New Straits Times
(2 July 2003)color]
[color=red]Order
to open fire at dredging ships (by Othman
Mamat)
TANJUNG PINANG (Indonesia), July 2:
Indonesia has ordered its
authorities to open fire at and sink dredging ships found
smuggling
sand from the waters off Riau Islands to Singapore.
Indonesian
leaders have accused Singapore as the party responsible for
the
smuggling activities....... The Indonesian National
ArmyNavy (TNI-
AL) was reported to have stopped a few dredging ships and
barges
from trying to take sand from the island.....an
intelligence source
said the actual amount of sand exported to Singapore was
1,000
per cent more than what is actually recorded......"The head
of
TNI-AL has ordered that all ships trying to steal and smuggle
sand
be shot at and sunk."
-----NST.
Straits Time (4 July
2003)
Jakarta denies telling navy to
sink ships smuggling sand to S'pore By Derwin
Pereira
JAKARTA - Indonesian officials
rejected Malaysian
reports that Jakarta had ordered the navy to sink ships
smuggling
sand from the waters off the Riau islands to Singapore.
Accusing the Malaysian media of trying to inflame Singapore-
Indonesia ties, a naval officer here told The Straits Times that
the
military would 'never act indiscriminately', especially
against
commercial vessels of a friendly neighbouring country.
'I have a message to the Malaysian paper that ran this report
which
sounds a bit like a 'man bites dog' story: Please use your
common
sense. There are proper rules of engagement that we follow
and
only in the most extreme cases do we resort to force,' he
said.....
'We have not received any order from our commander to fire
at any
ship, especially against Singapore ships.
'Please let the Malaysian media know this.'
ST------------[/color]
After the coverage on water, railway, land reclaimation, airspace,
ports, PB ownership, SARS and now sand import, the Malaysian media
has the uncanny ability to dig mischieves whenever and on whatever
it likes about the Republic. So much about their reporting
integrity rest at hands of Dr.M's playhouse of spin-doctor in
Putrajaya. So who is running the country ? Its media or the KL gov
?The tail that wag the dog is in motion
again.
