Old groundbreaking ceremony photo falsely linked to illegal 'sea fence' in Indonesia

Published on February 18, 2025 at 03:24
3 min read
By Felix NATHANIEL, AFP Indonesia

An old photo of a groundbreaking ceremony has been shared as proof a controversial bamboo sea fence in the northern Java Sea was put up by an Indonesian private property conglomerate. The photo in fact shows the inauguration of a police base in the same area in 2023, predating the construction of the sea fence by a year. As of February 18, it has not been determined who was responsible for erecting the sea fence.

"Finally, we found the photo of the sea fence inauguration. Digital footprints," reads the Indonesian-language caption of a Facebook photo shared on January 29, 2025.

The photo shows a line of men, including property tycoon Sugianto Kusuma and police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo, on a makeshift stage in an empty plot.

According to the Jakarta Post, some have speculatively linked Sugianto's Agung Sedayu Group to the illegal 30-kilometre (19-mile) bamboo sea fence erected in the northern Java Sea along the coast of Tangerang in Indonesia's Banten province (archived link).

The private property conglomerate is developing a real estate megaproject in the region known as Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) 2. A PIK 2 spokesperson, however, has denied any involvement with the mysterious structure.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on February 12, 2025

President Prabowo Subianto ordered an investigation after photos and videos of the fence spread across social media, though it has not been determined who was responsible for its installation as of February 18.

The navy finished taking down the fence on February 13, CNN Indonesia reported (archived link).

The local Ombudsman said it had received reports about the fence on November 28 and December 2, 2024 and that subsequent investigations found it had caused losses totalling around 24 billion Indonesian rupiahs ($1.5 million) to local fisherman between August 2024 and January 2025.

The government has also annulled 50 building rights certificates related to the area around the sea fence, and has said it is "determined" to annul all related right-to-build certificates for the surrounding land (archived link).

Similar Facebook posts here, here and here shared the same picture of the men alongside similar claims they were inaugurating the sea fence.

"Arrest everyone involved in the sea fence inauguration, Mr Prabowo. Don't slow down. Keep pushing forward. The people are behind you. Only Mr Prabowo can catch them," said one.

Another said: "Turns out the backing comes from police generals..."

But the photo is old and predates the appearance of the illegal structure by about a year.

New police base

A reverse image search on Google led to a video embedded in a report published by Indonesian media outlet Detik.com on April 5, 2023 (archived link).

The video shows the country's police chief at the groundbreaking ceremony for a mobile brigade headquarters in the PIK2 development in Tangerang.

Detik.com reported that Listyo said he hoped the new headquarters would speed up the dispatching of mobile brigades when they were needed in the area. The report makes no mention of the construction of a sea fence.

Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the Detik.com video (right)

A similar photo of the men officiating the ground breaking ceremony was published by the Indonesian police's Media Hub on April 5, 2023 (archived link).

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