OPEN-SEAS POLICY: For centuries, the Malay Archipelago was known worldwide as the cradle of maritime civilisation, write Dr Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli and Dr Rahmat Mohamad
THE people of the Malay race were great seafarers and had expanded their influence in Nusantara through a number of maritime empires that once dominated Southeast Asia. Facilitated by the concept of the open seas (mare liberum), trade flourished among kingdoms within this region.
The Malays have been advocating mare liberum or freedom of the seas long before it was propagated by Hugo Grotius in 1609, a renowned Dutch scholar whom most have regarded as the father of international law. Is freedom of the seas in the Malay Archipelago a forgotten "international custom"?
The Malay Archipelago or Nusantara, as it is known in modern times, is the largest archipelago in the world, extending from Sumatra in the west to the Spice Islands in the east. This region has been an important connector between two of the world's greatest civilisations, namely China and India. For centuries, the Malay Archipelago was known throughout the world as the cradle of maritime civilisation.
Based on archaeological findings, the earliest Malay port that existed within the Malay Archipelago was Takuapa, or Langkasuka, which emerged some time in the third century AD. By the 5th century AD, the Jiecha kingdom, otherwise known as the Old Kedah, was established in areas south of the modern-day Malaysian state of Kedah. Jiecha was once a prosperous transit port for ships from Arabia, Persia and India, before continuing their voyage to the east. The people of Jiecha were actively engaged in trade with these foreign merchants.
By the seventh century AD, however, Pan-Pan, Langkasuka and Jiecha were subjugated to the dominance of the powerful Malay kingdom of Srivijaya. The capital of Srivijaya was Palembang, situated almost equidistant from the Straits of Malacca and the Straits of Sunda. This was the first empire that managed to control these two maritime choke points in Southeast Asia and the trade activities that took place along the length of these waterways by compelling passing vessels to call at Srivijaya ports and levying port dues and taxes upon them.
Srivijaya participated actively in a growing world economy at that time and prospered well by engaging in extensive commerce involving camphor, cloves, sandalwood, nutmegs and other valuable commodities with traders and merchants from different parts of Asia, namely China, India and the Middle East.
The core economic and political power in the Malay Archipelago shifted from Sumatra to Java in 1293 AD. Majapahit territories expanded significantly in the 13th century AD throughout the Malay Archipelago, which included Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, Borneo, Celebes, Moluccas and Mindanao.
It generated wealth through agricultural produce, particularly rice production, and also through maritime trade that went through its archipelagic straits. With such large territories, Majapahit traders accumulated raw materials from its hinterland to be traded in its port.
These included pepper, salt and coconut oil from Java, spices from the Moluccas, ivory from Sumatra, tin and lead from the Malay peninsula to be exchanged with textiles from India and porcelain products from China. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Majapahit replaced Srivijaya and became a foremost centre of commerce in the Malay Archipelago.
Malacca was the next kingdom to take command in controlling trade in the Malay Archipelago after the fall of Majapahit. This kingdom had a profound influence on the Straits of Malacca, so much so that the name of this once powerful sultanate is immortalised in the waterway that the sultanate dominated for more than a century. In late 14th century, Malacca began to increase in influence and importance, especially in the maritime arena. This was because of its strategic location nestled comfortably along the length of the Straits of Malacca, with the advantage of being sheltered from the ferocious monsoonal currents. It consequently had a safe harbour, which made it a perfect haven for seafarers waiting for the change of monsoonal winds to travel eastward or to the west.
Malacca grew not only into a prosperous international port but also a regional maritime empire. Malacca engaged in diplomatic and commercial relationships with other states within the region, namely China, Java, Siam and India. The Sultanate of Malacca prospered until 1511 as a crucial link in world trade. It was said that the population of the port of Malacca before the fall of the sultanate was probably around 100,000, and thus was as large as other European cities at that time, such as Naples and Paris. Malacca's glorious moments were short-lived with the arrival of the Portuguese in the region in the early 16th century.
These brief historical episodes have shown that the Malays have been practising mare liberum in engaging trade with other nations long before Grotius came up with that concept.
As skilful seafarers, the Malays have, in the past, dominated the seas. During its golden epoch, the influence of the Malay kingdom of Srivijaya was so great that it reached as far as Madagascar to the west. The people of Makassar have sailed to Arnhem Land in Australia to trade with the aboriginal community as early as the 17th century.
During the colonial era, there was opposition by the local Malay kingdoms against the Dutch practice of monopoly in the East Indies (Indonesia).
For example, Sultan Hassanudin of Gowa in Makassar had always been rebellious against the Dutch monopoly of trade in the East Indies.
He believed that in the mind of God, there was no predestination of the East Indies to be exploited and monopolised by the European commercial interests only. The order by the Dutch forbidding the local Makassar Malays to sail the seas was a matter unheard of in the eyes of the sultan.
These examples clearly show that mare liberum has always been exercised as an international custom by the people of the Malay Archipelago.
It is an established fact that the kingdoms within the Malay Archipelago have for centuries practised mare liberum even before Grotius came out with his world renowned book on the freedom of the seas.
History has shown that even though kingdoms in Southeast Asia kept changing, trading activities between these kingdoms and other Asian realms were still taking place. The active trading activities within this region show that besides the Europeans, the Asians, namely the Chinese, Indians, Arabs and the Malays, too, were practising the concept of freedom of the seas.
Unfortunately, for the Malays, their glorious past as great empire builders and seafarers was not properly documented.
Ever since its downfall in the 12th century AD, the pre-eminence of Srivijaya as an influential trading nation was long forgotten and was never even believed to have existed by the Malays.
It was not until the 19th century that the existence of Srivijaya was acknowledged by historians, alongside Majapahit and Malacca. It is because of this reason that mare liberum in the Malay Archipelago remained largely as an unsung international custom
Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli and
Rahmat Mohamad ‘Glorious Past of Malay Seafarers’ New Straits Times (January
2014)
Read More : NewStraitsTime, 6 January 2014
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