Australian PM Challenged To Open Sand Island Ownership Data

Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The holder of the Human Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Timor Sea, Ferdi Tanoni, challenged the Federal Government of Australia to prove that the Pasir Island Group belongs to Australia.

"If it can't be proven, immediately leave and don't embarrass yourself by claiming the group of islands as belonging to Australia," Ferdi said as quoted by Antara, Sunday, November 13.

Ferdi Tanoni threatened to file a lawsuit for ownership of the Pasir Island Group by Australia to the Australian High Court (Mahkamah Agung) in Canberra on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Timor Sea.

The former Australian Immigration agent said that his party had asked and even urged the Australian Federal Government to stop all activities at the Pasir Island Cluster and immediately leave the area.

"I emphasize this, because the Pasir Island Group is customaryly the property of the Timor-Rote-Sabu-Alor traditional tribe," Ferdi emphasized.

In 2003, said Ferdi Tanoni, a traditional meeting was held of traditional stakeholders representing indigenous peoples on the western part of Timor Island, Rote, Sabu, and Alor, at the Royal Center of Insana, North Central Timor Regency.

During the meeting, traditional leaders unanimously agreed to give full mandate to Ferdi Tanoni as the Recipient of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples in the Timor Sea.

That way, Ferdi Tanoni represents indigenous peoples from West Timor, Rote, Sabu, and Alor, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province to voice various rights and interests of the indigenous peoples in the Pasir Island Group.

Australia, said Ferdi, knows with certainty that the Pasir Island Group is the property of the Indonesian nation, but in various ways and tricks the Australian Government has used to control natural resources throughout the joints of the Timor Sea.

However, in the matter of ownership of Pasir Island, strangely, said Ferdi again, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia arbitrarily said that the Pasir Island cluster was not included in the Dutch East Indies Government and belonged to Australia.

"Is this statement true and can be held accountable," asked Ferdi, surprised by the statement from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well.

For Ferdi Tanoni, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' statement was not true.

"I say it's not right and wrong at all, so if someone says that the Pasir Island cluster belongs to the UK then it is handed over to the Australian Government, they are people who just talk but have no proof of who the real owner of the Pasir Island Group is," said Ferdi.

Regarding the issue of ownership of the Pasir Island Group and the lawsuit filed at the Australian Court and the International Court, Ferdi Tanoni reiterated to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about one of the data owned by Ferdi.

Ferdi emphasized that during the Dutch colonial government in power over Indonesia (Netherlandsch Indie) a recording and measurement of the location of the Island of Pasir (Poelopasir) was recorded in the acte van eigendom covering an area of approximately 15,500 hectares on behalf of Indonesian citizens.

That way, Ferdi Tanoni urged Australia to immediately leave the Pasir Island Group, and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia to immediately cancel the statement in October 2022 that the Pasir Island Group belongs to Australia and to other parties who do not understand about the Pasir Island cluster to immediately remain silent and keep their mouths shut.

Because according to Ferdi Tanoni, the Sand Island Cluster is the sovereign right of Indonesia. Therefore, he asked the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo and the relevant ministers, namely Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, Minister of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Retno Marsudi to immediately hold a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to affirm to the Australian Government that Sand Island is a right rather than Indonesia.

"We reject the confrontation of war in the Pasir Island Group and only enough for Australia to leave Pasir Island immediately, then cancel all Indonesian and Australian Agreements in the Timor Sea and Arafura and renegotiate it using the International Law of the Sea, namely UNCLOS 1982," said Ferdi Tanoni.