The International Maritime Bureau frequently
sets bad images about Indonesian waters.

IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board said that data and information released by the International Maritime Bureau frequently corner the position of Indonesia over the marine security in the Malaccan strait.

“Occasionally, the crossing ships in Indonesian waters in the Malaccan strait which do not carry out illegal activities are accused of operating illegally. Therefore, most of the times Indonesia is considered failed in providing security in the strait”, said the executive chair of the IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board, the vice admiral Djoko Sumaryono in Jakarta.

After being inaugurated as the executive chair of the IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board, Djoko said, “The Malaccan strait has a very strategic geopolitical position so that many parties get interested in the security of the world’s crowded strait.

In regards to that, the three beach states (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore) has organized a coordinated patrolling ‘Malsindo’ to secure the 500-mile long strait. However, the International Maritime Bureau sometimes released data and information that are contradictory to the facts. By that, the Malaccan strait seems to be very vulnerable to the sea crimes like piracy’, said Djoko.

The existing conditions have been worsened by the behavior of the ship’s captain and the ship crews who are reluctant to inform their comings to the Malaccan strait, particularly to the related institutions of the Indonesian government.

“The ship owners do the same thing. They do not want to inform about their comings and any environmental conditions that they are facing. Therefore, any information revealed tend to corner us negatively. This is not fair”, said Djoko.

Further, many parties who are interested and have concerns with the marine security of Malaccan strait, such as Japan and the United States of America, are very eager to have their military strength on the Malaccan strait.

To take care of the problem, the IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board (Bakorkamla) will set up information center that can display the existing conditions of Indonesian waters, including the Malaccan strait. “As an archipelagic state, it is the high time for Indonesia to have an information center that could fight negative and inaccurate information about the marine security of Indonesian waters, particularly about the Malaccan strait”, said Djoko.

Yet, in the short-term the information center will serve the needs of Indonesian domestic interests, mainly to the governmental instances that are under the coordination of the IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board for the sake of maximizing the marine security operations in Indonesian waters”, said Djoko.

He claimed that sea crime threats in the Malaccan strait have significantly decreased since the launching of Malsindo coordinated patrolling in July 2002.

Besides carrying out the marine security operations including the Malaccan strait, the IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board (Bakorkamla) will do research and develop mechanism of law enforcement in the Indonesian waters, as well as improve the information system among related governmental institutions under the IMSCB-The Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board (Bakorkamla), that are the twelve departments including the Indonesian army and the state’s intelligence agency (BIN) (source: News Agency ANTARA).