48-hours notice several weeks later.

It could be a domestic issue in PNG, related to the constitutional crisis. Picking a fight with a neighbor is understandable from this perspective.

Mas Martin

The TNI were just doing their jobs, period. The Foreign Ministry, as usual, is doing “fire-fighting” role for the shortcomings of others. One ministry that has never been mentioned during this fiasco: the Transportation Ministry.

It happened Nov. 29, so why all the fuss now? Well, I would assume that on the day it happened, parties from both sides already agreed that it was nothing to worry about and kept it under wraps.

But then someone thought it was newsworthy, dug it up and turned it into bilateral chaos.

Piyet

We do not need to apologize to PNG. We just need to say why this incident happened and ask PNG for an explanation as to why the flight number mentioned in the Open Air Permit letter was different with the flight that was in the air.

PNG should know that Indonesia has strict standard procedures for every international airline or special flight that uses our open air authority. There is nothing wrong with the TNI’s actions.

What we need to do now is just answer the PNG complaint. We also do not need to blame TNI or the Foreign Ministry.

Evy Arbay

It is well-known that because of language, communication, pride and lack of knowledge, Indonesians are having problems within themselves and with others. From what has been reported, this seems to be the case. The harm has already been done, why not graciously apologize instead of creating a new enemy that we can hardly afford to have?

Rianto

We really don’t need more enemies, especially one located so close to Papua. Just apologize and blame it on a lack of coordination.

Kiko

The plane wasn’t shot down and nobody was hurt. There’s no need to overreact and create unnecessary tension between the two countries.

Rad

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