Like Chicken in a Sea of Signals
The Indonesian Navy post on the island of Mangkai, part of Anambas Islands in the Riau archipelago, is guarded only by “hand and foot”. Communication is possibly only by radio and mobile phone. However, if the rain falls, such communications devices can hardly function due to weak signals. The personnel stationed here do not even have boats, let alone patrol vessels.
Communication is crucial in maritime security operations, especially in such outermost islands of the Republic of Indonesia, which are directly adjacent to Malaysia and the South China Sea.
The world’s second-busiest international shipping lane runs through the South China Sea. The Navy’s nearest post, located in Letung, is reachable only by motor boat in one hour. While the Navy base is located in Tarempain the Siantan district, Anambas can be reached in six hours by motor boat or in 1.5 hours by speedboat.
The commander of the naval post in on Mangkai, Second Lt. R. Onny, said that due to the lack of communication facilities, he and his four subordinates relied on fishermen to obtain information. They also rely on information from fishermen to monitor suspicious activity at sea.
Onny said he had tried to improve the ability of the Navy’s post. The building of the post, for example, has been recently renovated. "Now, we are no longer worried about storms. Buildings, docks and the monitoring tower are now made of concrete," he added.
The personnel at the Navy’s Mangkai post have identified three areas where the mobile phone signals are strong enough. The locations are at the end of the pier, in the monitoring tower and on the fence. A box has been put on the fence to place a cell phone in. The available signal can only be used to talk or send text messages (SMS). It cannot be used to send data. "If you want to access the internet, you have to go to Letung. In this place, we can only use a mobile phone to talk or SMS," said First Private Daniel, a guard at the Navy’s Mangkai post.
Everyday, the phone is placed in the box on the fence. If there is a call, the owner takes the phone out, then runs to the tower or the dock. For Onny and the four others at the post, every time they receive a call, they have to run 300 meters from the box to the end of the pier, which has a strong signal. "If you are unlucky, the connection drops while you are running. The signal is lost. If it rains, there is almost certainly no signal at all, " Daniel said.
The head of Navy Communications and Information at Anambas, Jeprizal, said the limited mobile phone signal also caused difficulties for citizens wanting to help maintain security in the border area.
Residents often see foreign fishermen illegally fish in the waters near Anambas Islands. However, they cannot immediately report it, because they are still at sea. It takes at least 1.5 hours for them to reach areas that have adequate signals or about two hours to reach the land.
Defense issues are one of many problems arising from poor telecommunication facilities. Limited access to the internet also means students in Anambas Islands cannot take the computer-based national exam as other students in Java. Jeprizal said the problems had been conveyed to mobile operators, such as Telkomsel, but there was no follow-up.
Crisis of sovereignty
AnambasRegent Abdul Harishas called this condition a sovereign crisis. Anambas consists of 255 islands. About 25 of them are inhabited, and five are located right near the border.
Telecommunication signals are available only on 65 percent of the 25 inhabited islands.
Abdul Haris in a letter sent to Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Wiranto on April 7, 2017, reported a decline in the quality of the mobile phone signals, in addition to the postponement of the construction of base transceiver stations (BTS) while some existing BTSs are no longer functioning. "The bandwidth dropped last month, affecting the signal quality. Even for WhatsApp, the signal is too weak," said Tarempa resident Septyan.
That is ironic, because there is an undersea cable installation owned by Sacofa, a Malaysian company in Tarempa. The cable installation in Tarempa is illegal, because, although Indonesia is bound by the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to allow the construction of underwater pipes and cables of other countries, the cables should not be on land.
"This is a violation of sovereignty," said Indonesian Military chief Gen. GatotNurmantyo when he inspected Sacofa’s telecommunication installation on Thursday (April 6).
According to Sacofa’s website, the company’s east-west submarine cable, about 950 kilometers in length, is the backbone of communications between Buntal in Sarawak and Mersing in Johor Bahru, with reinforcement stations located in Tarempa, Anambas and Panarik in Natuna regency.
Sacofa is not the only company that has an undersea cable passing through the Anambas Sea. According to data published in telegeography.com, there are 53 submarine cable networks in Asia Pacific, with dozens passing through Anambas waters. The multinational companies whose cable networks pass Anambas waters include Tata TGN-Intra Asia, SE Asia Japan Cable and Asia Pacific Cable Network.
As a maritime nation, Indonesia has failed for a long time to realize the treasure it has. US historian Alfred Thayer Mahan said the sea had four properties that could be exploited for the welfare and prosperity of the nation: The sea could be used for resources, for transportation, for information and for domination. The use of sea lanes for global communication should bring financial benefits to the country, because Indonesia is responsible for the safety of the undersea cables.
Today, residents of Anambas are like chicken in a sea of telecommunication signals.