A few days ago, a member of the Malaysian parliament proposed renaming the South China Sea.
The proposal is fantastic because it would be Malaysia’s way of saying that it rejects China’s completely unjustified claims to claim almost 90% of the South China Sea for itself once and for all.
However, not all of the South China Sea should be renamed, but only the parts that border the relevant maritime states of the South China Sea.
This means that the parts that border Malaysia should indeed be renamed.
Below is a comment on what a correct formulation for this part of the South China Sea should look like.
COMMENT | A PAS MP recently proposed to rename the South China Sea as Laut Melayu or the Malay Sea.
Is this the party’s latest quest to prove they are “defending” Malay rights by going against the name of the sea washing the shores of Tumpat, Kelantan? Maybe this is why its MP, Mumtaz Md Nawi, suggested the name change.
But there is one big problem – it’s not historically accurate. The centre of the Malay world was at Srivijaya (south Sumatra), starting in the 7th century.
Then Malacca inherited this mantle, controlling both sides of the Straits of Malacca. That is a de facto “Malay Sea” that has already been commemorated.
But can the South China Sea be called a Malay lake? Sabah and Sarawak were, and arguably still are, peripheral to the Malay world. A fairer name may be the Malay-Dayak Sea, after the collective name of the Borneo natives.
