The Tanah-Air Concept and Indonesia’s Maritime Nation Aspiration

Abstract

This article analyses the Tanah-Air (Unity of Land-Water) concept conceived by Indonesian founding fathers during its independence period and its centrality in shaping the nation’s maritime outlook. Specifically, using descriptive historical analytical approach, it would like to emphasize the role of intersection of Indonesia’s political culture of national unity (Persatuan Nasional), strategic culture of turning of the ages of Nusantara (Cakra Manggilingan), and geopolitical outlook of archipelago’s heart seas (Segara Nusantara) as the three forming pillars of the Tanah-Air concept. Based on these intersections, it underlines unique contradictions within the Tanah-Air concept between need for unity and oneness of land-sea elements of the Indonesian archipelago and the concentric Javanese philosophy on the sea and its maritime power aspirations. Based on these contradictions and insight of the ‘Tanah-Air’ concept, the article provides a pragmatic view on Indonesia’s current aspiration of moving beyond archipelagic to maritime nation as stipulated in the 2014 Global Maritime Fulcrum Doctrine and 2017 Sea Policy Whitepaper.