Manila, Melaka, Maluku - Remembering the Triangular World of Southeast Asia

MANILA,MELAKA,MALUKU REMEMBERING THE TRIANGULAR

WORLD OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
By: Eric Casio (From Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 12 & 16,
2001)
The recent visit of President Gloria Macapagal to Malaysia and the
forthcoming visit of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri to
the Philippines is a rare historic occasion to reflect on how
Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, are historically and geographically
articulated. The three, together with Brunei, share deep ethnic and
cultural relationships worth re-discovering and remembering.
From a regional, Southeast Asian perspective, the Philippines is not
a single linear chain of island consisting of Luzon, Visayas and
Mindanao. Rather, the archipelago has a bifurcate structure, like a
letter A with two legs pointing to aligned centers farther south in
Borneo, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The left or western Luzon, Mindoro
and Palawan, is aligned with the ancient kingdoms of Brunei and
Malacca (Melaka). The right or eastern leg facing the Pacific, which
includes eastern Luzon, Bicol, Visayas and Mindanao, is aligned with
Ternate in the Moluccas (Maluku). And Melaka and Maluku have been
aligned in trade and commerce in pre-colonial times. The resulting
pattern is thus a triangular matrix whose corners Manila, Melaka,
Maluku provide three key points of reference or reflecting on
regional history, anthropology and geography.
The
interconnections
among
these
reference
points
in nusantara were facilitated by sea-lanes used for two-way
maritime commerce, travel and migration. The Melaka-Maluku
alignment may be called the southern trading corridor, the
Melaka-Manila connection the western trading corridor and the
Maluku-Manila linkage the eastern trading corridor. The southern,
western and eastern trade routes facilitated maritime trade, travel
and transmigration over centuries before and during the early
colonial periods.
The connecting bar of the Philippines A is the Sulu chain strung
between Mindanao and Borneo. The historically critical position of
Sulu lies in being equidistant between the western and eastern legs
passed through Mindanao and Borneo respectively. The Tausugs
linguistically are affiliated with Visayan speakers from the Butuan-

Surigao of Northeastern Mindanao. Yet the Sulu Sultanate shared

strong Islamic traditions with the Brunei Sultanate, and historically
exercised hegemony over North Borneo.
The Matrix and Moorings
The geo-historical moorings of the Philippines thus rest in this
triangular matrix linked by relations of trade, travel, migration,
intermarriage and political alliances in pre-colonial and early colonial
periods. Unfortunately ethnic affinities, cultural linkage and
commercial relations and political alliances that used to characterize
this region have been lost from the racial memory of many Filipinos,
Indonesians and Malaysians. Filipinos have instead tended to look
across the Pacific towards Spanish-Mexico and Anglo-America just as
Indonesian elites have oriented themselves towards The
Netherlands and Malaysian intellectuals towards Great Britain, for
much of their colonial social history. It is time these moorings be
rediscovered, and these forgotten affinities and linkage
reestablished.
The Philippine archipelago with more than 7,000 islands is better
seen in conjunction with the Indonesian archipelago with more than
13,000 islands, and with the Malaysian Peninsular and island
territories containing several hundreds more. This massive explosion
of over 20,000 islands is the largest in the world, spreading out for
thousands of miles between continental Asia and Australia. The
island galaxy is covered by a rich pattern of sea lanes, straits, bays,
gulfs, rivers, mangrove swamps and all sorts of maritime and
riverine nooks and crannies. For some good reason some Indonesian
political visionaries referred to these massive universe of islands
as nusa antara or nasuntara the island galaxy in between (i.e.
between Asia and Australia; and between Pacific and the Indian
Ocean).
Although the geophysical diversity if nasuntara is great, the
languages and ethnicity of its inhabitants show a marked
homogeneity. That is to say, the people were neither Indians nor
Chinese; and their languages were descended neither from Sanskrit
nor Chinese. The people on nusantara spoke varieties of a language
popularly known as Malay. This led some cultural historians to coin
the term Malayo-Polynesian to describe the language family
spoken by the Southeast Asian and those Pacific islanders who have
migrated out of nasuntara into Polynesia and Micronesia.

The effort to achieve a more holistic grasp of the regions linguistic,

cultural and ethnic similarities has been rendered particularly
difficult because of conflicting nomenclature and identity labels
developed by European scholars and perpetuated by their
nationalist successors. Language historians have largely abandoned
Malay-Polynesian in favor of the term Austronesian to refer to
the family languages that includes Malay, Javanese, Tagalog,
Visayan, Hawaiian, Tahitian, Maori and the language of Madagascar,
among many others.
While the term Austronesian has been quickly accepted as a
linguistic descriptor, no comparable general term, other than
Southern Asia has been universally accepted for the race of the
people inhabiting island Southeast Asia. The closest general term is
generalized Malay a practice that allowed Jose Rizal to be
classified as belonging to the Malay race. Unfortunately Malay has
acquired a restricted meaning in the context of the Malaysian
nationalist discourse vis--vis Indiana nd Chinese citizens. Similarly,
the terms Indonesian and Filipino likewise are generally
restricted to national communities. Thus the need for a region-wide
descriptor that could override the more restricted, localistic labels
remained unmet among scholars and the regional general public.
One recently suggested region-wide descriptor is nusantao (from
nusa, island and tao, people). Originally proposed by prehistorian
Solheim, nusantao attempts to serve as a general term for people to
nusantara,a llowing the term Austronesian to continue as a general
descriptor only of the language family. For lack of a better term, we
will use the name nusantao for discussing the triangular
demographic, cultural and commercial alignment of Manila to
Melaka, Melaka to Maluku and Maluku to Manila.
Over the centuries the regular movement of goods and people
throughout nusantara resulted in the spread of a broadly common
culture complex, a pattern of similarities in languages, technologies
and cultural ideas and practices, especially among communities in
the trading ports and in the hinterland communities surrounding
these ports. This nasuntaran culture complex thus provides the
infrastructure of base of the Indonesians, Malaysians, Filipinos and
Borneans.
A major feature of this base culture is the distribution of the
nasuntaran population along the lowland-highland continuum, i.e.

some were coastal dwellers, others inhabited the interior and the
highlands. Early European scholars called the coastal dwellers
coastal Malays a term later translated as pasisir peoples.
Notwithstanding the divergent terminology, a clear summary of this
lowland-highland cultural pattern was given by the Spanish Loarca
sometime in 1582.
There are two kinds of people in this land, who although
of the same (nasuntaran), race differ somewhat in their customs
and are almost always on mutually unfriendly terms. One class
includes those who live along the coast, the other class, those who
live in the mountains; and if peace seems to reign among them, it is
because they depend upon each other for the necessities of life.
Another Spanish report written around 1663 added that the
lowlanders and coastal peoples in the Philippines were the civilized
nation who came from Sumatra, the Javas, Borney, Macazar and
other isalnds in Southeast Asia. This remark is the strongest
suggestion that population movement was going on all over
nusantara, facilitated no doubt by maritime trade routes.
THE SOUTHERN TRADING CORRIDOR Melaka, Java, Makasar,
Maluku
The most famous corridor is the southern one linking Melaka to
Maluku via the Java Sea lane and touching trade ports
in Java and Makasar. Prior to its capture in 1511 by the Portuguese,
Melaka was a major port principality, an international entrepot,
serving traders from China, India and other surrounding countries in
Southeast Asia. The Portuguese historian Pires estimated about 100
large ships and 30-40 smaller ones in the port of Malacca each
year the harbor was so big that some 2,000 large and small ships
could lie together.
Enterprising traders, like those from Makasar and Java, yearly sailed
to Maluku to barter textile for spices, which were then sold
internationally at great profit. One historian described the trading
activities along the Melaka-Maluku corridor:
From Melaka, the traders would sail to the Moluccas by way of
java, Sumbawa, Banda and Ambon, doing much valuable trade on
the way, selling their Indian textiles at Gresik and Panarukan in
exchange for caxas (Chinese copper coins)with which they
purchased rice and cotton cloth for inferior quality at Bima in

Sumbawa. The cloves were bought in Banda or the Moluccas chiefly

in exchange for this rice inferior cotton and also Chinese caxas and
porcelain the cloves sometimes fetched in Melaka thirty ties their
cost in the Moluccas, and in India one hundred times, while in Lisbon
during periods of scarcity they were sold for as much as 240 times
their original price.
Because of its long exposure to influential Muslim traders from India
and the Middle East, Melaka converted to Islam and its Muslim rulers
then became advocates and facilitators for the spread of Islam to
other parts of the nasuntaran world. The pagan ruler of the Ternate
in the Moluccas is known to have travelled to Melaka and on his
return via Java he married a Javanese princess. The first Ternatan
Muslim ruler, Sultan Zainal Abidin (1486-1500) thus became Muslim
due to Melakas influence and example.
Intermarriages and commercial alliances were commonly practiced
among the traders and the common people surrounding these ports.
One Dutch report in 1609 mentioned some 1500 Javanese in the
Banda Islands in Maluku, among an indigenous population of less
than 15,000. Multi-ethnic visiting traders Arabs, Chinese, Javanese
and Malays stayed for months at a time in the Maluku Island and
took wives from local women, Their mestizo children look fairskinned and straight-haired compared to the darker, frizzy-haired
neighbors in the other less frequented islands.
Sensing the importance of the east-west trade along this southern
corridor, the Dutch commercial strategists established a central
control point at Batavia (now Jakarta) on the north coast of Java to
monitor and capitalize on the commercial traffic between Melaka
and Maluku.
THE WESTERN TRADING CORRIDOR Melaka, Brunei, Manila
Much has been written about the Manila-Acapulco trade across the
Pacific. Often forgotten is the older and more significant trade
connection between Manila and Melaka. Melaka, because of its
strategic position between China and India, and a large multi-ethnic
population of resident and visiting merchants from China, India,
Arabia and Persia; as well as indigenous nasuntaran traders from the
Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia. In the following quotation, you
may read Filipinos where it says Lucoes.

The Lucoes (Filipino from Manila dn Luzon) are about 10 days sail
beyond Borneo. They are nearly all heathen; they have no king, but
ruled by group of elders. They are a robust people, little thought of
in Malacca. They have two or three junks at the most. They take the
merchandise to Borneo and from there they came to Malacca.

The Borneans go to the land of the Lucoes to buy gold and

foodstuffs as well, and the gold which they bring to Malacca is from
the Lucoes and from the surrounding islands (Sulu, Mindanao,
Visayas, Palawan) which are countless; and they all have more or
less trade with one another.

The Lucoes have their country plenty of foodstuffs, and wax and
honey, and they take the same merchandise from here as the
Borneans take. They are almost one people; and in Malacca there is
no division between them. They never used to be in Malacca as they
are now, but the Tumunguo whom the governor of India appointed
here was already beginning to gather many of them together, and
they were already building many houses and shops. They are a
useful people; they are hardworking in Minjan there must be five
hundred Lucoes, some of them important men and good merchants,
who want to come to Malacca.
Pires observation that the Borneans and the Lucoes were almost
one people is most intriguing and instructive. Iot provides a good
sociological background for the fact that Rajah Sulayman of Maynila
is known as the nephew of the Sultan of Brunei. And it throws light
on the spread of Islam from Melaka to Brunei, and from Brunei to
Manila and Sulu. The Brunei royal house, just like Ternate in the
Maluku sector, traces its origin from Islamic Melaka via Johore. Thus
the Islamic heritage of Pre-Spanish Manila, through its Brunei
connection, is ultimately derived from Melaka.
THE EASTERN TRADING CORRIDOR Maluku, Mindanao,
Visayas, Bicol, Manila
The commercial linkages along the eastern trading corridor is less
understood compared to the other two, and yet are as historically
significant for understanding the resulting fabric of similarities in
language, culture and ethnic characteristics. The people of Maluku
had close links with those of Davao and South Cotabato. In fact, they
used to refer to Mindanao as Maluku Besar, the larger Maluku. The

islands between Mindanao and Maluku, that includes Talaud and

Sangihe, have contributed Sangil-speaking population to Mindanao.
Visayan linguistics is part of the evidence for long-standing linkage
along the Maluku-Mindanao-Visayas-trade routes. Visayas and
Mindanao have languages that are closely related. Recent
archaeological findings also indicate that Butuan, Bohol and Cebu
had
thriving
trader
communities
in
active
commercial
communication with Maluku, the southern terminal of the MelakaMaluku trade corridor. The Islamization of the Maguindanao and the
Maranao peoples appear to have originated from Ternate warriors
came to the aid of the Maguindanao people. Piratical raids from
Mindanao into the Visayas, though negative incidents, still points to
long standing familiarity with communities and ports along eastern
corridor between Maluku and Luzon.
The establishment of a Spanish naval station at the tip Zamboanga
opposite Basilan is a left-hand tribute to the existence of commercial
activities along the eastern corridor. For the Zamboanga fort was
designed not just to intercept Moro slave raiders headed to the
Visayas, but also to stop southbound Chinese junks plying the
eastern
corridor
along
the
Bicol-Visayas-Mindanao-Maluku
commercial connections.
Contemporary Implications
Currently there is much talk of developing the Maluku-MindanaoSulu-Borneo are through economic cooperation programs under
BIMP-EAGA. This acronym stands for Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines-East Asian Growth Area. These border areas happen to
be the farthest from Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, which partly
explains why they have lagged behind in development. One cannot
continue to blame the inward-looking Dutch in the Indonesia, the
British in Malaysia and the Spaniards and Americans in the
Philippines for dismembering the ancient triangular matrix of
nasuntara. The real issue now is how to remember and rebuild a
new circle of reciprocity. This is the task that the current and future
generation of regional leaders and citizens must face together. It is
encouraging to see this task of regional reconstruction being started
by Macapagal of the Philippines, Megawati of Indonesia, Mahathir of
Malaysia, and the Sultan of Brunei.