Behind the Sea Barrier in Tangerang

There is a barrier, but no one knows who built it. On the northern coast of Tangerang, Banten, a bamboo barrier suddenly appeared, stretching more than 30 kilometers. The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries had no idea who constructed it. The Banten regional government was also shocked when photos and videos of this ‘sea fence’ began circulating on social media.

This shock and ignorance are unreasonable. Fishermen from Tangerang had reported the bamboo stakes back in 2023, when the barrier was only 400 meters long. They also reported who was responsible for building it. Yet, these reports went unheeded, while the bamboo barrier continued to grow longer until it went viral on social media last week.

To address the issue of the sea barrier, Tempo’s editorial board assigned the Politics desk team to investigate. At the time, we had actually been preparing a special report on the 2025 Economic Outlook. This special edition, typically published at the end or beginning of the year, aims to predict the economy for the upcoming year. This year’s theme was to evaluate the economic growth target of 8 percent set by Prabowo Subianto’s administration.

However, the sea barrier issue proved to be more compelling. At least five out of Tempo’s 13 news criteria were met: timeliness, magnitude, notable figures, mystery, and scandal. How could the government and law enforcement fail to notice a bamboo barrier spanning the equivalent distance of Bogor to Cawang? Hence, we decided to make the sea barrier the cover story for this week.

From the beginning, the team doubted that the builders of the barrier were fishermen from the North Coast People’s Network, an organization of fishermen that suddenly appeared as the sea barrier issue began spreading. It is estimated that constructing a 30-kilometer bamboo barrier would cost at least Rp12 billion. It was illogical to believe that fishermen would voluntarily put bamboo stakes to prevent erosion.