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Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1992 10:18:00 EST
From:         "Carl A. Trocki" <CTROCKI@GUVAX.BITNET>
Subject:      bintan

Subject: RE: Mike Digregorio on the Bintan Boom

     I lived in or near Bintan from 1983-1985.  The Island itself
     is nothing to run half way around the wotld for.  A state
     subsidized plywood company saw to that. But the major town,
     Tanjung Pinang is a gem.  A smuglling town from way back
     (the sultan of singapore settled here when Raffles took
     over).  The northern half of the island, where the resort
     will be,  is the most preserved ecologically.  Friends of
     mine, flying in from sigapore on CALTEX helicopters, have
     seen sea crocs in the area.
     The nearby islands, however, are gorgeous.  They are
     froested and populated by ethnic Malays and Bugis.  There
     are a few isolated settelemnts of Aboriginal People (orang
     Asli) that , in 1986 were still living in tree houses the
     way they have form millenia.  (This is also the way
     aboriginal people in Mindinao used to live)  The wildlife on
     these islands is spectacular.  Rare birds of all kind,
     including flocks of parrots and jungle pidgeons, hornbill
     and sea eagles, and endangered or rare aniimals such as
     mouse deer, pangolin, otter, and jungle cats.  For
     centuries, these islands were the hunting preserves of the
     local sultan.  Now, once again, the world is witness to
     abuse of power by central governments acting in the
     interests of money and power.  It makes me sick.
     I live in Hawaii.  If anoone wants to see how tourism
     humiliates a culture, come here.


     Bintan and the rest of the Riau Archipelago have been
"neglected" for the past 200 years largely because of Singapore.
As I have pointed out in my "Prince of Pirates" (Singapore, 1979)
Bintan or Riau, as the area around Tanjong Pinang is
traditionally known, was for many years the center of the old
Malay empire of Johor.  During the eighteenth century, the port
flourished under the governance of the Bugis.  It was the Bugis
Yang di-pertuan muda Daing Kemboja and his successor, Raja Haji
who developed trade with the Chinese and the English in the 18th
century and who welcomed Chinese pepper and gambier planters.
The latter probably had the first shot at the rainforest of the
Riau islands and later moved to Singapore and Johor.  Riau
declined when it was sacked in 1784 and subsequently taken over
by the Dutch.

     The Temenggong of Johor, a Malay chief who had some
differences with the Bugis ruler and his Dutch allies, left
Tanjong Pinang around 1812 or later and went to eke out his
existence as (some say) a pirate on Singapore.  He happened to be
living there when Raffles arrived and the rest is history.

     Although not many people seem to have noticed, the politics,
economies and societies of Johor, Singapore and Riau/Bintan have
always been closely linked.  Because Bintan has been under the
Dutch and later the Indonesian state based at Jakarta/Batavia, it
was as, di Gregorio points out, a perfect smuggling port.  It has
long been one of the prime "back doors" for the "barter trade" of
Singapore.  For some reason, however, people from Singapore have
had little inclination to go there.  The connection with
Indonesia through Riau has always been something done on the sly.
Singapore's roads, railroads and most administrative and overt
political connections have all pointed north.

     But, history has a way of catching up and evening the score.
Riau was ignored except for the smugglers.  In recent years this
has all begun to change.  In the early 1980s, the island of
Galang, just west across a small strait from Bintan, was picked
as a refugee camp for Vietnamese boat people and shortly
thereafter corporate interests in land-hungry Singapore
discovered Batam.  When I was last there in 1985 it seemed as
though about 50% of the island had been bulldozed and lay
prostrate, ready for "development".  I sailed past there last
winter and could not see the island for the acres of oil tanks.

     Bintan, although it may not look like much to Digregorio, is
an important historical center for the Malay people.  The swamps
and jungles of Sungai Riau upriver from Tanjong Pinang are dotted
with the graves and fortresses of the Malay and Bugis rajas of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  There is a beautiful
fortress on Pulau Penyengat and the entire surrounding area is an
area rich in archeological remains which should be preserved and
studied, but I doubt this will happen.

     Although small Malay, Bugis and orang laut kampongs continue
to dot the shoals and beaches of the smaller islands, it is clear
that these are next for development.  Right now the Riau
Archipelago is probably slated to go the way of Phuket, Goh
Samui, Langkawi, Pulau Sa-Ribu and a few of the other insular
paradises of Southeast Asian waters.  It will be ditched and
shaved to accomodate enormous luxury hotels for tourists, jaded
from shopping, or living, in Singapore.  There will be large
piers for hydrofoils and helipads for the big money folks from
Singapore who want to see "real Southeast Asia".  Maybe they will
take walks through an orang laut village and take pictures of the
"natives".  Of course, these people won't be able to gather
shellfish on the beaches because they will be owned by the hotels
and the reefs will be off-limits to all but scuba divers with
glass-bottomed boats.  And some Jakarta general will suck up the
profit provided he's paid off one of Suharto's offspring.  Hooray
for Indonesia. Hai, Dodo?

                                   Carl Trocki
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