With its re-election to the International Maritime Organization’s Council (IMO), the government has a moral and political obligation to impose international safety standards on Indonesian-flagged ships to minimize sea accidents in the future, say seafarers and ship-owners.

The Indonesian National Shipowners’ Association (INSA) and the
Indonesian Seafarers’ Association (KPI) said separately that the
frequent accidents befalling Indonesian vessels had a lot to do with
poor management of sea transportation.

KPI Chairman Hanafi Rustandi said Indonesia had so far ratified at
least 20 IMO conventions on collision prevention, sea traffic and sea
pollution, but the country had the worst sea transportation record in
Southeast Asia.

“This has a lot to do with the bad sea transportation policy and
regulation,” he said, adding Indonesia’s re-election is a wake-up call
to the government over frequent accidents and the sector’s poor labor
conditions.

Indonesia was re-elected as a member of IMO council for the 2009-2011 period at its assembly in London on Sunday.

Hanafi said that so far the government had yet to enforce international
safety standards, which are required to sail on international and
national waterways.

“Besides the absence of international safety standards, *Indonesian*
crew have been paid according to the region’s minimum wages,” he said.

If checked, he said, most cargo and passenger vessels lacked safety
jackets, had no lifeboats and had not undergone regular safety checks.

INSA Secretary General Budi Halim concurred and said international
insurance companies had declined to cover national flag carriers
because they were still working under locally-accepted safety
standards.

“This is why most Indonesian ships are not insured,” he said, most
Indonesian cargo and passenger vessels adhered to locally-accepted
safety standards to adjust to people’s low purchasing power in the
country.

“If international standards were imposed on all ships, the people,
especially inter-island travellers, would not be able to afford higher
ticket prices,” he said

Budi said the government and shipowners should meet to revise the sea
transportation policy and adopt international safety standards mainly
because of Indonesia’s geographic condition as archipellagic country.

Hanafi and Budi were of the same opinion that the Transportation
Ministry should be transparent on the number of national flag carrying
ships to enforce the 2005 Presidential Instruction on cabotage.

“The director general of Sea Transportation at the Transportation
Ministry has never been transparent on the number of Indonesian ships
since many ships belonging to certain businesspeople and officials fly
foreign flags to avoid paying taxes and Indonesian regulations,” he
said.

According to data at INSA, only 8,925 cargo and passengers ships were
registered at the Sea Transportation Directorate General as Indonesian
flag carriers.

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said Indonesia would play its
role as member of the IMO council, mainly by prioritizing sea
transportation safety.

However Budi said Indonesia’s membership had no special significance at the IMO because it was included into the Category of C.

“The Category A is for world shipping companies while Category B is for
countries adopting international standards in sea transportation
safety. Both have membership on IMO’s executive committee and have the
auhority to regulate international sea transportation while countries
in the Category C have no authority to shape any IMO policy,” he said.

Other countries included in Category C were Turkey, Malta, Egypt,
Nigeria, South Africa, Chile, The Bahamas, Mexico, Kenya, Saudi Arabia,
Belgium, Australia and Jamaica.

Source: The Jakarta Post

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