IT was just before dusk when the motorboat Sangiang docked at the port of Marore on Sunday last week. Almost everyone on the island was out to welcome the visitors. “It’s not often that government officials come to visit us,” said a resident named Simson Pota.

After a day and a night at sea, the boat which carried officials from the Maritime Affairs & Fisheries Department finally arrived in Marore, Indonesia’s outermost island in North S