Bintan Island
Bintan's history is traced to the early 3rd century. The island flourished as a trading post on the route between China and India, and over the centuries it came under the control of the Chinese, the British, and then the Dutch when it was declared part of the Dutch East Indies through the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. In the 12th century, the Bintan island in the Strait of Malacca was known as the "Pirate Island" since the Malay pirates used to loot trading ships sailing in these waters.On account of Bintan Island's strategic location and size on the India-China trade route, it has a rich history. Along with the local ethnic Malays and the Bugis, domination by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Arabs, and the British at different times has been a part of Bintan's rich history. Many local internal feuds between the Malays and Bugis, and battles in the sea, with and between foreign invasion forces, have been part of Bintan's history and its straits. From mid 16th century, the Sultan of Johor-Riau kingdom had moved their kingdom between Johor, Riau and Lingga.
The earliest history of Bintan is linked to the history of Nagoya Hills, which is integral with Batam, near Bintan island and other islands of the Riau archipelago. The Chinese chronicles have mentioned that Batam was inhabited by 231 AD when Singapore island was still called Pulau Ujung. Bintan came under the control of the Malacca kingdom from the 13th century. Later, the Sultan of Johor ruled from here and his reign lasted till the 18th century.
Riau Islands were central to the greater Malay kingdoms or Sultanates, known as the 'Malay World', which had its control from eastern Sumatra to Borneo. For centuries, Riau was the home of Malay and Orang Laut people. They had settled in Bintan. These two communities were the backbone of most Malay kingdoms from the time of Srivijaya to the Sultanate of Johor. They had full control of trade routes going through the straits. Migrants from China and Indo-China, though came here later, settled in large area of Asia. After the fall of Melaka in 1511, Riau islands became the centre of political power of the mighty Sultanate of Johor or Johor â€" Riau, based on Bintan island. They were considered the centre of Malay culture.
From the 12th to 13th century, the Srivijaya Empire of Sumatra held sway over Bintan island. Sri Tri Buana, a member of the royal family of Palembang had visited Riau Islands in 1290. The Queen of Bintan met him and made a strategic alliance. They moved with a "flotilla of 800 vessels to Bintan" where Sri Tri Buana became the king. However, Bintan and its straits got the reputation as a pirate island due to the Malay pirates who seized many ships by forcing them to the port to trade and or loot the cargo carried by them. Hundreds of ships of Malays forced Chinese ships returning from the Indian Ocean to their ports in Bintan. Those who resisted were attacked. Large quantities of Chinese ceramics were recovered on Bintan, some traced to the early Sung Dynasty. The Arabian chronicler, Ibn Battuta, writing on the Riau islands in the 13th century states: "Here there are little islands, from which armed black pirates with poised arrows emerged, possessing armed warships; they plunder people but don't enslave them." Log records of Chinese ships testify these incidents in the 12th century. Even after several centuries, Bintan is still referred by many by the epithet "Pirate Island".
According to historical records, Sri Tri Bhuvana occupied Singapore and then declared himself as the King of Singapore. Before that he renamed Temasek, the island he had occupied, as Singapore. Another explanation mooted to the naming of Singapore is that the king spotted an animal, which he presumed to be a lion, and hence called Temasek as Singapore. The reign of Srivijaya empire lasted till the 16th century.
In the year 1521, the Portuguese who were on pepper hunt, had the intention of building strongholds in the form of forts during their sea voyages in the East, on Sunda Island in Java after they had received instructions from their King to destroy four forts in India, Sri Lanka and Sumatra. However, they initially failed to capture Bentan, the stronghold of the former Sultan of Malaca on the south east of the Singapore Strait and Atjeh. At this time, they were successful in establishing a fort at Pasai though were unsuccessful in establishing a fortress at Canton in China and suffered defeat at the hands of the Chinese. In 1524, Malays of Bintan attacked Malacca, which was under the control of the Portuguese.
Bintan 1st became politically important when Sultan Mahmud of the fallen Sultanate of Malacca fled to Bintan and created a resistance base there after Malacca was taken by the Portuguese forces in 1511. The Portuguese eventually destroyed the stronghold in 1526, and after a few years the Sultanate founded a new capital back on the Malay Peninsula and developed from there.
At the beginning of 18th century the Sultanate of Johor entered into political turmoil and the capital moved back to Bintan as the Bugis took control of the Sultanate. At the hands of the Bugis, Bintan became a powerful trading port, attracting regional, Western, Indian and Chinese traders as well as migrants including Chinese much in the same way Malacca had developed into a regional power three centuries earlier.
European powers wanted to take control of the port, which had a flourishing trade. During this period the British, who controlled Penang, were aggressively looking towards expanding their control to the south of the Straits of Malacca, as they wished to contain the Dutch expansions. They considered Bintan as a possible location. During this period the Dutch had defeated the Bintan rulers and taken control of the island by the end of the 18th century; this had brought to an end the local trading supremacy. This also resulted in checkmating the British ambition to occupy the area. However, an internal power struggle within the Sultanate of Riau-Johor ensued. The British seized this opportunity and occupied the island of Singapore. With this, the importance of Bintan island as a trading port also declined. A new cultural centre developed on Penyengat Island and it got established as the stronghold of Malay and Islamic culture.
However the history changed the fate of Riau as a political, cultural or economic centre when European powers took control of the regional trade routes by taking advantage of political weaknesses within the Sultanate. Singapore Island, that had been for centuries part of the same greater Malay kingdoms and sultanates, and under direct control of Sultan of Johor, came under British control. The creation of a European-controlled territory in Johor-Riau heart broke the sultanate into two parts, destroying the cultural and political unity that had existed for centuries.
The Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824 consolidated this separation, with the British controlling all territories north of the Singapore Strait and Dutch controlling territories from Riau to Java. Till the independence of Indonesia in 1945, Bintan was under the control of the Netherlands East Indies. However, the Riau Archipelago remained a fairly borderless territory till recently. During the World War II Japanese had occupied the Malay world and Singapore was their headquarters. During this period, many Malays including the upper strata of society had to join the Imperial Army. After the war, from 1950 the Archipelago was a duty free zone till the revolution Konfrontasi in 1963. During this period, the Straight Dollar of British Malaya was the principal currency. Visa free movement of people, which existed then is now no more prevalent.
In the Tanjung Pinang city, the low tide reach or the mud flat part was built with stilts and were mosquito and rat infested. Above these mud flat reaches, narrow piers or pelantars were built at higher elevations and the old city of Tanjung expanded with a maze of streets and alleys. The old pier with the name Pelantar II thrives as the fish market. The town has a large population of the Chinese, whose presence is seen around three Buddhist Pagodas with the 'Citiya Bodhi Sasana' overlooking the ocean at the end of Pelantar II pier.
The Indonesian sea route through the Bintan straits has been considered very safe for sailing of small freighters. The island has developed over the centuries in two distinct zones, namely, the southern and the northern zones, which are clearly differentiated from the prevalent life styles of people living there.
Though a large island compared to all other islands in the Riao archipelago, it is sparsely populated. As the Dutch ruled over the islands for a long period, their influence is distinctly discerned in the island. Population of Bintan Island is about 350,000 with the citizens mostly belonging to the Malay, Bugis, Chinese and the Orang Laut ethnicity. An observation made on the distribution of different ethnic groups in Bintan is that Indonesians have migrated in large numbers to the island and as result Malays, the original settlers of the region, are now a minority in Riau Archipelago as a whole. This is attributed to the fact that the island is close to Malaysia and Singapore in particular and Indonesians flock to the place to get a foot hold to go to Singapore. In the capital city of Tanjung Pinang, the urban population had jumped from 98,871 in 1998 to 134,940 in 2004.
In 1824, the Treaty of London finally settled that the islands south of Singapore are Dutch Territories. Bintan was again under the control of the Dutch. Bintan's power and central role disappeared with the regional political changes and the island's past fortune was now overshadowed by neighbouring Batam and Singapore. Following its founding by the British in 1819, Singapore became a new regional trading centre. Due to its limited size, Singapore initiated the Sijori Growth Triangle in 1980 and 1990s, and signed agreements with the Indonesian government to invest in Batam and Bintan.
The economy of Bintan island is centred on tourism, given its close proximity to Singapore. In the year 1990, according to a Presidential Decree, a coordinating team was set up for the Riao Province Development with the mandate to plan and develop development projects within the framework of Indonesia-Singapore cooperation. Investment plans, similar to that of Batam, were evolved with basic intention to provide leisure space to Singaporeans on the white beaches of Bintan and this approach also conformed to the Indonesian Policy of declaring the 1990s as the "decade of Visit Indonesia". In 1991, Bintan Management Resort for establishing a resort with intent to develop resorts, industrial parks and water projects was planned. In December 1994, partial opening of Bintan Resort Development was agreed under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by trade ministers of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. As per the Master Plan prepared for Bintan, the emphasis was on tourism, industrial projects and agricultural products, all under private sector initiative, involving formation of a consortium of the Singapore Technologies Industrial Corporation, Wah Chang International (whose specialisation is development of resorts), the Keppel group and the local banks. Thus, the once wild and deserted Bintan island has now become an industrial "hinterland" for Singapore and a special investment zone for world industrial companies, also attracting thousands of workers from the entire country. This industrial estate agreement is in partnership with Batamlndo Industrial Park. The Bintan industrial estate has been allotted 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) and is designed as a "One stop investment centre" providing all services essential for the investing companies to devote exclusively towards production. It targets industries such as textiles, garments and wood processing, unlike the Batam industrial estates. This functions as a supplement to Singapore's economy by way of manufacturing low-value goods here.
Earlier, Singapore's Batam Industrial Park had signed an agreement with Indonesia to lease its northern coast and develop it into a resort for Singaporeans. An area of 23,000 hectares (57,000 acres) had been allocated to this project, which was further divided to 20â€"30 projects â€" 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) for hotels and resorts and sports facilities. Further, the Bintan Lagoon and Beach Resorts, designed exclusively for wealthy tourists, has been planned with "two 18-hole championship golf courses with superlative accommodation". This resort area has exclusive approach from Singapore that bypasses the capital city. It has modern facilities of museums, handicraft shops, artists villages and other eco-tourism related attractions.
The agribusiness venture planned under the Master Plan for Bintan envisages pig rearing for export to Singapore and sea food processing plants. Fishery cultivation of grouper fish, napoleon, kakap and Bream are also planned in the island.
Under the industrial sector, the identified fields for development are mining of Bauxite, kaolin, granite, white sand and tin. Government of Indonesia has also planned the petroleum industry with its subsidiary industry of manufacture of plastics in Bintan.
Bintan Eco-Tourism Venture Project has been launched to generate better income avenues for the low-income families. The eco-tourism destinations identified are all within approachable distances that could be covered in about 30 to 90 minutes from the starting point by car. Village handicrafts made from the local pandanus plants is a popular attraction during the eco-tour to villages in Bintan. Private operators, meanwhile are succeeding in putting Bintan on the world map for Eco-tourism, with both Nikoi and LooLa Adventure Resort being amongst the four finalists of WildAsia's highly respected 2012 award for "Asia's most inspiring responsible tourism operators", which LooLa went on to win. LooLa furthermore is one of three finalists in the 2013 WTTC's "Tourism for tomorrow, community benefits" awards.
The Integrated resort management is highly dependent on the International tourism industry. Tourist foot falls, as recorded till 2004, have been reported to be on the increase.
Thus, the massive and ambitious economic development plan envisaging "10 golf courses, 20 hotels, 10 condominiums, three village clusters, a township, several marine and eco-tourism attractions" launched in 1995 with a gestation period of 20 years, was according to the leisure industry analyst of Singapore: "Bintan has better prospects because of the people behind its development. They are big names who will have to maintain their reputation.
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