Wed, 16 Mar 2005

'We must remain suspicious of KL'

They did it again! Malaysia has awarded two oil concessions to the Dutch company Shell .. in Indonesian territory. After a successful campaign in the Sipadan-Ligitan island case, Malaysia is now "going forward" to get more.

Despite good relations between the two countries, recently Malaysia seems to be "bitchy", at least to some ordinary people in Indonesia. In the wake of the illegal worker issues and illegal logging allegations, now they "provoke" us with the oil deal.

We have to remain suspicious about this new tendency by Malaysia, and we must prepare for the worst. Of course diplomacy is the best choice, however we have to defend what is ours, in this case our sea and land (and oil). Send the Navy, Airforce and Army to the area. Malaysia must cancel the oil agreement first, then we can talk. That is what the Indonesian government (and Army) should do to deal with our greedy neighbor.

DENIS SAPUTRA, Jakarta