MALAYSIA-INDONESIA BORDER DETERMINATON NOT BASED ON COMPENSATION, PROFIT-AND-LOSS PRINCIPLES - PM ANWAR

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the determination of the Malaysia-Indonesia land border involving Sabah and Kalimantan is not based on compensation, reciprocity or profit-and-loss considerations, as claimed by some parties.

Instead, he stressed that the border determination is fully grounded in international conventions, laws and agreements, specifically two conventions and one key agreement governing the entire Sabah and Sarawak boundary.

He said the instruments involved are the 1891 Boundary Convention between the British and Dutch governments covering Sabah and Sarawak; the 1915 Boundary Agreement between the British and Dutch governments specific to Sabah; and the 1928 Boundary Convention signed in The Hague on March 26, 1928, covering a small sector in Sarawak.

“For the Outstanding Boundary Problem (OBP) areas of Sungai Sinapad and Sungai Sesai, which are currently in dispute, the boundary alignment is determined based on the 1891 Boundary Convention and the 1915 Boundary Agreement.” 

Anwar said this during a special briefing on the Malaysia-Indonesia border issue in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Anwar said the core principle in the agreements stipulates that territorial determination is based on the location of the estuaries of Sungai Sinapad and Sungai Sesai along latitude four degrees 20 minutes (4°20’) north.

Areas north of latitude 4°20’ north fall under British North Borneo (Sabah), while areas south of the same latitude were under Dutch rule (Indonesia), he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that joint Malaysia-Indonesia boundary demarcation works began in 1977 and that maps contained in the 1915 agreement showed the estuaries of Sungai Sinapad and Sungai Sesai as being south of latitude 4°20’ north.

However, Anwar said joint field measurements later found that the actual estuary of Sungai Sinapad lies north of latitude 4°20’ north, contrary to what was indicated in the original map.

“Based on these findings, Malaysia’s position is that all river basins that flow north of latitude 4°20’ north belong to Malaysia,” he said.

At the same time, Anwar said that the OBP areas cannot be regarded as belonging to either country, as they have long remained negotiation zones with boundary determinations yet to be finalised.

He said the total length of the Malaysia-Indonesia land border is estimated at 2,064 kilometres (km), divided into two sectors, namely the Sabah-North Kalimantan sector at about 419.4 km and the Sarawak-West Kalimantan sector at 1,644.6 km.

To date, Anwar said only boundary measurements for the North Kalimantan sector have been finalised, involving two OBP areas - Pulau Sebatik and Sungai Sinapad-Sungai Sesai within OBP B2700-B3100.

“For the Pulau Sebatik OBP, investigation, marking and re-measurement by joint survey teams from both countries were carried out from February to November 2019. The results established a final distance of 23.842 km from the East Pillar to the New West Pillar.

“For the Sungai Sinapad and Sungai Sesai OBP, joint investigation, marking and measurements by Indonesian and Malaysian mapping officers were conducted up to August 2022 and October 2023, resulting in a final distance of 11.545 km,” he added.

-- BERNAMA