Editor’s Note
by Haniva Sekar Deanty, Lead Editor - Maritime Crescent Desk
This week’s Maritime Crescent brings together coverage that looks at how security is experienced on the ground, across institutions, and through emerging technologies.
Hree P. Samudra examines the 14 December attack on Indonesian army personnel near Ketapang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Rather than a spontaneous clash, the incident highlights the operational realities surrounding illegal gold mining, enforcement gaps, and the risks faced by security forces operating in frontier areas.
In Malaysia, Edrina looks at the country’s digital governance, focusing on Malaysia’s national Digital ID system and its initial domestic impact. With e-KYC now integrated into banking and telecommunications services, the system has already altered how identity verification is conducted at scale.
Recent reporting showcases Brunei’s growing engagement with drone technology through a youth skills-acquisition program. While drones are often most visible in public displays, Syimah Johari highlights their quieter but expanding roles in areas such as agriculture, surveillance and public services, and considers how structured training can shape responsible and practical use over time.
Indonesia 🇮🇩
When Illegal Mining Starts Fighting Back
by Hree Putri Samudra, in Jakarta
The attack on Indonesian army personnel near Ketapang on 14 December should not be dismissed as a spontaneous clash at an isolated gold mining site. It was a deliberate act of organized violence, used to protect illicit operations from state interference. Once this is recognized, the issue changes fundamentally. It raises a serious question: how much effective control has the state lost over parts of its own territory, and to what extent have transnational criminal networks become confident enough to openly confront uniformed soldiers?
The chronology is straightforward. Four Chinese nationals were operating a drone near the PT Sultan Rafli Mandiri concession in West Kalimantan. Company security and nearby army personnel moved in to check what was happening. Within minutes, eleven more Chinese nationals appeared with bladed weapons, an airsoft gun, a stun device, and no intention to negotiate. Five soldiers were injured, and two company vehicles were damaged before the group disappeared. As of 16 December, authorities have said the case is under investigation, and immigration has secured multiple Chinese nationals for examination; however, police have not publicly detailed formal criminal charges or the status of any formal arrests, and there has been no public reporting of extradition or mutual legal assistance processes.
Ketapang is not an outlier. In a single case, a Chinese national, Yu Hao, was found to have extracted 774 kilograms of gold from underground tunnels in the same district, worth around USD 67 million, before his conviction became the subject of a controversial acquittal and Supreme Court reversal. Operations in Sekotong, West Lombok, are estimated to generate about USD 5.5 million a month, as part of a wider pattern described in reporting on China-linked gold syndicates and in investigations into Indonesia’s gold mining mafia. Suggested similar networks are active in at least four provinces, using Indonesian fronts, offshore vehicles, and layered subcontractors. On paper, this is a mix of environmental crime and illegal mining. On the ground, mercury and cyanide enter the rivers, livestock die, and water becomes undrinkable.
The judicial record does little to reassure. Yu Hao received a 3.5-year prison sentence and a 30-billion-rupiah fine in 2024, only to be acquitted a few months later by the Pontianak High Court, before the conviction was reinstated. In practice, the signal that travels back to frontier districts is simple. Prosecution of high-value syndicates is slow, negotiable, and uncertain.
Verification and monitoring sit at the core of the problem. The group that attacked soldiers near Ketapang relied on a drone for its own reconnaissance. The Indonesian state, by contrast, still relies on sporadic patrols and complaints to detect illegal mining in difficult terrain. The actors who are undermining Indonesian sovereignty have better situational awareness. It is a symptom of structural failure.
Seen through a security studies lens, this is no longer a compartmentalized resource crime issue. It is a frontier governance crisis. There is no integrated mineral-security command, no coherent border management architecture that treats strategic resources and territorial control as a single problem set.
Read this way, the Ketapang incident cannot be treated as an isolated episode. It functions instead as a stress test of state capacity. A transnational criminal network was prepared to confront uniformed state personnel in order to defend its operations. The real question after Ketapang is not whether Jakarta will take firm action against a handful of perpetrators. It is whether the political leadership is prepared to treat this as a test of the state’s frontier architecture itself.
Hree serves as Project Associate for Asia and the Pacific at the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), where she leads multi-country initiatives integrating Women, Peace and Security (WPS), and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) frameworks into security policies across ASEAN and South Asia. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Atomic Anxiety in the New Nuclear Age program. Previously, she served as Chair of the Humanitarian Disarmament and Inclusive Governance Working Group at the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), advocating for more accountable and inclusive nuclear policy frameworks.
Malaysia 🇲🇾
Initiating a Digital Rollout
by Edrina Lisa Ozaidi, in WP Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia recently concluded the pilot phase for its national Digital ID system, causing a ripple effect of interest in neighbouring countries and prompting the dispatch of delegations to study the framework. The domestic digital infrastructure, accelerated by strategic funding in Budget 2026, is being viewed not just as a national success, but as the security template potentially needed to unlock the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA).
The smooth implementation of the digital identity system provides a secure, decentralised method for online verification, a process deemed crucial in multiple sectors including banking, government services, and cross-border transactions. The mentioned sectors have proven in past historical tracks where secure electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) verification to be a demanding challenge. The system’s architecture, prioritizing user control and data security, became an attractive benefit to neighbouring countries.
But what are the benefits? Domestically, the impact of the system is already being felt in Malaysia’s financial and telecommunications sectors, where e-KYC has been actively integrated.
Leading local financial institutions, with guidance from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) regulations, have adopted e-KYC for some processes such as full digital account opening. This has significantly reduced the time required for bank account onboarding. What previously required a few business days to execute now takes minutes, facilitating greater financial inclusion, especially for users in remote areas.
Telecommucations providers are also utilising this system for enhanced security in procedures such as SIM card registration and contract renewals. This has helped reduce fraud across financial and telecommunications services, reinforcing the security architecture of the Digital ID system and increasing public trust in digital transactions.
These proven domestic applications provide concrete evidence to ASEAN partners that the technology is robust and scalable for regional use.
Recent reports state that officials from Vietnam and the Philippines have been monitoring the pilot closely, recognising that a unified secure digital identity is the “missing link” for proper regional digital integration. The report further mentioned that without reliable, interoperable e-KYC, the promises of seamless cross-border e-commerce, digital finance, and fintech innovation remain hindered by national-level bureaucratic and security silos.
Even after the end of its ASEAN chairmanship, Malaysia can continue to offer a working, tested digital ID model that could one day serve the entire bloc. This not only reinforces its commitment beyond its chairmanship, but highlights the commitment to properly enforce the ASEAN digital ecosystem.
Edrina is a communications professional with a background in international relations. She holds a degree from the University of Nottingham Malaysia and has worked across public relations and social media for organizations in the development, education, and corporate sectors. Her work focuses on crafting narratives around regional affairs and strengthening media engagement across Southeast Asia.
Brunei Darussalam 🇧🇳
Can Brunei Build a Drone-Ready Generation?
by Syimah Johari, in Bandar Seri Begawan
Recent reporting on a youth drone skills-acquisition programme highlights an important development in Brunei’s approach to emerging technologies. The programme, organised by the Youth Development Centre in collaboration with SkyVision, aims to train and equip the youth with future-ready technical skills on the use of drones and potentially open up career pathways. Drones are not new to the country. Their use ranges from defence to agriculture and public celebrations. This youth initiative just adds to a growing list of drone-related initiatives in Brunei.
Drones are often associated with light shows where they capture public attention, highlight their creative potential. Recent examples can be seen during the 40th anniversary of University Brunei Darussalam and Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam’s Mega Carnival. These events helped shape the way people in Brunei associate drones with symbolism and spectacle.
Beyond public events, drones are already being used across key sectors. The Royal Brunei Air Force, for instance, is deploying drones for surveillance and intelligence-gathering along land borders and maritime areas. In agriculture, drone technology is used to monitor rice fields and assist in pesticide-spraying using data-drive methods. These applications may not attract the same level of attention, but they play a crucial role in national security and economic activities. As a result, public perception may lean toward viewing drones primarily as tools for entertainment, even as their quieter applications continue to expand behind the scenes.
This gap between what is most visible and what is most impactful points to a larger need, not just to adapt to a new technology, but to better understand it. Equipping the youth with the skills to operate and apply drones meaningfully is one way to bridge that gap and enable the technology to its full potential. Skill-acquisition initiatives for the youth in drone operation, including safety procedures and aerial data collection, ensure these capabilities are not limited to one-off projects. Over time, this builds a growing pool of trained locals across Brunei.
While drones and other emerging technologies offer exciting opportunities, they also come with challenges and responsibilities. In Brunei, where the use of drones is already subjected to strict regulations, these challenges are managed through clear rules and oversight. This makes youth training exceptionally more meaningful: drone skills within a structured, purpose-driven framework are paired with responsible use, nationally relevant and sector-specific applications.
Brunei does have the opportunity to build a drone-ready generation. The challenge is not simply keeping pace with technology, but understanding how it can be applied reasonably. Drones have the potential to support sectors like agriculture, public services, and national security, but their benefits depend on careful oversight and alignment with national priorities. By pairing technical training with awareness of ethical and practical considerations, Brunei can gradually develop a workforce skilled in drone operations, ensuring that the technology is used effectively while remaining mindful of its limitations and responsibilities.
Syimah is a graduate of King’s College London with a BA in International Relations. With a strong focus on diplomacy, regional cooperation, and development policy, she is passionate about contributing to meaningful change through public service. Currently, she is involved in poverty alleviation work through a local NGO.
Editorial Deadline 13/12/2025 11:59 PM (UTC +8)
Really thoughtful piece on Brunei's drone strategy. The gap between spectacle and utility is spot-on, most people see drones at festivals but miss the agriculture and surveillance work quietly happening. I helped roll out a similar ag tech program a few years back and the biggest hurdle wasnt the tech itself but getting comunity buy-in that these tools were for practical work, not just toys. Brunei's framework pairing skills training with regulation from the start is smart.