Malaysian students in Indonesia told not to react to provocation

JAKARTA: Malaysian students in Indonesia have been advised not to react to provocation over a boundary issue involving the two countries.

Education Malaysia (formerly Malaysian Students Department) in Indonesia, which issued the advice, said it is aimed at preventing any aggravation of the situation.

The education attache at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, Ludinata Misnun, has assured parents of students that Education Malaysia, in collaboration with the embassy, was monitoring the safety and welfare of all Malaysian students.

He said Malaysian students in Indonesia have been reminded not to respond to any provocation, and to leave home in groups and return before midnight.

"We have received complaints from medical students who are undergoing training in hospitals that they were provoked by some doctors and nurses while other students were tormented by their lecturers," he said.

The issue emanated over a claim that Malaysia has seized 1,000ha of land belonging to Indonesia along the Malaysia-Indonesia border in West Kalimantan.

The Indonesian Parliament's defence and foreign affairs commission deputy head Maj Gen (Rtd) T.B. Hasanuddin told the media on Saturday that Indonesia had lost 1,490ha in Camar Bulan to Malaysia and that the country's sea boundary in Tanjung Datu waters had moved 800 metres in favour of Kuala Lumpur.

Several Indonesian Cabinet ministers have rejected the lawmaker's claim that Malaysia had "illegally taken over" more than 1,000ha of Indonesian land in northern Kalimantan.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Amanand his Indonesian counterpart Dr Marty Natalegawa said after the 11th Joint Commission for Bilateral Commission Cooperation Meeting on Tuesday that the border markers at the Kalimantan border, removed either by mischievous individuals or natural disasters, could easily be replaced by their joint survey teams.

However, agitated by media reports, some 650 supporters of the so-called Batavia Rempug Forum protested outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday, and stones, wood and bamboo thrown at the building shattered a glass panel at the guard post.

The Indonesian police had to fire tear gas to quell the unruly demonstration and several policemen were said to have been slightly injured by hard objects hurled by the protestors. - Bernama