Luhut Disagrees With The Sinking Of The Ala Susi Pudjiastuti Ship In Today's Memory, December 3, 2018

Residents witnessed the sinking of the fishing theft ship KM SINO 26 and KM SINO 35 in the waters of Morela Village, Ambon Island, Central Maluku, Saturday (1/4/2017). (Between/Izaac Mulyawan)

JAKARTA Memories today, five years ago, December 3, 2018, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan did not agree with the sinking of ships in the style of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP). The sinking was considered luhut in many disadvantages, rather than benefits.

Previously, the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti, often perpetuated strict policies for foreign ships that underwent Indonesian marine products. Anyone caught stealing will be dealt with firmly. The ships were immediately sunk.

Indonesia's marine and fisheries wealth potential is abundant. This condition has attracted many foreign fisheries entrepreneurs. They do many illegal fishing by sending foreign vessels. The goal is none other than to transport Indonesian marine products.

This condition makes them profitable. Indonesia is the opposite. There are about thousands of foreign ships that come to collect Indonesia's wealth every year. Even the state was harmed by up to Rp300 trillion per year.

Everything changed when Susi Pudjiastuti entered the power arena. The Joko Widodo (Jokowi) government appointed her as the new Minister of the KKP since 2014. The appointment was answered with a breakthrough.

Susi considers that Indonesia's marine products must be able to increase the status of the Indonesian nation, especially fishermen. The pro-fishing policy was implemented. Anyone who illegally manages Indonesian marine products will be dealt with firmly.

Strict action is not only in the form of prison punishment. Minister Susi also perpetuated decisive steps by sinking these foreign ships. Susi did not tolerate the theft of fish. Indonesian marine products must be managed alone.

Susi's Nyali sinking of foreign ships was greeted with great fanfare. Minister Susi was also juxtaposed with female figures carrying change in Indonesia. Moreover, the policy of sinking ships was able to make Indonesia profitful from marine products.

'Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti is also nervous with foreign ships robbing Indonesian fish. She even admitted that she was ready to direct her Susi Air plane to bomb the foreign ships one by one.'

"In mid-December 2014, caught fishing vessels were burned and sunk and 'expelled' 1,928 Vietnamese fishermen from Indonesian waters. Maritime resource development still faces many problems and challenges in its development, for example the occurrence of curvature damage to coastal and marine ecosystems in the form of physical damage and pollution in several coastal and marine areas," explained Andi Iqbal Burhanuddin in the book Realizing the World Maritime Axis (2015).

Perhaps Susi's sinking policy has received a lot of praise. However, not a few have criticized him. His fellow minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, for example.

The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs considers the sinking of ships to be a lot of harm, rather than benefits. The criticism was conveyed by Luhut at his office on December 3, 2018. For him, the option of sinking the ship must be the last order. This is because the ships can actually be auctioned off and used for the benefit of the state.

"So there is a choice, if you went to the cooperative, it could be auctioned off, become state ownership, or used as a FAD (drowned)," said Luhut as quoted on the Tempo.co page the day after, December 4, 2018.