RI needs a marine contingency plan
Adi Lazuardi, Antara News Agency/Sorong
As a maritime nation rich in natural resources, such as oil and timber, Indonesia should have a national contingency plan to protect its waters from oil spills due to accidents at sea.
"We are at a loss as to why the draft of the national contingency plan submitted to the state secretariat has not yet been endorsed by any president since 1986, whereas in fact such a plan acts as a legal framework to protect our seas from pollution," said Director General of Sea Communications Tjuk Sukardiman on the sidelines of the Marine Pollution Regional conference being held in Sorong from June 14 to June 16.
As a result, whenever an oil spill occurs in our territory or waters bordering neighboring states, related authorities usually take a wait and see stance and point at each other to clean up the mess. Other countries have often taken advantage of such a situation such as Singapore, which has enacted such a policy.
Since the draft is still pending, many circles are skeptical that bribery is involved to prevent such a policy from being enacted as a legal framework to take quick actions to safeguard and protect Indonesian waters.
An example of the consequences of not having a contingency policy is the sinking of the MV Natuna Sea and MV Hyundai, which sank in 2001 and 2004 respectively.
Chief of the Marine and Coastal Security Unit (KPLP or equivalent to a coast guard), Soeharto, related the experience of the sinking of the MV Natuna Sea in Batu Berenti, in the Batam island chain, the Strait of Malacca, which spilled its oil load into Indonesian waters.
The strait is protected by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, but the Singaporean Coast Guard was quick to react to the incident by tugging the ship into its waters to probe and try the case.
"Singapore received millions of U.S. dollars from the insurance firm for the incident, while Indonesia was left with only the oil spill," said Soeharto.
He cited another ship collision in the Malacca Strait in which the MV Hyundai was transporting hundreds of Hyundai cars.
The ship sank along with its shipment of cars, but fuel in the ship was still intact and had not polluted the sea. The Singapore Coast Guard again stepped in quickly by siphoning the fuel completely from the ship and sold it to the international market.
"That's the consequence we have to face if Indonesia has no such contingency plan," he said.
Tjuk Sukardiman is convinced that such a policy is very crucial and expressed confidence that the legal framework for national maritime contingency plan would be issued this year.
"We intend it to be issued this year due to its urgency," said Tjuk.
He added that the Directorate General of Sea Communications and the Ministry of Environment would make serious efforts to accomplish their goal by acquiring the President's endorsement this year.
The commander of the Philippine Coast Guard, Padama, indicated that the Philippines had long had such a policy because it was aware that as a maritime nation its territory was extensively traversed by foreign tankers.
"We do not only have a national contingency plan, but a number of cities like Manila feels the need for a local contingency plan to protect its waters from pollution and to support the city as an international tourist destination," said Padama.
Due to this, the Philippine Coast Guard's fleet of 50 patrol vessels is larger compared to Indonesia which has only three of the nine required patrol vessels.