Uphold safety management in RI waters: Seafarers

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Seafarers Association (KPI) has asked the government to implement a safety management system to minimize accidents on Indonesian waters.

"To win the public's trust on sea transportation, the government has to adopt international safety management measures and enforce them on all vessels, no matters who the owners are," KPI chairman Hanafi Rustandi said after a meeting with the government and the Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) here Saturday.

"All ships must have all the required certificates and documents before sailing permits are issued. All ships failing to meet the international requirements should be grounded and their permits should be revoked."

Hanafi said the increasing number of sea accidents, which have claimed thousands of lives over the past two years, is connected with the weak enforcement of both the sailing law and a safety management system.

He said KPI supported the recent detainment of cargo vessels Serasi I and Serasi II at Tanjung Perak, Surabaya, and Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, for their failure to satisfy Indonesian sea safety regulations.

The two cargo ships, traveling from Jakarta to other ports nationwide, were grounded for being too old. The ships' owners also failed to renew their international safety certificates and operational permits.

"Like many other ships operating in Indonesia, the two vessels were bought from abroad (Japan) and repainted to give the impression they were still feasible for operation," he said. "But according to their old age, they should have been grounded.

"The two ships will undergo a three-month audit and will need more time to obtain the necessary documents. If they resume operation in the next three months, their owners will likely have bought their documents from authorities," he added.

Port authorities nationwide have been ordered to bar undocumented ships from sailing until they obtain the requisite documents.

The delivery of these instructions shadows several sea accidents over the last four months in Bangka-Belitung, Seribu Islands waters off Jakarta and Karimunjawa waters off Central Java.

Hanafi said he had received several reports from seafarers pertaining to violations committed by passenger ships and cargo ships in relation to international safety regulations and operational documents.

He warned that sea accidents would continue if the government failed to audit passenger and cargo ships, many of which were too old to operate and lacked operational certificates.

"In the case of accidents, shipowners will not suffer much because their ships are insured, but passengers and crew are risking their lives," he said.

Meanwhile, INSA has objected to the government's move to tightly enforce sea transportation regulations, insisting it will make life difficult for the association.

"Shipowners have no objections to the move, but the government should revise the tariff system, lower the fuel price for the transportation industry and eliminate all red tape in the bureaucracy and high-cost economy. The low-tariff system is not comparable with safety demands," INSA deputy chairman Sjarifudin Mallarangan said.

He said many shipowners had complained about the current tariff of Rp 325 (3.5 U.S. cents) per sea mile per passenger, which is considerably less than the Rp 800 tariff set by the government in 2003.

To increase competition in the sea transportation industry, he said, the government should revise the tariff system in accordance with regulations, eliminate all red tape at ports and on waters and provide a fuel subsidy.