JP/Fadli

The management of air traffic and flights in the country follows the regulations set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which has divided Indonesian skies into three flight information regions (FIRs), namely Jakarta, Makassar and Singapore.

The Singapore FIR covers quite a large part Indonesia’s airspace jurisdiction. Beyond Indonesia’s wishes, parts of its airspace have been under Singapore’s Aviation Authority since 1946. In fact, no country would ever delegate its aviation authority to another country without the will of the delegating country.

Under such circumstances, Indonesia has for over 70 years been facing limitations and obstacles in exercising its right to control flight operations in its own airspace. Flight operations in the region include not only flight activities related to aviation in the context of aero-economic development for the welfare of a wider community, but also concern flight operations in national security and defense.

The fact that Indonesia has been experiencing difficulties in asserting its sovereignty over airspace above Riau Islands due to the Singapore FIR contradicts the Chicago Convention’s 1944 rule of international law, which states that air sovereignty of a country is “complete” and “exclusive”. What has been happening in the skies of Riau Islands is therefore very strange as a sovereign state like Indonesia has been deprived of its sovereignty over its airspace.

This inconvenient truth was the reason behind President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s issuance of a 2015 presidential instruction that ordered all relevant ministries to immediately ensure the Singapore FIR by 2019 enables Indonesia to manage its sovereign airspace between Aceh and Papua.

Yet since the presidential instruction was issued, there has not yet been any visible and meaningful development, apart from fragmentary statements from several related ministers.

Some of the ministers are of the opinion that the Singapore FIR is only a matter of safety, not security. But safety and security are two sides of the same coin, since the air-combat training areas of the Singaporean Air Force are regulated by the Singapore FIR, overshadowing the fact that Indonesia has its own sovereign airspace in the FIR.

This has raised a question as to who should regulate and designate the air defense identification zones (ADIZ) within the Singapore FIR.

This alone may contradict the fundamental reasoning of the 2015 presidential instruction (i.e. unified safety and security foundation) which may have, ultimately, led to internal self-made restrictions in implementing it. Therefore, the coming negotiations with Singapore will never take FIR security into consideration.

The presidential instruction should be studied and understood as an effort to restore the nation’s principles of having independent “airspace territorial rights”. It is an effort to perfect, respect and fully complete the rightful “airspace ownership status” of the independent and sovereign Republic of Indonesia.

If this fact is realized, Indonesia, as the holder of airspace sovereignty, would have the capability and full freedom to regulate, manage and control its own airspace in relation to national and international aviation regulations in the aspects of safety and security, and to foster good relations between nations, without interference from any other country.

This matter is quite self-explanatory: the presidential instruction to take over the Singapore FIR has absolutely nothing to do with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, defense cooperation agreements and the air-combat training areas of other countries over and above Riau Islands waters. Singapore or the ICAO only needs to give back the airspace ownership rights that have castrated the sovereignty of Indonesia for decades.

Frankly, it remains unclear what exactly has happened in the “negotiations” over the Singapore FIR that seem to be tough. In this case, the focus should be on the fact that the FIR issue is merely a matter of ownership, in which the owner has never delegated its authority to another party.

The FIR issue is also a matter of justice concerning who the owner is and who reaps the benefits from the control and management of Indonesia’s sovereign airspace. The issue overall is a serious problem in the regional context of peace and prosperity.

International relations have always relied on reciprocal principles that refer to mutual respect, trust and honesty. After the ownership of the airspace above Riau islands is returned to Indonesia, the good relations between Indonesia and Singapore will improve and all discussions regarding international aviation safety, security and training areas will run in a more amicable way.

Furthermore, the process of making requests to obtain permission to use airspace for training purposes will be much easier, and talks about other matters relating to the “strategic value” of the Indonesian sovereign airspace over the Riau Islands can follow later.

In sum, the presidential instruction to take over the Singapore FIR is about an effort to return a property right to the rightful owner.

If realized, the policy will lead to better and more dignified airspace management based on mutual respect. Many should easily understand it as common sense, but those who indulge their greed and vested interest will oppose it.

As the Korean writer Hyun Go-wun puts it: “Nothing can distract the greedy and selfish people, because they are all blind.”

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Chappy Hakim and Tjahyo T. Andoko are respectively the chairman and the director of research and development at the Indonesia Center of Air Power Studies.

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