PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has strongly objected to the actions of the Singapore Police Coast Guard (SPCG), which is believed to have entered Malaysian waters on Aug 14 this year.
MMEA acting director-general Vice Admiral Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim said their action had resulted in the trawl net of a local fishing boat getting stuck at the bow of the SPCG’s enforcement boat.
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“The fisherman involved in the incident with the SPCG had lodged a police report,’’ he said in a statement.
Saiful Lizan said the fisherman, in his report, stated that the enforcement boat had hit his trawl net at 0.2 nautical miles (0.37km) south-west of Tuas checkpoint.
He said the MMEA had referred to the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia (Jupem) based on the location of the incident reported by the victim.
Saiful Lizan said the verification process of the incident conducted by Jupem was done based on the New Map of Malaysia 1979.
“The department confirmed that the location of the incident is within Malaysian waters near the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link Bridge,’’ he said.
Saiful Lizan added that the location of the incident was usually used by local fishermen in Johor for fishing activities.
He said MMEA was disappointed by the actions of the SPCG boat involved.
He said the accident had resulted in the fishermen having to incur high losses due to the damaged fishing equipment.
He said MMEA will request for a diplomatic objection so that similar incidents would not be repeated in the future in order to maintain good relations between Malaysia and Singapore.
