ADMIRAL MARITIME (RETIRED) DATO’ SRI ZULKIFILI BIN ABU BAKAR
Admiral Maritime (Ret.) Dato’ Sri Zulkifili Bin Abu Bakar joined the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in April 2005 and currently holds the position of Director General of the Agency. He was part of the pioneer team who were responsible for the formation of MMEA including structuring the Director General’s Standing Order and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the Agency.
Prior to joining MMEA, Admiral Maritime Dato’ Sri Zulkifili (Ret.) served in the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) which he joined in 1977. He was commissioned as an RMN Officer on 31st December 1979 and in 1993 while still serving in the RMN, he graduated from MARA University of Technology with a Bachelor of Law degree. He was crowned the top student in his faculty for that year. He was then admitted as an advocate and solicitor to the High Court of Malaya in 1996 but chose to return to RMN to continue serving in the navy. In 2006 while in MMEA, he received his Masters of Law (LLM) degree from the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta, a world recognized centre for the training of specialists in International Maritime Law. He was awarded the Sasakawa Award for achieving the overall best student, sponsored by the Nippon Foundation, in this LLM program.
During his tenure in the RMN, Admiral Maritime (Ret.) Dato’ Sri Zulkifili held a few senior positions such as the Senior Legal Advisor at headquarters where he served as prosecutor in several cases, and sat on the bench in court-martials. He also held the post of Navy Provost Marshal for a few years where he carried out investigations into legal cases involving navy personnel.
Admiral Maritime (Ret.) Dato’ Sri Zulkifili served on several Navy vessels and his last position before joining MMEA was as Commanding Officer of the Missile Frigate KD Jebat, one of the RMN’s flagships. He also attended many local and international professional courses. Among the courses he attended were the International Signals Course in the United Kingdom in 1987, and Naval Command Course at the prestigious Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, USA in the year 2003. This Naval Command Course is specifically for Senior Officers from Navies from around the world.
Prior to taking up the position of MMEA Director-General, Admiral Maritime (Ret.) Dato’ Sri Zulkifili held the position of Deputy Director-General (Operations), and Deputy Director General (Logistics) before that. He was also previously Director of the Maritime Criminal Investigations Department, where he oversaw criminal investigations involving APMM personnel. He has also served as Chief of Maritime Enforcement for the Northern Region (Ketua Penguatkuasa Wilayah Utara or KPMW) consisting of the states of Perak, Kedah, Perlis and Penang, and KPMW for the Southern Region consisting of the states of Johore, Selangor, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan. He has also represented MMEA in the international arena, for example at Official Meetings of ASEAN Senior Officers on cross-border crimes, Malaysia Indonesia Attorney Generals’ Meeting and Interpol Meetings. Besides these, he has handled high-profile cases such as the hijacking of the merchant ship Orkim Harmony to Vietnam in 2015 by Indonesian robbers, where he was the head of investigations and negotiation team between the Vietnamese and Indonesian governments. He was also responsible for the arrangement for extradition to Malaysia of five local fishermen who had been detained in Indonesian waters, in exchange for three Indonesian citizens who had been detained for encroachment into Malaysian waters in 2016.
During his service as the Director General of MMEA since 1st June 2016, he has made significant changes and brought the Agency to the next level. He successfully restructured the previous MMEA Region into Maritime States which facilitates the expansion of both organizational structure and operational scope of the Agency. He has also managed to reduce the syndicates of foreign fishing vessel invasions all over the country (transnational crime) which eventually led to the establishment of a task force to counter the invasion of foreign fishing vessels into the country’s fisheries waters. He also spearheaded the containment of 2 piracy incidents in Malaysian waters, which were successfully prosecuted in the courts. He also succeeded in establishing close collaboration with domestic and foreign maritime enforcers. This was proven by the largest arrest of international drug syndicates in the country (2 tonnes) with the collaboration of the Royal Malaysian Police and Royal Malaysian Customs together with MMEA. Internationally, MMEA under his command succeeded in negotiating with Indonesian authorities to release Malaysian fishing vessels caught by the Indonesian maritime enforcement agency within disputed boundary areas. He has also published several guidebooks and SOPs throughout his service, for the reference of MMEA personnel.
Admiral Maritime (Ret,) Dato’ Sri Zulkifili has also served as a part-time lecturer on International Law of the Sea at University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) in 2009. He is currently on the Board of Advisors for the program of Bachelor of Maritime Operations Management and was recently appointed as Adjunct Professor for initial period of 2 years of the Business Studies and Maritime Management Faculty in the same university. He is often invited to give talks on Maritime Law at government agencies and institutions, such as the Judicial and Legal Training Institute and the Malaysian Bar Council.
In 2012, he was conferred the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negri (DSPN) by His Excellency the Yang Dipertua Negeri of Penang, which carries the title of “Dato”. He was then conferred the Darjah Sri Indera Mahkota Pahang (SIMP) by His Royal Highness the Sultan of Pahang in 2016, which carries the title of “Dato’ Indera”. The following year he received the Darjah Kebesaran Peringkat Pertama Sri Sultan Ahmad Shah Pahang (S.S.A.P.), with the title of “Dato Sri”. He is married to Datin Sri Nursiah binti Mohamad Tajol Aros and they have three children.