Susilo, Badawi agree to settle rift peacefully

Susilo, Badawi agree to settle rift peacefully

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi agreed on Monday to resolve the border
dispute off Borneo through diplomacy. War machines on both sides
have been put into action over the last few days.

The leaders reached the agreement during a 10-minute talk.
Badawi call Susilo moments before the latter made a visit to the
island of Sebatik, near the disputed maritime area of Ambalat, on
a warship.

"I have just talked to Malaysian Prime Minister (Badawi) for
10 minutes by phone, which resulted in two conclusions. Firstly,
both sides agreed to control the (mounting) tension in the field,
to avoid open conflict. Secondly, the Malaysian prime minister
will send his foreign minister to Jakarta immediately to hold
talks on the dispute with us. The meeting will be hosted by the
Indonesian foreign minister," the President said.

To help resolve the dispute, the government will also strictly
enact Presidential Decree No. 44/1994 on development in the
Kalimantan border areas. Susilo said the border conflict was
sparked by the poor condition of infrastructure in Indonesian
areas bordering Malaysia.

Upon his arrival on Tarakan island, East Kalimantan, the
President and his entourage, including several ministers and
Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, boarded
a warship bound for Sebatik to observe the situation in the field
and to speak with military personnel deployed there.

Susilo toured the islands after several warships and four F-16
jet fighters were deployed to counter the presence of Malaysian
patrol ships and planes in the disputed area over the last few
days.

The two neighbors became embroiled in tension after Malaysia's
state-owned oil company Petronas granted contracts to the Shell
company to explore two deep-water blocks in the now-disputed
maritime area of Ambalat last month.

Badawi confirmed that bilateral talks will take place to
resolve the row. "To prevent any undesirable incidents that may
create tension in the relationship between Indonesia and
Malaysia, both of us agreed for the matter to be discussed at the
diplomatic level," he was quoted by Malaysia's official Bernama
news agency as saying.

The tension comes as Malaysia cracks down on hundreds of
thousands of illegal migrants, mostly from Indonesia.

Previously, the two neighbors locked horns over sovereignty of
small border islands, Sipadan and Ligitan, to the east of
Sebatik. The International Court of Justice ruled in December,
2002 that the islands belonged to Malaysia.

As tension mounted, anti-Malaysia rallies continued in
Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Makassar and other major cities
throughout the country.

Thousands of youths and students in Palu and Makassar, two
major cities in Sulawesi, took to the streets, announcing their
readiness to fight for Indonesia's pride over the disputed
waters.

In Jakarta some 200 members of the Study Forum for Democratic
Action demonstrated outside the Malaysian Embassy in the Kuningan
business district, waving banners and denouncing Indonesia's
closest neighbor.

An opinion story run by New Straits Times on March 5,
questioned Indonesia's reaction, which it considered excessive.

The writer, Azmi Hassan, said he did not understand the
objective of the provocation conducted by the Indonesian warships
and jets, since it was not a secret that the TNI's war machines
were not in good condition following the 13-year United States'
military embargo.

He said that when the tsunami devastated Aceh recently, the
Indonesian military found it difficult to help Acehnese people
and had to rely on foreign militaries because of its lack of
operational assets.

Diplomacy -- Page 2