VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Lockdown policy done by Malaysian government impacted to the Malaysian citizen activities going out to the nearest neighboring country, namely Indonesia, particularly  to the Riau Islands region which has direct border with the state of Johor Bahru. The policy is taken as an effort to curb the spread of a new corona virus or Covid-19 in Malaysia. As a result, the shipping lines that so far have been connecting borders between the two countries, one of which is the shipping route of the Johor Bahru Stulang Laut port to the port of Sri Bintan Pura, Tanjung Pinang City, Riau Islands has been forced to stop operating. The Head of the Tanjungpinang Port Authority (KSOP)  Mappeati to RRI on Tuesday stated that  the termination of the shipping route started on Tuesday at 23:00 West Indonesia Time or 00.00 (zero-zero) Wednesday, March 18 Malaysian time.  Therefore, all ship fleets owned by  a number of Malaysian operators and local shipping companies have to stop operating. The association further said  the suspension of the ship's operation is only for a short time,it will be 14 days ahead. The situation also automatically affect  Indonesian citizens from  Riau Islands who are currently still in Malaysia.  If  they have not left the country since Tuesday, they must wait  for 2 weeks, then they will get a permission  to return to Tanjungpinang, Indonesia.

"If they do not return today, they will return from Johor to (Tanjung) Pinang in the next fourteen days. After that, there will be boats operated. It is not us who stop the operation. It is the Malaysian Prime Minister.  But to Singapore, we are still operating," said 

Besides the Tanjungpinang-Johor Bahru Malaysia shipping route, the Sri Bintan Pura port of Tanjungpinang also serves a shipping route to  Singapore. Tanjungpinang Port Authority also stated that ships to Singapore are still operating regularly until now, because the Singapore authority's policy is different from that of Malaysia's.  (VOI/Agus Santika/TRANS:AF/AHM)