C

hange in the ownership of the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan should serve as a lesson for the government to pay better attention to conditions on the outer islands and prevent similar circumstances from taking place again, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri remarked at the opening of the party’s coordination conference in Batam, Riau Islands over the weekend.

Megawati expressed concern over the lack of government attention to outer island development.

“When I was the president, I felt as if I was hit by a hammer with the loss of Sipadan and Ligitan islands,” she said.

“I ordered reclamation of Nipah Island because it functions as a mark at the border between Indonesia and Singapore,” Megawati said.

Megawati said she would visit the island to see the latest developments there. “I want to see the conditions on Nipah Island,” she said.

Together with 126 participants at the PDI-P conference, Megawati was scheduled to visit Nipah on Sunday, where she would plant seedlings and provide assistance to mariners stationed on the island.

Nipah Island, which is under the supervision of the Batam City administration, has 60 hectares of new land following the successful reclamation project. Nipah can be reached from Singapore by a 15-minute boat trip.

Megawati said she was serious about the reclamation of the Nipah Island, and added that she last visited to Nipah on March 20, 2004, to plant a cemara laut (spruce fir) tree as a monument.