Indonesia Malaysia Ambalat Dispute

Hardly any Indonesian so cares or even knows about Ambalat waters. As Indonesia has more than 13,000 islands and thus maritime borders, Ambalat is only one among many. Until few days ago when Ambalat made top headlines in mainstream media because of alleged Malaysian warship which Indonesia claims has violated its maritime borders.

TNI AL [1] spokesman Iskandar Sitompul disclosed that TNI AL`s warship `KRI Untung Surapati-872 drove away a Malaysian warship, Kd Yu-3508, which attempted to enter Indonesian waters in the Ambalat Block on Monday.

When it was carrying out its task to guard the Sulawesi waters, KRI Untung Surapati-872 detected the Malaysian warship YU-3508 of the Fast Attack Craft type at the northern 04.03.00 – eastern 118.01.70 position, exactly in the Ambalat Block area. The Malaysian ship was sailing at a speed of 16 knots.

Basically it’s not the first dispute. The conflict over Ambalat heats up every now and then before:

In March 2005, Indonesia accused a Malaysian navy vessel, KD Renchong, of ramming into its military ship, KRI Tedung Naga. The incident caused minor damage to both vessels. A few days after the incident, Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono alleged that the Malaysian government had sent an apology regarding the incident. The Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak however denied making any apology.

The Malaysian navy had chased Indonesian fishermen out of Ambalat as well. Indonesia further accused Malaysia of 35 violations of Indonesian territory

Why Malaysia is so interested in Ambalat waters? This is about oil:

Malaysia and Indonesia have awarded oil concessions to Shell, Unocal, and ENI respectively. Both Southeast Asian countries have delivered protest notes to each other. Several demonstrations against this policy sparked in Indonesia within several months as well.

Malaysia has defeated Indonesia over Sipadan and Ligitan island based on effective occupation reasoning. Will Malaysia do it again this time if the case is carried to International Court of Justice?

Earlier, Malaysia and Indonesia were in dispute over the control of the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan. The matter was brought up to the International Court of Justice. In 2002, the ICJ awarded the two islands and its surrounding to Malaysia based on “effective occupation” reasoning.

Malaysia has the reason to come after any new profitable islands and waters nearby owned theoretically by Indonesia: it has a few land and strong willingness and aggressiveness to occupy “unoccupied” area in Indonesia. Indonesia on the other hand has many resources with little willingness to defend. The corrupt Indonesian officials and political elite are ready to give up and everything everything so far as it will make them get richer.

That’s said, Indonesian people would love to see the Ambalat conflict resolved in a peaceful manner among the two ASEAN countries and immediate neighbor and for that we support any dialog and peaceful negotiation between the two countries like that’s been done recently and is still going on.:

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said negotiations between Indonesia and Malaysia on the status of the Ambalat block border are still going on, and no agreement had yet been reached.

“The negotiations are still going on between the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry`s legal and international agreement director general and his Malaysian counterpart,” the minister told ANTARA News at the Jakarta Art Center, Ismail Marzuki Art and Cultural Park, here on Wednesday.

Juwono was a key speaker at a cultural dialog on “One Century of National Awakening” held at the Ismail Marzuki cultural park. National Awakening Day is observed every May 20.

He said Malaysia had so far not given up its claim to the Ambalat block which Indonesia considers as being part of its territory.

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NOTE:

[1] TNI AL (Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut) Navy of Indonesia’s Armed Forces.