What If Indonesia Has An Imaginary ‘Ten-Dash Line’
Posted On 30 Jun 2016
By : Felix Utama Kosasih
0 Comments
Tag: Dash Line, History, Indonesia, Perspective, South China Sea

If Indonesia were to enforce its ‘historical fishing grounds’, it would create absolute chaos around Southeast Asia. This shows how ridiculous and legally questionable China’s claim is.

Jakarta, GIVnews.com – Please refer to historical accounts of Indonesia’s predecessors such as the Sailendra dynasty, Sriwijaya and Majapahit empires. Indonesian people between the 7th and 13th century, as part of the maritime civilization that forms the Nusantara, also ventured all the way to Madagascar to trade.

Last week, the power struggle in the South China Sea entered another chapter as ASEAN’s biggest member, Indonesia, jumped into the fray.

Indonesia has previously refused to be dragged into the conflict and the situation cooled down when China’s Foreign Ministry stated in March that China has no objections to Indonesia’s sovereignty over the Natuna Islands. However, this statement apparently does not include the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Natuna, which according China, is overlapping with its self-proclaimed nine-dash line.


The Borobudur Temple in Central Java records the maritime history of the people in the Nusantara archipelago. (Photo: GIV/MB)

After Indonesian Navy’s warships captured another Chinese fishing vessel inside this EEZ two weeks ago, China sent a strongly-worded protest to Indonesia, claiming one of the fishermen was injured during the confrontation although Indonesia denies this. This is the third arrest of a Chinese vessel around Natuna. In all three cases, Chinese coast guard vessels tried to prevent the Indonesian Navy from capturing the fishermen.

China has always insisted that the area within its nine-dash line is fair game to its fishermen on the basis that the line constitutes the self-claimed “traditional fishing grounds”. Although this concept does not exist in any international maritime law and is also not recognized by any other claimant nations, China has brushed aside any criticism; even to the extent of promising to ignore the International Court of Justice’s opinion on the issue.

Indonesia’s traditional grounds

To put China’s claim into perspective, let’s look at what will happen if Indonesia also plays the “traditional fishing grounds” card.

In the past, ancient Indonesian kingdoms always had strong maritime interests and fisheries have always been a major source of income. There were a lot of different kingdoms throughout a period of several centuries, but two stood out in particular: the Kingdoms of Sriwijaya and Majapahit. Both of them were incredibly powerful on the seas and their territory stretched far and wide beyond modern Indonesian borders.


Map of Sriwijayan territory. (Credit: Aulia Tasman)

Sriwijaya, from its capital in Palembang, ruled not only over the islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. Its authority, through various vassal kingdoms, also covers the entire western half of what is now Malaysia and significant chunks of southern Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam. An archaeologist from Universitas Gadjah Mada has also shown that Sriwijayan sailors journeyed all the way to Madagascar and built a settlement there.

All this was possible because Sriwijaya was a maritime empire with an exceptionally strong navy. It controlled shipping lines and constructed strategically-located ports to protect and tax merchant vessels. Control over both the Malacca Strait and Sunda Strait gave Sriwijaya a monopoly over shipping and taxation of spices and other trades from China, India and the Middle East.


Map of the Majapahit Empire. (Source: saripedia.wordpress.com)

The other great empire is Majapahit, the first one to unite virtually all of modern Indonesia. Majapahit’s territory includes a large part of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, southern Thailand, Philippines’ Sulu Islands, and Timor Leste. Under the capable leadership of Hayam Wuruk and Gajah Mada, Majapahit’s navy conquered much of Southeast Asia and became a major regional power.

If Indonesia were to enforce its ‘historical fishing grounds’, it would create absolute chaos around Southeast Asia. This shows how ridiculous and legally questionable China’s claim is. ASEAN members should not bow to China’s greed; after all, international law must be supreme over historic claims.

http://www.globalindonesianvoices.com/26873/what-if-indonesia-has-an-imaginary-ten-dash-line/