Once again: Ambalat

[Interesting points from Prof Rais]

Prof. Jacub Rais, the father of geodesy in Indonesia, also expressed his opinion about Ambalat. As an expert in maritime issues and toponim he has some interesting points about Ambalat. His complete article can be found in Kompas, 11 April 2005.

Some points are important to note:

1. Ambalat is the case dealing with sovereign rights, not sovereignty. This is important to understand where we can fully apply full sovereignty and where we can only exercise our rights to explore and exploit natural resource.
2. Kalimantan is officially unknown. Borneo id its formal geographic name.
3. Sipadan and Ligitan have never been listed in Djuanda Declaration and neither in Dutch Archive. It is not entirely true saying that we’ve lost the two islands. How could we lose something never belong to us?
4. Government has not intensively socialized important issues such as UNCLOS, maritime zones, etc.
5. It is very important to start thinking about marine cadastre to administer our coastal zones, maritime and islets including associated rights, boundary, and obligation.
6. The administration includes toponim, field survey, mapping the boundaries and publish it in an official publication.
7. It is essential for government official and people representatives to understand UNCLOS III and how to implement the rule for Indonesia’s needs.
8. We are not to worry about losing outermost islets but develop the area to reflect government’s responsibility to the inhibitants.
9. It is not the international boundaries that are important but inter-province boundaries, which has not yet rule and specific guidance. This is a potential conflict in the future.
10. An ethnic-based division of Indonesian region is not a very good idea since it can retain ethnic sentiment. Prof. Rais suggested a bio-physic consideration such as water shed feature to delineate boundaries between provinces and regencies.
11. Make marine cadastre not war!