Govt yet to name 11,801 islets

JAKARTA: The government needs to name some 11,801 small islands across the country to maintain Indonesia's control over its territory and to avoid any further border disputes with neighboring countries, a discussion concluded on Thursday.

Focusing on the country's maritime borders, the discussion said only some 5,707 of the country's 17,508 islands had been named.

"Naming (the islands) will help the government record the country's outermost islands and set the maritime border with neighboring countries," Hasjim Djalal, a former minister of maritime affairs, said.

Hasjim, also an expert on international maritime law, suggested regents and governors give names to unnamed islands in their territories immediately.

Indonesia recently lost a case against Malaysia in the International Court of Justice over the ownership of the Sipadan and Ligitan islands, located off the coast of East Kalimantan. --JP