SHAH ALAM: Following the revelation of the RMN Regional Command Headquarters Four or Markas Wilayah Laut 4 (Mawilla) site in Muara Tebas, Kuching, yesterday, courtesy of the Armed Forces Headquarters we got more details on it. The release was issued by MAF later in the day.
The release said the size of the land allocated for Mawilla 4 is 38.55 acres (enough space for around twenty-two football fields). It is interesting to note that the release stated the Muara Tebas location is a proposed site for Mawilla 4. Some parts of the release translated:
Kampung Geobilt, located in Muara Tebas, approximately 20 km from Kuching city, has been proposed as one of the potential sites for the construction of the Naval Region 4 Headquarters (MAWILLA 4) in an effort to strengthen maritime security and enhance the presence of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) in Sarawak.
The proposal to designate Muara Tebas as one of the potential locations for the construction of MAWILLA 4 is assessed based on several factors, including financial costs, geography, tactics and technicalities, as well as the well-being of personnel. The proposed construction is planned on a 38.55-acre land owned by Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), which is expected to be realized following the approval consideration under the 13th Malaysia Plan (RMK-13).The realisation of the construction of MAWILLA 4 in Muara Tebas will involve two phases of development. The first phase includes land acquisition, construction of the headquarters building, operational jetty, administrative and support buildings. Meanwhile, the second phase involves the construction of Rumah Keluarga Angkatan Tentera (RKAT) or Armed Forces Family Housing, and supportive infrastructure.
As I had assumed yesterday, there will be another site for the quarters and other support buildings as the proposed site was too small to include them. It must be noted that Mawilla 1 (Kuantan) and Mawilla 2 (Sandakan) also have quarters – bought from the public sector – located further away due to the location of the bases. Mawilla 1 is part of Kuantan port while Mawilla 2 is part of the Sandakan waterfront. Only Mawilla 3 in Langkawi has purpose-built quarters, but it is sited above it due to the terrain of the area (Bukit Malut, Langkawi). It took seven years for Mawilla 3 to be declared operational.
The release:
𝗖𝗔𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗔𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗔𝗛 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗧 𝟰 𝗗𝗜 𝗠𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗔 𝗧𝗘𝗕𝗔𝗦, 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗞𝗨𝗞𝗨𝗛 𝗞𝗘𝗗𝗔𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗪𝗔𝗞
MUARA TEBAS, 24 Mac 25 – Kampung Geobilt, Muara Tebas yang terletak kira-kira 20 km dari bandar Kuching menjadi antara lokasi cadangan untuk pembinaan Markas Wilayah Laut 4 (MAWILLA 4) dalam usaha bagi memperkasa keselamatan perairan dan memperkuatkan kehadiran Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) di Sarawak.
Panglima Angkatan Tentera, Jeneral Datuk Hj Mohd Nizam bin Hj Jaffar dan Panglima Tentera Laut, Laksamana Datuk (Dr.) Zulhelmy bin Ithnain telah melakukan tinjauan di lokasi yang dicadangkan bersama dengan Timbalan Menteri, Tenaga dan Kelestarian Alam Sekitar Sarawak, Datuk Dr. Hj Hazland bin Abang Hj Hipni serta Pengerusi Perbadanan Pembangunan Ekonomi Sarawak (SEDC); Tan Sri Datuk Amar (Dr.) Hj Abdul Aziz bin Dato Hj Hussain
Pertimbangan meletakkan Muara Tebas sebagai antara lokasi cadangan untuk pembinaan MAWILLA 4 dinilai menerusi beberapa faktor antaranya melibatkan kos kewangan, geografi, taktikal dan teknikal serta kesejahteraan warga. Cadangan pembinaan yang diusulkan adalah di tanah berkeluasan 38.55 ekar milik Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) yang dijangkakan terlaksana berdasarkan pertimbangan kelulusan di Rancangan Malaysia Ke-13 (RMK-13).
Realisasi hasrat pembinaan MAWILLA 4 di Muara Tebas bakal melibatkan dua bahagian pembangunan. Pembangunan pertama melibatkan perolehan tanah, pembinaan bangunan markas, jeti operasi, bangunan pentadbiran dan sokongan. Manakala pembangunan kedua melibatkan pembinaan Rumah Keluarga Angkatan Tentera (RKAT) dan infrastruktur sokongan.
Kewujudan MAWILLA 4 ini andai terlaksana kelak dilihat akan terus memberi nilai tambah dan manfaat besar kepada TLDM dalam mempertingkatkan keupayaan pengawasan dan kawalan keselamatan di perairan Sarawak khasnya dan zon maritim Malaysia amnya. Selain itu, pembangunan ini juga dilihat bakal menterjemahkan tekad iltizam kerajaan Malaysia bagi memperkasa keutuhan dan kedaulatan perairan negara selain bakal menarik keyakinan pelabur asing serta memperkasa komuniti maritim setempat.
Terdahulu, pihak TLDM menerusi Panglima Tentera Laut (PTL) telah menyatakan bahawa kajian kebolehlaksanaan kini sedang giat dilaksanakan oleh SEDC bagi melihat kesesuaian cadangan pembangunan ini dan sekiranya berhasil ia seterusnya akan mengambil masa selama kira-kira tiga tahun untuk diselesaikan berdasarkan dari tarikh mula kelulusan diberikan.
PTL juga turut mengakui bahawa Pangkalan TLDM di Muara Tebas mampu beroperasi sebagai lokasi strategik transit kapal selam milik TLDM jika diperlukan. “Kawasan perairan di tapak pangkalan ini bersesuaian serta strategik iaitu tidak landai dan mempunyai kedalaman laut 14 meter secara semula jadi. Untuk masuk sebagai transit kapal selam, boleh tiada masalah. Namun, untuk kita aturkan kapal selam itu dari sini sebagai pangkalan operasi hadapan, saya boleh katakan ada kemungkinannya”, ujarnya semasa disoal rakan media mengenai kemampuan pangkalan yang bakal dibina.
Angkatan Tentera Malaysia amat yakin dengan cadangan pembangunan MAWILLA 4 di Muara Tebas ini akan terus memperkukuh keberadaan TLDM di perairan Sarawak sekaligus memperkasa keutuhan dan kedaulatan wilayah perairan Sarawak. Pengawalan kepentingan sumber ekonomi maritim setempat juga akan dapat dikawal selia dengan lebih teratur dan komprehensif.
Lawatan ke cadangan tapak projek MAWILLA 4 ini juga telah dihadiri Panglima Medan Timur, Leftenan Jeneral Dato Mohd Sofi bin Md Lepi; Panglima Armada Timur, Laksamana Madya Dato’ Khir Junaidi bin Idris; Asisten Ketua Staf Operasi Latihan Pertahanan, Mejar Jeneral Dato’ Indera Zahari bin Mohd Ariffin dan Asisten Ketua Staf Bahagian Logistik Pertahanan, Mejar Jeneral Dato’ Abdul Aziz bin Abu Hassan.
— Malaysian Defence
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Who can ever forget Kampong Gobeilt!A communist hotbed during the Sarawak Insurgency war. Full of PARAKU supporters but the Royal Rangers manage to snuffed about 5 of the bandits during an encounter. Glad to know the area is developing well.
Ah did not know that. Interesting history lesson.
Kinda small for a HQ base, how much dock space will they expect to have? Even the MMEA base is at least double its capacity.
MMEA base is big, but the jetty is small. I am guessing the RMN will have a much bigger jetty as the ships are much bigger.
MMEA base jetty is being upgraded using budget from US ‘Joint Interagency Task Force West’ (JITFW)
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/us-funding-expansion-of-kuching-mmea-complex/
Jauhari-“Full of PARAKU”
Extremely confusing.
There was “Parti Rakyat Kalimantan Utara” [PARAKU] , Tentera Nasional Kalimantan Utara” [TNKU] and Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak [PGRS] “. All were leftists and predominantly Chinese from both sides of the border. Some had taken part in the Brunei Revolt. During the Confrontation different services and units of the Indonesia military conducted training in different parts of Kalimantan for diffrent groups. The air drop on Labis with C-130s included the participation of lefties who had trained in Kalimantan.
“Extremely confusing.”
Yeah, salute to SB & MI that had sucessfully keep track of the bandit’s evolving organisational nature.
Azlan ‘Extremely Confusing’.
Definitely it was. A lot of rebranding exercises. Maybe the Intelligence Memorandum released by the CIA Document Branch on 10th.January 1973 No. 1617/73 will gives you a clearer picture of the murky situation in Sarawak.
Ken Conboy who wrote a book about Kopaassus and Indonesian SF units goes into some depth explaining the different groups, who trained them and ops they participated in.
“the RMN will have a much bigger jetty as the ships”
Im just basing looking at the waterfront acreage it looks like MMEA base has about 20~30% more frontage than proposed Mawilla4 so I am doubtful TLDM will have a bigger jetty than them. Of course it precludes if there will only be 1-2 big boats as base resident there and they can share dockspace. It seems odd to place them at such a constraint space when opposite the muara, theres plenty of undeveloped land.