Indonesia has long settled the boundary around Natuna EEZ by UNCLOS with its neighboring countries. The border is now there firmly set up and recognized internationally except China. Indonesia regards China’s unilateral claim on the part of Natuna EEZ as their fishing ground is baseless. For Indonesia, holding negotiations with any country that tries to challenge its EEZ is useless.
China has a dual system in running their country. In dealing with government affairs, it’s Communist Party who takes charge while in business; the party allows the government to adopt liberalism. The Communist Party knows that its Nine Dash-lines product will confront the ASEAN countries’ interest in the South China Sea (SCS). At the same time, they are willing to keep the business relationship with ASEAN countries intact.
China doesn’t seem confident in what they do in Natuna water. They are always escorting their fishing boats with their coastguards, the funniest thing that a country has ever done. It precisely what happened related to incidents taking in Natuna EEZ. The last incident occurred on June 18, 2016, when the Navy’s KRI Imam Bonjol 383 chased twelve Chinese fishing vessels a firing towards one of them (Yueyandong Yu 19038) after giving several warnings in concordance with the standard procedure. The warship commander stood firm and ignored the Chinese coastguards that tried to interfere with the vessel seizing.
The maneuver of so many China fishing boats could be suspected to test the water rather than solely catching the fish. Having faced such a situation, Indonesia must show its stern position to the world that Indonesia would never back off no matter the provocation comes. For Indonesia, the integrity of its EEZ is a matter of principle and will defend it at all cost.
Indonesia should be very cautious towards the sincerity of China’s statement on its recognition on the Natuna Islands as an integral part of Indonesia’s territory. It is now clear that China recognizes only the islands but not their surrounding water. The issue becomes more dangerous as China had issued a position paper in December 2014 that the dispute in SCS was a matter of sovereignty, not exploitation rights. Does China have a hidden agenda that sometime in the future they will claim the Dash-lines crossing Natuna EEZ as the delimitation of their sovereignty?
Being aware of China’s aggressiveness in imposing its claim, Indonesia could no longer maintain its neutral position. Indonesia should not behave like an ostrich and being selfish, ignoring their fellows ASEAN desperately confronting head-to-head with China in SCS. ASEAN should stand united against China, and as the most prominent nation among the community, Indonesia should stand in front.
One example of the embarrassing diplomatic move was what happened in ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Kunming, China, on June 14, 2016. It was sad to see that ASEAN broke apart, letting China take the leading role pressuring ASEAN countries to adopt Beijing’s stance in SCS. China has been keeping eyes on the gas-rich area in SCS and possibly in Natuna water as well. They could extend their claim on the right to exploit marine resources in the Natuna sea to the right to use the continental shelf beneath. This suspicion is logical if we look to what they did to build an oil platform in Vietnam offshore in 2014, which they claimed as theirs.
China claimed that the Nine Dash-Lines was a marine empire boundary established in the era of the Ming Dynasty around the 12th century. Historically, we are doubtful that China ever ruled the waves imposing their power even on SCS. China was never becoming a naval country, and also, if they were so, it should occur in a brief period. Indonesia, on the other hand, was a maritime nation for a long time. In the era of Sriwijaya in the 8th century and Majapahit in the 14th century, the Royal Navy conquered what is now known as the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia included. Gajah Mada, one of the great Majapahit warlords, sent big expeditions far west to Madagascar (the island bears his name). Some in smaller groups had sailed up north as far as Taiwan and Japan. The people in Sulawesi and the eastern part of Indonesia had traditionally sailed off to the east across the Pacific Ocean, reaching as far as New Zealand in the south, Hawaii and Eastern Islands in the remote east. The vast area was known as the world of Tagaroa, the name of their common marine god.
The wooden boat generation, known as Phinisi, which was used by Indonesian ancestors, still survives until today, going around across the archipelago. Several expeditions have taken place using the replica of the ancient wooden boats heading to Madagascar and just recently to Japan, proving that such journeys were not only historical tales. Indonesia has more justification than what China did in claiming its maritime empire. Indonesia could include a much wider area by drawing Nine Thousand Dash-Lines covering those historical marine areas, including SCS. However, Indonesia was not that crazy to seriously pose such a notorious claim.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE ARCHIPELAGO 