'Navy needs hundreds more boats'

'Navy needs hundreds more boats'

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Navy chief of staff Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh defended on
Thursday the purchase of patrol boats by some provinces as the
country needed 200 more boats to guard its vast sea territory
while the central government only has a limited budget.

Bernard said Indonesia, as an archipelagic country, ideally
should operate at least 380 patrol boats to cover thousands of
square kilometers stretching from Aceh to Papua.

He dismissed allegations that the cooperation between the Navy
and the provincial governments would violate any law related to
regional autonomy, and therefore does not need approval from the
Ministry of Home Affairs.

"I clearly understand that the Navy cannot ask local
administrations to buy a warship. But with such cooperation with
local administrations to procure patrol boats, we emphasize that
the Navy will control the use of the boats as well as their
weaponry," Bernard stated during a press conference.

Article 10 of the Law No. 22/1999 on regional government says
local administrations have the responsibility of maintaining
natural resources and providing support for security measures and
state sovereignty in their respective jurisdiction.

"Of course the weaponry for the patrol boats will comply with
standard requirements. I'm not going to load them with missiles,
because they are not warships," Bernard said.

He was referring to the recent agreement signed by the Navy's
Western Fleet and Riau administration on the purchase of Rp 12.8
billion worth of a patrol boats recently.

The boats were produced by PT Pelindo in Tanjung Pinang, Riau.

Bangka Belitung province has announced it would follow suit,
with West Nusa Tenggara and Gorontalo next in line, according to
Bernard.

The Navy has come under fire and been put under scrutiny by
the home and defense ministries for allegedly violating Article 7
of the Law No. 22/1999 which stipulates that security affairs are
solely the responsibility of the central government. Regional
governments have to channel their money to the military through
the central government.

TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said during a hearing with
the House of Representatives on Wednesday that he had already
urged local administrations to purchase patrol boats in a bid to
support the Navy's job to safeguard the country's waters where
fish poaching and timber and people-smuggling are rampant.

Fish poaching alone has cost the country up to US$3 billion a
day.

According to Bernard, the Navy could only purchase four patrol
boats a year if it depended solely on the state budget.

"Surely it will not meet the country's goal of combating
various threats in our waters," he said.

Of the 117 ships in the Navy armada, two are submarines, 14
are warships, 57 are patrol boats and the remaining 44 are
support vessels, including tankers and carriers. Only 30 percent
of the ships, however, are still seaworthy, according to the
government.

Bernard said the patrol boats provided by provincial
governments will be registered as Navy property to enable them to
operate.

The admiral also disclosed that the Navy had struck a deal
with South Korea on the purchase of a $35 million Personnel
Landing Dock that will be provided with medical facilities. The
vessel is scheduled to arrive in Surabaya on Sept. 17.

He said the Navy also plans to purchase four corvettes from
the Netherlands over two years, two of them will be assembled at
state ship builder PT PAL in Surabaya.