Riau Islands
From Freepedia
| Riau Islands | |
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| Area: | 21,992 km² |
| Population: | 802,000 |
| Density: | 36/km² |
| Capital: | Tanjung Pinang |
The Riau Islands (Kepulauan Riau (Kepri for short) or sometimes Riau Kepulauan in Bahasa Indonesia) are a province and a group of islands in Indonesia, located south of Singapore, off the eastern coast of Riau province on Sumatra island. They were split off as a separate province in July 2004 with Tanjung Pinang as its capital.
By size and population the most important Riau islands/archipelago are Bintan, Batam, Karimun, Anambas and Natuna.
Language
The official standard for Malay, as agreed upon by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, is Bahasa Riau, the language of the Riau Archipelago, long considered the birthplace of the Malay language.
History
From the Srivijaya time until 16th century, Riau was a natural part of greater Malay kingdoms or sultanate, in the heart of what is often called the Malay World from eastern Sumatra until Borneo. The Malay-related Orang Laut tribes inhabited the islands and formed the backbone of most Malay kingdoms from Srivijaya to Sultanate of Johor for the control of the trade routes going through the straits.
After the fall of Melaka in 1511, the Riau islands became the center of political power of the mighty Sultanate of Johor or Johor-Riau, based on Bintan island, and was for long considered the center of Malay culture.
But history changed the fate of Riau as a political, cultural or economic center when European powers struggled to control the regional trade routes and took 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 the Sultan of Johor, came under control of the British.
The creation of a European controlled territory in the heart of the Johor-Riau natural boundaries broke the sultanate in 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 basically controlling all territories north of Singapore and the Dutch controlling territories from Riau until Java.
After the European powers withdrew from the region, the new independent governments had to reorganize and find balance after inheriting 400 years of colonial boundaries. Before finding their current status, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Borneo territories struggled and even came into military conflict against each other, and the Riau islands once again found itself in the middle of regional struggle like the Konfrontasi.
But the once strong cultural unity of the region with Riau in the heart of it never returned, and the line drawn by the British in 1819 remained, this time marking the divide between three new countries as of 1965: Singapore, the Malaysian federation in the north, and Indonesia in the South.
It is those new countries, however, which created back unity in the Riau world for the first time after 150 years with the creation of the Sijori Growth Triangle.
But while bringing back some economical wealth to Riau, the Sijori Growth Triangle somewhat further broke the cultural unity within the islands. With Batam island receiving most of the industrial investments and dramatically developping into a regional industrial center, it attracted hundred of thousands of non-malay indonesian migrants, changing forever the demographical balance in the archipelago.
Today the name of Riau merely refers to this administrative region of Indonesia, a free trade zone heavily supported by Indonesian, Singaporean and international investments.
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