Bintan Island, traditionally known as Negeri Segantang Lada, is an island in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. It is part of the Riau Islands province, the capital of which, Tanjung Pinang, lies in the island's south and is the island's main community.

The land area of the island of Bintan is roughly . Its administrative region is designated the Bintan Regency, one of the six administrative regencies of the Riau Islands province. The city of Tanjung Pinang is an autonomous area geographically within Bintan Island but not included in the Regency. 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.

Singapore, the closest major city, is roughly an hour trip by motorised ferry across the Singapore Strait from the Bintan Resort area in the northwest of the island. The island is predominantly rural, but has beaches with beach-front hotels and resorts; the most prominent of these beaches is the Bintan Resorts set over an area of of tropical environment. The archipelago of the Riau islands is right opposite to this resort across the South China Sea. Indonesia is promoting Bintan as the next best tourist destination after Bali.

History

thumb|right|Tanjung Pinang in Bintan

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 have 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 the mid-16th century, the Sultan of Johor-Riau kingdom had moved their kingdom between Johor, Riau and Lingga. 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 Song dynasty (960–1127). 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 do not 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".

Bintan first 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.

Geography and climate

Bintan, is the largest among the 3,200 islands of Riau Archipelago and is located east of the Batam Island. It has a coast line of and has rolling topography in its landform. The Riau Islands are a province of Indonesia, which encompassed the Riau Archipelago, Natuna Islands, Anambas, and Lingga Islands; in July 2004 the islands of Riau were divided from the existing Riau Province to form the new province with its capital at Tanjung Pinang. The archipelagos of Anambas and Natuna, located between mainland Malaysia and Borneo, are now part of this province

thumb|left|300px|Map of Bintan

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.

right|thumb|Bintan ferry terminal

Several daily ferries run between Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal of Singapore to the Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal on the northern part of the Island in Bintan resorts and also at the Sri Bintan Pura Ferry Terminal at Tanjung Pinang, the capital of the Indonesian province of Riau Islands covering a distance of in about 45 minutes. The airport is domestic only (no international flights) - Bintan's Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport (IATA: TNJ, ICAO: WIDN).

Bintan is very close to the Equator. Hence, tropical climate is dominant all through the year with two distinct seasons namely the northeast monsoon from November to March and a dry southwest monsoon from June to October with the annual rainfall precipitation incidence varying in the range . The island has an "insular character" with a constant temperature averaging at . The temperatures reported vary between and .

Demographics

Though a large island compared to all other islands in the Riau archipelago, it is sparsely populated. As the Dutch ruled over the islands for a long period, their influence is distinctly discerned in the island. The population of Bintan Island is about 371,270 in 2020 (excluding the population of neighbouring island groups lying within Bintan Regency), 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 foothold to go to Singapore. In the capital city of Tanjung Pinang, the urban population had jumped from 98,871 in 1998 to 187,359 in 2010, and by 2020 had reached 227,663.

Economy and development

thumb|right|Bintan Agro Beach Resort

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 (25 July 1990), a coordinating team was set up for the Riau 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. 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 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 ("Bintan Resort") for Singaporeans. An area of had been allocated to this project, which was further divided to 20–30 projects – for hotels and resorts and sports facilities. Further, the Bintan Lagoon and Beach Resorts, designed exclusively for wealthy tourists, have been planned with "two 18-hole championship golf courses with superlative accommodation". This resort area has an 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.

Under the industrial sector, the identified fields for development are mining of Bauxite (Bauxite reserve is 15.88 million tons), kaolin, granite, white sand and tin. The government of Indonesia has also planned the petroleum industry with its subsidiary industry of manufacture of plastics in Bintan.

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. But there have been some delays in the construction of the Bintan Lagoi residential area.

In 2016, over 600,000 tourists visited Bintan Island and most of them came from Singapore, Korea and Japan. 75 percent of foreign tourists came by ferry from Singapore, while domestic tourists mainly came by airplanes to the recently opened Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport 35 minutes from Bintan Resort, whereas the current Tanjung Pinang airport is 90 minutes away.

Water resources

Water resources of the Bintan have been exclusively planned by identifying an area of for the purpose which also includes the catchment of the water source and its forest areas.

Infrastructure

thumb|right|Main road leading to Bintan Resort

To meet the large developmental programme launched for the Bintan island, creation of modern infrastructure facilities began in 1991 itself with an investment of US$170 million. Since the island was approachable only by ferrying, priority was given to develop the Ferry terminal at Bandar Bentan Telani. There are now three Ferry Terminals (Sea Ports) and two Cargo Sea Ports with capacity of 10,000 to 12000 gross weight ton. Bintan now has an airport known as Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport. Garuda Indonesia has plans to build a new airport hub on the island as a stop gap measure for Jakarta, and to compete with Lion Air's new hub at Hang Nadim International Airport on neighboring Batam. One issue however is the region is saturated with airport capacity while land is scarce, as Singapore Changi Airport and Johor Bahru Senai International Airport are nearby.

Road within the island was also started and the first stretch of the , the east west arterial road was completed (out of the stretch planned in the ultimate stage). Branch roads were also built to land parcels allotted for resort development. There is also road connections to nearby towns such as Kijang. Within each land area allocated, the resort agencies constructed their own internal road network. Drinking water facilities were also created by constructing a reservoir of 5 million litres and a service reservoir of 1.5 million litres for supply to a water treatment plant. From this plant, potable water supply system has been created to all the resort areas. Electricity supply is also ensured through a Power generating plant of 18 MW plant with capacity to upgrade to 24 MW. Within each resort area water and power supply connections to the resorts are done by the resort agencies. The potable water that is supplied meets the WHO standards. Sewage Treatment is done in all the resorts through modular Sewage treatment plants. The recycled effluent is put to use for irrigation. Another important civic amenity attended is the disposal of solid waste. The solid waste is collected from the resorts. It is systematically disposed in a centralized sanitary landfill site. There are 15 banks, 7 hotels and 6 golf courses. Telecommunication Service facility available is the International Net Work.

Bintan Island was one of the locations where turtles were found in large numbers; in the 1950s, during the nesting season, at least 2 nests used to be found every day on the coastline of Bintan Resorts. Now, the nests are not found as frequently as in the past. Turtle tracks, nests, eggs, and egg shells have been recorded during patrol surveys conducted during specified periods, not only in Bintan but also in the Pasir Pasan beach. In the Bintan Resort's nestling beaches hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) have been recorded. Research and Development Department and Environmental & Health Division of Bintan Resort are encouraged by their patrolling efforts and they are confident that sea turtle nests would be protected on Bintan and also conserved in local villages. On the northeast end of the island many ancient Islamic relics are seen. The Malay and the Bugis, to attain peace in the region, had cemented their relationship by establishing marital ties. Raja Ali Haji, who was the Bugis commander of Bintan and acclaimed as the hero of his people, married his daughter to Sultan Mahmud Shah of Malacca. The island was gifted to his daughter, Raja Hamidah. This union established peace between the Malay and the Bugis. Following this, a grand mosque (see infobox) called the Masjid Raya was built on the island (over 170 years old), which can be seen from Tanjung Pinang. A monument by the seaside that commemorates Raja Ali Haji, who sacrificed his life for his people against the Dutch, is also seen on the beach. Hakka ethnic people and Indo-Malays reside here. Another historical fact is that in 1819 the Penyangat-based sultanate cooperated with Sir Stamford Raffles to handover Singapore in exchange for British Military protection.

Banyan Tree Temple

Banyan Tree Temple, a temple about 100 years old, is visited by the local Chinese community and Singaporeans. It is located in Senggarang town.

Bintan Resorts, located at the northern part of Bintan is delimited between and and covers an area of . Many of the resorts are Internationally (e.g. ClubMed) or Singaporean owned as the island is marketed to Singaporeans for whom Bintan is a short ferry trip away, an easy weekend trip and a golf mecca with prices significantly cheaper than in Singapore. There are many other resorts around the main island of Bintan in private islands that can be booked as a unit for groups or individually. Hotels and shops are priced in Singapore or US dollars at similar prices you would pay in Singapore.

References

  • Bintan Directory