RE-VERSED HARD NEWS (WEB JOURNALISM)

Protecting the Sovereignty on RI-Malaysia border.

Reversed by Slamet Prasojo

N. Adri, The Jakarta Post, Balikpapan | March 20 2015| 5:57 AM

The Indonesian Military (TNI) is having planning to set up more security posts along the North Kalimantan and East Kalimantan borders with Malaysia, which are more than 1,000 kilometers long and adding another 17 posts to make a total of 50 posts along the border area. The project would be applied to the 2015 state budget, but said the amount had yet to be fully calculated.

The new border checkpoints were becoming more crucial because of an increase in the number of trespassers from both countries, which consequently raised the security threat. Purwito stated. The main duty of border soldiers is to protect the border by preventing the state boundaries from being shifted. In the past, the border markers were shifted by illegal loggers from Malaysia in order to take timber from

Indonesia’s forested areas. Oil palm plantations also did the same thing not too long ago. “Now, the border markers are seldom shifted, thanks to our intensive patrols,” added Purwito.

Border security troops are placed under the command of the task force. The TNI has deployed two battalions to watch over the West Kalimantan-Sarawak border and the East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan-Sarawak and Sabah borders. The troops are stationed at the border posts, which serve as patrol bases as well as providing a sense of security for nearby communities. This stretch of the border passes through areas like Long Pahangai in Mahakam Ulu regency (southwest of East Kalimantan), going northward to the Sungai Boh in Malinau regency and Long Bawan in Nunukan regency, North Kalimantan, and then extending from west to east through Lumbis, Tatagas, Simantobol and Sebuku.

The border security posts are generally located on mountain ridges, such as in the Schwaner mountainous region, which acts as a natural border between Indonesia and Malaysia. However, they are also located at various other locales, such as the Simantobol and Simantopol posts, which are located in the middle of the jungle and far from human settlements, while the post in Long Bawan is located in the densely populated Long Bawan district. Most of them are modestly built of timber.

The posts are usually modified by soldiers stationed in them in such ways that make them more functional and habitable. A number of disputes in the border areas keep occurring. A recent one took place in November 2014, when the government said that three out of 10 villages in the Lumbis Ongon subdistrict, Nunukan, North

Kalimantan, were declared to be part of Malaysia’s territory. The village areas were poor and had no access to the Indonesian government’s development projects, so the government concluded that prolifirate development could reduce poverty as well as protect the territory.