Archiva Journal Volume 1, No.1 (Januari. 2020, PP 18-29) https://pusdiklat.anri.go.id/jurnal/ ROLE OF ARCHIVES IN THE TERRITORIAL BOUNDARY DISPUTES Sumrahyadi The National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI), Jakarta Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract This study descriptively discusses the role of archives in the territorial boundary disputes. Territorial boundary, nowadays, become complicated problems not only in some districts or provinces but also among some countries. In many cases, districts or municipalities as well provinces claim other areas or regions to increase their income or to explore resources for their wealth. Similarly, in some countries, they claim other areas or islands as their belonging. To anticipate the possibility of law from other countries, they should be supported by records and archives as sources of authentic information and legal evidence. From the experience of losing Sipadan and Ligitan islands to be part of Malaysian territory and other national cases, once again, we need to document all activities well and provide records and archives as authentic evidence as a proof of the existence of areas or islands. Keywords: Islands, Borders, Territorial boundary, Archives. INTRODUCTION Territorial or regional boundaries became a hot topic for regions or countries that bordered directly with other regions or countries, both in the form of the land, sea or even the island became a conflict-prone area. If the border or island has high economic value with a source of income for a particular region or a source for increasing regional sources of revenue, especially for border disputes between provinces or between regencies/cities. For regional scale, for example, the case of Spratly Island’s ownership claims between several countries in Southeast Asia and countries in East Asia, where each of them tried to control each other even started using military force. Similarly, mutual claims were also made by Japan and China against an uninhabited island suspected of containing natural wealth in the form of oil and natural gas. What's interesting is that the two disputing countries named the island by two different names. Japan called the island Senkaku Island, while China called it Diaoyu island where the two countries threatened each other with military force. For example, China deployed ships the largest patrol 18 | Page Archiva Journal Volume 1, No.1 (Januari. 2020, PP 18-29) https://pusdiklat.anri.go.id/jurnal/ from the East China Sea with sophisticated technology and capable of transporting helicopters (okezone.com, December 14, 2011). The dispute of territorial border also aroused in the Southeast Asian region, for example, the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, which mutually maintain areas where there are places of worship, with each country trying to defend with military force. The seizure of an area of approximately 4.6 Km2 at the site of the Preah Viehar Temple site is designated as an area belonging to Cambodia, but access to the temple is Thai territory. Military force occurred several times when the fighting on February 4 - 7, 2011 had killed 18 people (Kompas, January 25, 2012: 11). Even among other ASEAN member countries, conflicts over territorial conflicts and island disputes such as Batu Puteh Island are disputes between Malaysia and Singapore, or Sabah is a dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines. The claim of the territorial border also happened between Indonesia and the neighboring country of Malaysia. After a few years ago Indonesia was defeated in defending two islands (Sipadan and Ligitan), which were declared by the International Court of Malaysia as the territory of Malaysia because the documentary evidence presented by Malaysia was more complete than the evidence from Indonesia. Similarly, the case of Karang Unarang and the Ambalat region which had heated up a few years ago, and finally the Camar Bulan area and Tanjung Datu area of West Kalimantan which had been stirred up. Only later was there an explanation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that there was indeed a shift and natural destruction (abrasion) and there was no intentional shift from the two warring parties, and once again it was emphasized that it was not annexation by Malaysia. The border agreement was entered into between the UK and the Netherlands in 1892, then in 1915, and 1928 and finally in 1978 governing the border area between the two regions (Kompas.com, 25 January 2012). The above delineation shows that border dispute cases not only involve Indonesia and Malaysia, but there were certain regions or islands that involved in areas of dispute, for example, the Nipa Island case between Indonesia and Singapore, Sekatung Island (Natuna area) and Kondor Island between Indonesia and Vietnam, Kisar Island between Indonesia and East Timor Leste, and later what became warm again was Palmas Island (Miangas) between Indonesia and the Philippines. So prone to boundaries between countries, that the former Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, General TNI Djoko Santoso explicitly stated that approximately 92 outermost islands, which became the basic point in setting the territorial borders of the Republic of Indonesia, 12 of them had potential conflicts with other nations (Kompas, January 19 | Page Archiva Journal Volume 1, No.1 (Januari. 2020, PP 18-29) https://pusdiklat.anri.go.id/jurnal/ 13, 2010: 5). Some of the 12 islands mentioned above include Rondo Island, Sekatung, Berhala, Nipa, Marore, Miangas, Marampit, Fani, Fanildo, Brass, Batek, and Dana Island. The geographical location of the 12 outer islands is illustrated in the following Map. (Source: National Border Management Agency, the Republic of Indonesia, BNPP) Figure 1. Territorial Boundary Outer Islands Considering the importance of the issue of the border region, thus the government must form a special Non-Ministry Ministry called the National Border Management Agency (BNPP). This institution is expected to function as the spearhead in managing borders not only by monitoring regional boundaries such as the possibility of shifting stakes but also concerning other issues. Indeed, this border case once again not only involves the international world but regionally in certain regions such as some of the examples above or even nationally became an interesting topic, especially after the era of regional autonomy was touted. Each region is trying to increase its regional revenue by trying to control or claim other regions. For example, Banten via Tangerang claims around 22 islands in the Thousand Islands become its territory because of its geographical location adjacent to Tangerang. Then, finally, the conflict over the Berhala Island between Jambi Province and Riau Islands Province (formerly, part of the Riau Province), which was then decided by the Ministry of Regional Affairs to be part of Jambi as the owner. It seems that there will be many cases of border disputes both between countries, between provinces or between districts/cities. Referring to the above cases that need to be examined is the border, especially with other countries and regions that have the potential for conflict, because if conflict is only 20 | Page Archiva Journal Volume 1, No.1 (Januari. 2020, PP 18-29) https://pusdiklat.anri.go.id/jurnal/ between provinces or between regencies nationally it is not too much of a problem anyway but it is still part of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia, but if conflicts between countries if not supported by documents and written evidence, some islands or territory of Indonesia will be controlled by other countries. Therefore to maintain the territorial integrity of the province, district, city or even the territory of the Republic of Indonesia, especially in border areas and island ownership, archival support, for example, for data collection on the number and naming of islands in Indonesia needs to be supported by authentic evidence in the form of archives and reported to the world body as proof of legal ownership. Evidence of the agreement between Indonesia and other countries regarding territorial boundaries, continental shelves, sea boundaries, and other boundaries remains in place so that the evidence is not lost. Thus, the archive support is needed to maintain ownership of a certain area. Based on this, this study will explore in-depth the border cases and regional conflicts that were won because the archive support is more complete and accurate. Once again, this study focuses on archival support as recorded information in dealing with border dispute cases. The analysis is carried out with a literature review that looks at several issues with the availability of complete and accurate records so that the case of a claim for ownership can be won. In the next part of this article, the theoretical basis for territorial dispute cases will be discussed in Section 2. Section 3 highlights the method of the study, followed by the discussion and findings in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper. THEORETICAL BASIS Definition of Island Understanding and definition of the island still seems to be a heated debate so that the data on the number of islands owned by Indonesia is also changing, for example, according to Gayo (2008), the number of islands in Indonesia was 18,510, while other versions said there were 17,508 islands, and the latest data based on a geographic and topographic survey in 2010 led by the Geospatial Information Agency (Kurniawan et al., 2017) stated that there were 13,466 islands in Indonesia. The number 17,508 based on previous data is due to burnt included as an island. Burnt is, basically, a dune or coral reef that appears during low tide and sinks during high tides. The understanding of the island according to the United Nations is objected that is still visible during high tides (Kompas, February 8, 2012). Meanwhile, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which is part of the United Nations, said that 21 | Page Archiva Journal Volume 1, No.1 (Januari.