20-8-2023 (SINGAPORE) The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has strongly refuted media reports claiming that a police coast guard (PCG) boat intentionally entered Malaysian waters and damaged nets belonging to local fishermen. The incident, which occurred on August 14, has sparked calls from a Johor politician to review the maritime border in the Johor Strait. However, analysts suggest that any such action would need to be addressed at the federal level.
In a statement released on Sunday (August 20), the SPF provided a detailed account of the alleged incident, asserting that PCG officers were enforcing Singapore’s laws within the city-state’s territorial waters. The SPF dismissed the allegations made by Malaysian outlets Sinar Harian and Berita Harian (Malaysia) as “untrue.”
According to the SPF, PCG officers were patrolling Singapore Territorial Waters (STW) at 6:55 am on August 14 when they spotted a Malaysian fishing vessel in STW, located off Tuas. While there were several other fishing vessels in the vicinity, they were within Malaysia Territorial Waters (MTW). The PCG officers engaged with the fishermen on board the vessel in STW and advised them to leave. In the process, a fishing net became entangled with the propellers of the coast guard boat, resulting in its unintentional damage. The SPF emphasized that its officers were strictly enforcing Singapore’s laws within STW.
Following the incident, Pandak Ahmad, a state assemblyman from Kota Iskandar, announced plans to table a motion during the next state assembly sitting on September 11, calling for a remapping of the maritime border between Malaysia and Singapore in the Johor Strait. During a press conference on August 16, Ahmad claimed that a verbal altercation had occurred between four local fishermen and a PCG boat, which allegedly “intentionally hit” and damaged the fishing net. The United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) politician criticized the Singapore coast guard for its actions, stating that they acted provocatively and disregarded the maritime borders.
One of the fishermen involved in the incident, Faizan Wahid, lodged a police report asserting that his net had been damaged and torn by the Singapore boat, resulting in a financial loss of up to RM700 (approximately S$204.42). Ahmad later expressed concerns for the safety of fishermen working in the area and insisted that the maritime borders needed to be redrawn.
The SPF responded to these claims by highlighting the fisherman’s involvement in a previous incident in October 2022. During that incident, he had falsely claimed to be in Malaysia Territorial Waters (MTW) when he was, in fact, in Singapore Territorial Waters (STW). The SPF clarified that the fisherman had been asked to leave a live firing area in STW for his own safety. The police force had previously issued a clarification regarding his allegations.
Experts consulted by Channel NewsAsia (CNA) noted that matters of this nature are typically handled by Cabinet ministers at the federal level. They also highlighted that there is no guarantee that the Malaysian government would be willing to address this issue with their Singaporean counterparts. The two countries last held meetings in 2019 to discuss the delimitation of maritime boundaries after a dispute arose from Malaysia’s unilateral extension of the Johor Bahru Port Limits into areas overlapping with Singapore’s port limits off Tuas. In response, Singapore protested and extended its own port limits within its territorial waters. The countries subsequently agreed to suspend their overlapping port claims, revert to their original limits, and refrain from authorizing commercial activities or anchoring government vessels in the disputed area. A committee was also established to study the legal and operational aspects of the maritime dispute in order to lay the groundwork for negotiations.
Associate Professor Bilveer Singh from the National University of Singapore’s political science department emphasized Singapore’s commitment to defending its sovereignty and suggested that negotiations between the federal governments of both countries would be necessary to resolve the recurring incidents. Marine expert Hazmi Mohd Rusli supported this view, highlighting the 1995 border treaty signed by Singapore and Malaysia to precisely delineate boundaries in the Johor Strait. He further suggested that negotiations between the two governments at the federal level could lead to a mutually beneficial resolution, citing recent agreements between Malaysia and Indonesia regarding territorial sea delimitation in the Sulawesi Sea and the southernmost part of the Straits of Melaka.
Should diplomatic channels prove ineffective, maritime lawyer Clive Selvapandian, a partner with Christopher and Lee Ong, suggested that both countries could consider submitting the dispute to the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Court of Justice, or an arbitral tribunal. As signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Singapore and Malaysia have the option to pursue legal avenues to resolve the dispute.
