Indonesia's Sink The Vessels Policy

i) Describe what is ‘vessel bombing’ policy under President Jokowi?

Vessel bombing is a policy under Indonesia which means openly sinking any type of illegal fishing vessels operating in its waters (Parameswaran, Explaining Indonesia’s ‘Sink The Vessels’ Policy Under Jokowi, 2015). Vessels which are not under the ministry’s vessel supervising system are the ones alleged of steering illegal fishing activities (Rustam, 2014). This vessel bombing policy though it was there before Jokowi took office but it was firmly taken into action during Jokowi’s term. Since coming into power Jokowi pledged to reinforce Indonesia’s approach in an idea of turning Indonesia into a global maritime fulcrum amid the Indian and Pacific Oceans. President Jokowi Widodo

One of it is because Jokowi thinks that illegal fishing in Indonesia’s water is a mockery towards Indonesia’s sovereignty and infringes the sovereignty of Indonesia. (Parameswaran, Explaining Indonesia’s ‘Sink The Vessels’ Policy Under Jokowi, 2015) He has over and over stated that almost 5000 illegal shipping vessels sail through its waters which mostly comes from neighboring Southeast Asian countries and China. Jokowi emphasized that years of talking with individual government has produced nothing. So the only way to safeguard its sovereignty is by implementing the vessel bombing policy. He also said besides illegal fishing the country had border problems with countries like Malaysia and Papua New Guinea which also disrupts its countries

(HARIYANTO, 2014). This was because around 5000 foreign vessels do illegal fishing activity in Indonesia waters everyday which affects the income and the amount of fishery caught of Indonesia. Example of countries are Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It is known that 30 percent losses caused by illegal fishing in the world was suffered by Indonesia. This statement was said by chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Unitary Indonesian Traditional Fishermen M. Rizal Damanik (Abdussalam, 2014). These damages have stained the image of Indonesia’s fisheries and maritime aspect, as it shows that Indonesia has been easygoing of illegal fishing practices that have prospered. The illegal fishing also results in Indonesia losing billions and billions of dollar. For example, it was written that the annual loses were about $20 billion. (Parameswaran, Explaining Indonesia’s ‘Sink The Vessels’ Policy Under Jokowi,