N A M A R I N

President Prabowo Subianto has just arrived at the first milestone of a hundred days in his tenure a couple days ago. It is basically an informal phase in Indonesian political system and so has no political, legal, social impacts to his administration at all. Since the Reform Era the practice gets more and more traction and is applicable to all level of administration, from president, governor, to regent or mayor. According to a survey by Kompas Research and Development Department (Litbang Kompas), Prabowo’s 100 days administration is considered satisfied by a significant portion of the public, e.g. 80.9 percent. Another pollster, Center of Economic and Law Studies or Celios, on the other hand, rated it unsatisfactory. Despite the difference, specifically in the aspects of method and sampling, both polling agencies shared many common indicators for their evaluation like the issues on health, education and so on and so forth.   The maritime matters, however, seem to be excluded fr...

Indonesia’s chronical high logistics costs are thoroughly discussed through seminars, workshops but are nevertheless never adequately reseolved. Of course, such platforms are not totally useless: they still produce something of value: a pile of papers with strong data on the country's logistics affairs, gathered from respectable overseas and domestic research institutions. Discussion over the issue has been ongoing for more than two decades, starting during the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) administration. The 6 th Indonesian president even tried to clamp down the problem, with a more concrete measure, by ordering Deputy Finance Minister Mahendra Siregar to take an office space and go to work at the Port of Tanjung Priok of Jakarta to monitor the apparently uncontrollable logistics cost, 24/7. Not only that: SBY then established a task force and appointed Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Sofyan Djalil to lead it. Up to the final term of the President, logistic...

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will soon elect a new Secretary-General. The incumbent Secretary-General, Kitack Lim, is to end his term in December 2023. The selection process to find a successor for the leader of the organization, which is under the United Nations, started in December 2022. March 31 was the deadline for nominating candidates. Seven have been proposed by seven member countries of the organization, whose Headquarters are based in the city of London. Media reported that the seven candidates include Moin Uddin Ahmed (Bangladesh), Suat Hayri Aka (Turkiye), Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco (Panama), Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry (Dominica), Nancy Karigithu (Kenya), Minna Kivimäki (Finland) and Zhang Xiaojie (China). Their fate will be determined in elections by the IMO Council, which will hold its 129th meeting in July 2023. As a member country, Indonesia did not nominate any of its compatriots, despite the lack of any impediment. What a pity. Why is it ...

The Indonesian Navy (or TNI AL) recently officiated a coordinated patrol cooperation agreement, code-named CORPAT INDOSIN, with the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). This marks another milestone in the two institutions’ effort to secure the Strait of Malacca. Apart from this new scheme, another joint maritime security measure covering the Strait involves the other littoral state, i.e. Malaysia, and is known as MALSINDO, or interchangeably dubbed the "Malacca Strait Patrol" (MSP). Introduced first in 2004, the MSP includes air surveillance, under the aegis of Eyes in the Sky, and a MSP Intelligence Exchange Group, currently managed by Information Fusion Center, a unit under RSN.   Apart from the joint effort with the Singapore Navy, TNI AL will launch a similar coordinated patrol collaboration with the Royal Malaysia Navy (RMN). All in all, the Strait of Malacca, including the tiny water corridor that runs along the Strait of Singapore, is theoretically well-patrolled by the...

Media recently reported new shipping connectivity between Belawan port on the coast of North Sumatra province and an Indian destination, to be commenced soon. Initiated by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, the plan involves Indonesia Port Corporation or Pelindo and DP World, as a follow up to last year’s investment commitment from the government of the UAE for Rp457 trillion (US$30,19 billion) in the context of which the port business is one area of interest.   Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, the "Indonesia Investment Authority" or INA, a new body set up by the Government of Indonesia to manage Dubai’s investment asset, will accordingly establish a joint company, perhaps in the form of a capital venture, with the international port operator responsible for handling the new connection. This new firm will also invest in the development of the existing container terminal, currently controlled by PT Prima Terminal Petikemas (locally dubbed Prima Petikemas), a subsid...

  A new commander-in-chief of the Indonesia Armed Forces, locally dubbed “Panglima TNI” has been designated. Admiral Yudo Margono, is to replace the incumbent Army General Andika Perkasa, who will retire this year. Yudo in fact was the only name submitted for nomination by President Joko Widodo to the House of Representative (DPR). The nomination was actually quite surprising since the public has rumored earlier that the Army Chief of Staff General Dudung Abdurrachman was the next Panglima TNI.   Something similar happened last year, when Air Chief Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto, the then-Panglima TNI, was to be replaced, as he had already reached a mandatory retirement age of 58, as stipulated by the prevailing Law No. 34/2004 on TNI. In accordance with a tradition practiced after Reform, his replacement was supposed to be Yudo, but President Joko Widodo instead nominated Andika Perkasa as the sole candidate to the Parliament. His choice was a response to a political maneuver by...