Najib: No Travel Advisory for Indonesia

Putrajaya (News Today) - The Malaysian government does not plan to issue an advisory against travel to Indonesia at this stage, despite the latest incident in West Kalimantan on Sunday, said Najib Razak. The prime minister said he needed to consult Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) before issuing a travel advisory because it was a serious matter which involved the interests of both countries.

"(Issuing) a travel advisory is a serious matter because we have so many interests... government, business and personal relations with Indonesia. So, we need to consider a lot of things if we were to make such a decision. At this stage, we are not issuing a travel advisory unless the situation worsens," he said at his office here Wednesday.

Najib was speaking to reporters after receiving a hand-made Independence Day message book from pupils of Sekolah Bukit Damansara, which was also signed by schoolchildren from three schools in Singapore.

Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister. On Sunday, the home of a 60-year-old Malaysian engineer at an oil palm plantation in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, was pelted with stones in a "sweeping" (hunt for Malaysians) incident.

It was reported that in the 2pm incident, a group of five men wearing headbands with "Ganyang Malaysia" (Crush Malaysia) written on them, had also hurled verbal insults against Malaysia. Asked what would it take for the government to issue a travel advisory, Najib said there was no hard and fast rule about it.

"(But) we must only issue a travel advisory when the situation warrants it...when lives are in danger or when we have information that something very serious is going to happen," he said.

On the upcoming meeting between Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and his Indonesian counterpart Dr Marty Natalegawa in Kota Kinabalu on Sept 6 to discuss the two countries’ territorial waters, Najib hoped the issues would be resolved amicably and not prolong.

"We should not invite reactions such as extreme demonstrations like what happened recently.

"It’s difficult to avoid problems between the two neighbouring countries altogether, especially when we have expansive territorial waters, the issue of which has not been fully resolved.

"Meanwhile, of course, various problems would arise from time to time.

"But we have to make a stand that whenever there is an incident, let us resolve the issue involved and there should be no interference by other parties to worsen the situation," Najib said.

Source : kompas

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