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Malaysian firm’s station deemed security threat

The Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a landing station for a large underwater optic cable with 400 GB bandwidth owned by Sacofa, a Malaysian-based communications company, in Anambas, Riau Islands, violates international maritime law

Liza Yosephine, Nani Afrida and Fadli (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, April 11, 2017

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Malaysian firm’s station deemed security threat

T

he Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a landing station for a large underwater optic cable with 400 GB bandwidth owned by Sacofa, a Malaysian-based communications company, in Anambas, Riau Islands, violates international maritime law.

There is currently an agreement between Indonesia and Malaysia for submarine cable placement but this does not cover the landing station, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir told The Jakarta Post
on Monday.

The spokesperson said the establishment of the landing station did not correspond with the permit the company held and was not in accordance with an agreement reached between Indonesia and Malaysia in 1982.

“According to the agreement in 1982 and also the UNCLOS [the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea], it only gives the right to put a cable under the sea for the sake of communication between East and West Malaysia. However, it does not include the establishment of a landing station for the cable on Indonesian land,” he explained,

The ministry, he said, had demanded that the facility remain completely underwater as stipulated in the 1982 agreement.

The Post attempted to reach Sacofa corporate affairs representative Mohamad bin Sait for comment on Monday but to no avail. The company, however, said as quoted by The Borneo Post that it “abided by all the rules of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea through an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with the Indonesian government for the laying down of the submarine optic cable passing through its island.”

“Why they [the Indonesian military] decided to take action now is the big question,” an unnamed company official told Malaysian media.

The landing station was established in 2002-2003 by Sacofa with permission from the Indonesian Communications and Information Ministry.

Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, who inspected and shut down the landing station, however, believes that the station and fiber optic cables are a threat to national security.

“The fiber optic cables and servers could directly connect to satellites. If more devices are added to the system, the technology could sense all vibrations from the surface of the sea or submarines,” Gatot said.

According to a report by Batam Today, on Sept. 10, 2013, the Indonesian Military Intelligence Division classified Sacofa’s landing station as having the potential to threaten national security.

The Communications and Information Ministry then revoked the license on Jan. 24, 2014, but the company allegedly continued to illegally operate the station for three more years.

By Nov. 20, 2016, a team made up of officials from the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, the Communications and Information Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the National Encryption Agency, the Anambas regional administration, the TNI and the National Police had sealed the landing station. However, the Communications and Information Ministry unsealed it a few weeks later and let it operate again until March 23.

Jefrizal, head of the Anambas Information and Communications Agency, explained that the license for the landing station did not come from his agency, but rather from the Communications and Information Ministry in Jakarta.

Tanjung Pinang Naval Base Commander First Adm. Suprianto Irawan said the military uncovered a number of pieces of equipment that it feared could be inserted with devices to monitor the movements of ships and submarines in Indonesian waters.

“The company can no longer operate here. Naval officers are on guard as instructed by the TNI commander,” he said.

Currently, the military has deployed 30 personnel from the Army and 30 personnel from the Navy to safeguard the facility.

The Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta refused to comment on the status of the landing station. (dis)

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