Changing Malay relationships with the Bugis, Orang Laut, and Orang Asli in the development of the Malay world - Articles

This article examines the historical entanglements among Malays, Bugis, Orang Laut (sea people), and Orang Asli (indigenous people), revealing a dynamic maritime world shaped by mobility, kinship, and political negotiation. Drawing on archival sources and regional historiography, it foregrounds the roles of marginalized communities—particularly the Orang Laut and Orang Asli—in sustaining trade networks and ecological knowledge crucial to Malay polities. The Bugis, meanwhile, emerge as diasporic agents who strategically embedded themselves in courtly structures. By tracing these shifting alliances and identities, the essay challenges linear narratives of Malay state formation and highlights the fluid, contested nature of ethnic and political boundaries in the region. It argues for a more inclusive historical lens that recognizes collaboration, resilience, and the layered textures of Southeast Asian pasts.

The historical interaction of the Malays with the Bugis, Orang Laut, and Orang Asli has been important in the development of Malaysia. While current attitudes have elevated the status of the Bugis, the Orang Laut and the Orang Asli have been marginalized and criticized as obstacles to modernity. Yet there was a time in the not too distant past when the Malays treated both the Orang Laut and the Orang Asli with respect and honoured them with titles in order to retain their loyalty. This article provides a historical context to explain the early mutually beneficial arrangements of the Malays with the other three ethnic communities, and how such mutually beneficial arrangements with the Orang Laut and the Orang Asli were gradually undermined.

The Bugis

In South Sulawesi, an Indonesian province in the southwest peninsula of the island (Map 1), are communities who identify themselves as Bugis. They belong to separate polities identified by their distinctive origin traditions that explain the presence of their rulers, sacred priests, and regalia. Simply being Bugis did not assure a common purpose, as was demonstrated in the Makassar War of 1666–1669, when the Bugis state of Wajo joined the rival ethnic Makassarese twin kingdoms of Gowa and Tallo against a Dutch–Bugis alliance. The eventual defeat of Wajo and the Makassarese led to an exodus of combatants on both sides and even entire villages to various parts of maritime Southeast Asia, including the Malay peninsula. The Dutch simply called all refugees from South Sulawesi “Bugis”, though they included Makassarese and another less well-known seafaring ethnic group, the Mandarese (Andaya, 1981).

Map 1 Island World Southeast Asia with inset of South Sulawesi

As in their homeland, the diasporic Bugis communities were rarely unified but represented rival groups, such as the Selangor Bugis against the Riau Bugis, or the Wajo Bugis against the Linggi Bugis. Adding to this complexity were more recent Bugis arrivals from South Sulawesi since the mid-eighteenth century who maintained strong ties to the homeland and continued to speak Bugis, a language that had been displaced by Malay among most of the early Bugis diasporic groups. While the various Bugis alliances were expressed in political terms, the basic cause of conflict was the control of tin, a natural resource highly coveted in the world market and found in abundance on the west coast states of the Malay peninsula and on the islands of Bangka and Belitung.

The turmoil caused by the assassination of Sultan Mahmud Syah of Johor in 1699 enabled the diasporic Bugis communities to emerge as a powerful force in the Malay world. The Bendahara family had claimed the Johor throne after the death of the ruler, but many among the Malays and the Orang Laut refused to serve the new dynasty. The situation was exacerbated by the appearance of Raja Kecil, a Minangkabau with links to the Minangkabau royal family in Pagar Ruyong in the highlands of central Sumatra, who claimed to be the posthumous son of the murdered Johor ruler. With these rumours quickly spreading in the Straits, many disaffected Malays and Orang Laut joined Raja Kecil’s Minangkabau invasion fleet that seized Johor in 1718. The exiled Bendahara family then sought to reclaim the Johor throne by seeking help from a sizeable Bugis diaspora community on Siantan. The Bugis only agreed to the request for military assistance on the condition that if successful the Bendahara family would share power with them (Netscher, 1870).

After Raja Kecil was defeated by the Malay–Bugis alliance in 1722, the Bugis proceeded to assert their power-sharing arrangement by organizing a series of marriages between Bugis leaders and Malay princesses, as well as between lesser Bugis chiefs and women of lower Malay officials. New institutions were then created, combining aspects of Bugis and Malay political positions. The Malay office of Raja Muda (“young ruler”, i.e. heir apparent) was retained but transformed to resemble the Bugis position of Tomarilaleng Lolo, a powerful official in the Bone court, through whom all important matters had to be cleared. The name means literally “the younger [second in command] person who is placed within [i.e., the court]”, indicating the intimate relations between this official and the ruler (Matthes, 1874). Lolo means “young”, hence the full title was equivalent to the Malay Raja Muda.

This is the reason that the Bugis Raja Muda installed by the Malay king came to be referred to as the Second King with his court on Pulau Penyengat in Riau. Soon after, the Bugis Raja Muda created the post with the Malay title Raja Tua, an office that did not exist in the Malay hierarchy but was an essential Bugis political institution, the Tomarilaleng Matoa (“the Elder”) in support of the Tomarilaleng Lolo. Its role was to ensure the proper administration of land and resources to guarantee the safety and prosperity of the kingdom, similar in function to the Malay office of Temenggung.

The Malay–Bugis

The terms Malay and Bugis reflect historically the many different groups that were best known as subjects of specific lords and polities, not as unified ethnic communities. Within this ever-shifting ethnic composition emerged the hybrid community of the Malay–Bugis who came to exhibit the dynamism and creativity that had been associated with other Asian port cities between 1500 and 1900 (Port Cities, 2016). Each of these groups—Bugis, Malay, and Bugis–Malay—was never a single ethnic community but a shifting, dynamic identity. In the Malay–Indonesian archipelago, the most prominent traders were the Bugis, Malay, and Bugis–Malay. They formed alliances and were fierce economic and political rivals in the western archipelago.

The initial arrival of Bugis to the western archipelago occurred during and after the Makassar War of 1666–1669. They were Bugis speakers and continued to write in the Bugis script. The Tuhfat al-Nafis (“The Precious Gift”), written in the late 19th century by Raja Ali Haji, a Bugis descendant, mentions that there were originally Bugis documents that were found in the Bugis Raja Muda court in Riau but had since disappeared (Raja Ali Haji, 1982). By this time the Bugis were primarily of mixed Bugis–Malay identity, being of Bugis descent but Malay in language and culture. In a treaty imposed on Riau–Johor by the Dutch East India Company or the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) in 1784, a clear distinction was made between local and foreign Bugis in the kingdom. Article 9 of the treaty reads: “He [the Sultan] shall expel all remaining Bugis [from Riau] and never again allow them to return, with the exception of those born in Riau along with their wives and children” (Netscher, 1870).

The distinction between local and foreign Bugis became more apparent in later years as the local Bugis lost the ability to communicate in Bugis and were culturally and ethnically Bugis–Malays. In 1819 the distinction between foreign and local Bugis was already well defined. When the refugee Bugis prince Arung Belawa from Sidenreng in South Sulawesi arrived in the Malay world in 1819, he went directly to Singapore to place himself and his followers under English jurisdiction, rather than join the well-established diasporic Bugis–Malay communities in the area.

The rivalry of the Malay and the Malay–Bugis communities extended beyond the traditional Malay world in and around the Straits of Melaka and extended to areas often perceived as its periphery: the Pulau Tujuh islands in the South China Sea and southwest Borneo. Yet from the 17th to the 19th centuries these “peripheral” areas were a central focus in the rivalry of these communities and played a major role in contributing to ideas of ethnic identity, particularly that of the Malay. Pulau Tujuh acted as a place of temporary refuge for failed princes, who used the local Orang Laut community and the opportunities for piracy along the trade routes of the South China Sea to rebuild their forces for the attempt to reclaim their thrones or former positions in the major centres of the Malay world.

Southwest Borneo provided a challenging political and geographical environment that spawned new ways of thinking of Malay identity. Unlike the major downriver polities, many of these small Malay upriver settlements in southwest Borneo were regarded by the Dutch as indigenous to the area. They were of varying sizes and often shifted locations, but they continued to fulfil the role of collectors of jungle products and suppliers of rice to the downriver kingdoms. In return they received salt, porcelain plates, brass- and ironware, firearms, and prestige beads. They had far more in common in lifestyle and culture with their Dayak neighbours than with the “foreign Malays” on the coast, whom interior Malays referred to as Jawi Laut or “Sea Malays” (Lijnden and Groll, 1851; Andaya 2019).

The Orang Laut and the Malays

The Orang Laut (Sea People) belong to the Austronesian-speaking people of island Southeast Asia with a distinct identity based on a lifestyle focused on the sea and the shore. In a recent study, some archaeologists and linguists have argued that the Orang Laut were far more closely related to their Austronesian land neighbours than previously believed. Early evidence of shared technologies, traditions, styles, and exploited resources suggests that there was ancient maritime interaction dating as far back as 50,000 years Before Present (BP = 1950). The specific category of “sea people” emerged from this larger littoral community to take advantage of major economic opportunities in international trade that arose about the beginning of the Common Era. By relying on new technological skills associated with the sea to profit best from the new trade opportunities, the group developed technical and cultural traits that led to the creation of a new ethnic identity. It was this maritime trade between lands to the east and west of Southeast Asia that enabled the Orang Laut to create a profitable economic niche and attain a respectable social status in the Malay world up to the early 19th century (Bellina et al., 2021).

Portuguese depiction of a Malay and Javanese couple.
Source: Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario. Colour was added by the Dutch publishers to attract well-to-do patrons.

The primary impetus for the emergence of the Orang Laut identity was the maritime international east–west trade. It was an ancient maritime route involving lands from the horn of Africa, the Middle East, and India in the west; and China, Ryukyu, Japan, and Korea in the east. It was a long and perilous journey that involved navigating through the Straits of Melaka and the southern end of the South China Sea to reach their ultimate destination. The Straits were at the mid-way point of this trade trajectory and favoured as a place to rest and refit ships for the onward journey. With high mountain ranges along the spine of the island of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, the Straits were protected from the strong annual northeast and southwest monsoon winds, making any port along the Straits an ideal refuge to await the change of monsoon.

The Malays—the major ethnic community along the Straits—seized the opportunity to create ports and eventually entrepots, where international shippers could not only repair, refit, and recuperate, but also exchange their goods with other traders. The ability to obtain desired trade products in the entrepot itself marked an important turning point. Long-distance traders halved their journey by obtaining the desired goods at the Malay entrepots before sailing home on the appropriate monsoon winds. Adding to the appeal of the international market at the entrepot were Southeast Asian sea and forest products collected and brought by Orang Laut ships. Wang Dayuan (c. 1349 of the Common Era), writing about the site of Banzu on Singapore Island, reported that the Chinese from here took Chinese ceramics to the Riau archipelago, where they were exchanged for sea products. Because the Orang Laut were the primary collectors and traders of sea products in the western archipelago, the local traders were very likely Orang Laut. Wang Dayuan mentions that Singapore then had connections to the Pulau Tujuh archipelagos in the South China Sea (now part of the Province of Riau) and the Riau archipelago, two areas then dominated by the Orang Laut (Rockhill, 1915).

The Malay entrepot states became proficient in dealing with this trade by providing facilities for the repair and building of ships, underground storage facilities, fixed and trustworthy weights and measures, just laws, and arbitration in trade disputes under a syahbandar, or harbour master. With such accommodating entrepots, international trade thrived in the Straits, bringing economic wealth and social status to the Orang Laut. The economic arrangement between the Malay entrepot states and the Orang Laut became even more valuable to the former when the Orang Laut proved essential as guardians of the sea lanes to protect and guide—or force—international shippers to Malay harbours (Andaya, 2008).

Javanese ship typical of the native Southeast Asian ship with kajang mat sails, wooden anchors, and what appears to be double lateral or quarter rudders.

Source: Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario. Colour was added by the Dutch publishers to attract well-to-do patrons.

The Negara Selat (“Realm of the Straits”) is the home waters of the Orang Laut and consists of the islands, straits, and seas in the Riau–Lingga archipelagos (including the islands off southwest Borneo); both shores of the Straits; and the lower reaches of the rivers that flow into the Straits. The many hidden shoals and reefs that dot these archipelagos were a constant danger to ships. Knowledge of the currents, winds, islands, and submerged rocks and sandbanks in their home waters gave the Orang Laut an advantage over far superior forces. The strong current from the South China Sea flowing to the northeast of Batam Island splits into two, moving westerly through the Singapore Straits and southward through the Riau Straits. Ships sailing on these currents became prey to Orang Laut groups operating in teams, particularly in the Bolang Straits, although there were many areas in the islands south of Singapore that provided ideal conditions for Orang Laut attacks on passing ships (Schot, 1882).

In addition to the treacherous maritime conditions south of the Straits, other dangers faced ships intending to reach the capital cities of the Malay entrepot state that were earlier based in southeast Sumatra on the Musi River in Palembang and on the Batang Hari River in Jambi. The latter river was difficult to locate because of the absence of any prominent landmark and because its mouth was divided into a number of tributaries flowing through the marshy delta. Only two of these tributaries allowed large ships to enter, and great skill and knowledge of the river were necessary to navigate through the many sandbanks that lay close to the surface. Equally difficult were the conditions on the Musi River.

The Orang Laut fulfilled this vital need for pilots to guide foreign and regional traders through this watery maze to the entrepots. Their villages were strategically built at the river mouths to conduct foreign trading vessels upriver, as well as to warn the capital of any enemy incursions (Andaya, 1993). The Negara Selat was the waterway most frequently used by international maritime east–west traders to sail through Southeast Asia in the first 1800 years of the Common Era. With their intimate knowledge of this seascape, the Orang Laut were sought as allies by Malay entrepot states in order to profit from this lucrative commercial traffic.

The slow demise and marginalization of the Orang Laut in the Malay entrepot states began in the early 18th century with the emergence of the Bugis and Bugis–Malays in government. The situation worsened further in the 19th century when the British extended their control into the Malay peninsula and Singapore, and introduced an export economy based on tin and plantation crops. Straits produce, including previously valuable woods, which had made the Orang Laut an important economic force for the Malays, was now displaced by the new economy. In time, Malays no longer recalled their former mutually beneficial relationship with the Orang Laut and simply viewed them as shy and backward people. The final humiliation occurred in the 20th century in Malaysia when the Orang Laut were subsumed under the Orang Asli identity.

The Orang Asli and the Malays

The interior of the Malay peninsula is home to numerous groups distinguished from the Malays by their nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles. They have been conventionally grouped into three broad divisions of Semang or Negrito, Senoi, and Orang Asli Melayu, each representing a spectrum. The Semang are mainly involved in foraging, the Senoi in swidden agriculture and some trade and trapping, and the Orang Asli Melayu in subsistence farming or fishing but primarily in collection and trade in forest and marine products (Benjamin, 2002). In the past they were referred to by distinctive names or more generally by the areas where they lived or where they harvested the resources. Only in the 20th century was the term Orang Asli (indigenous people) applied to all such groups as an administrative convenience.

While the term has come to convey marginality and backwardness, this was not always the case in the long history of intercourse between the Orang Asli and Malays. The complementarity of their economic functions encouraged the maintenance of their differing lifeways. The individual interior groups were the principal collectors of forest products in demand in the international marketplace, while the Malays provided the facilities for international trade that brought the iron, salt, cloth, ceramics, and other basic commodities and prestige goods desired by the Orang Asli communities. The trade of the Orang Asli was mediated through the Orang Laut, who penetrated to the interior areas by following the rivers. The Orang Laut provided the foreign goods in demand among the Orang Asli, and in exchange carried the forest products to the entrepot of their Malay ally.

By the late 19th century, however, the ancient relationship that extended back to prehistoric times began to erode. In the first millennium and a half of the Common Era, strong international demand for forest products encouraged the coastal Malay polities to enlist the services of the Orang Asli, whose detailed knowledge was needed to locate the varieties of rattan, resin-bearing trees, and aromatic gaharu wood. Collecting gaharu wood was particularly difficult because not all trees contained the fragrant diseased core that was used for perfumes and incense. Determining which tree contained the aromatic core and the most effective method of collection formed part of the Orang Asli’s traditional knowledge that had been transmitted over generations through oral tales. The years of roaming through their lands had given the group a detailed knowledge of the trees and other resources they contained. The Orang Asli became invaluable to the Malay traders and a source of wealth to the kingdom. Those groups living in the Isthmian region proved also valuable as guides and porters in periods when foreign traders for various reasons, such as increasing piracy along the Straits of Melaka, preferred to use the principal trans-peninsular or trans-Isthmian overland routes linking the Bay of Bengal to the Gulf of Siam.

The economic relationship between Malays and Orang Asli was formalized through the appointment of either Malay representatives or the heads of the various Orang Asli groups as the intermediary between the two communities. The Malay rulers dispensed titles and gifts in return for the forest products collected and presented as tribute. Such titles and gestures of royal munificence were received with great pride and reverence, not only for their practical value and prestige, but also because they contained the potent spiritual powers of the Malay ruler.

The Orang Asli were forced to adapt to a changing economic situation in the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to delivering forest products, they were now also employed in extracting tin and gold, performing casual labour, producing food for mining communities, and working in pepper plantations and Malay rice fields. Then in the 19th century the colonial mining and plantation industries were introduced, relegating forest products to a minor role in the overall economy. As the Orang Asli became less important to the Malays, the former fruitful and respectful relationship disappeared. The transformation of the land from forests to agricultural export plantations removed the relevance and value of the Orang Asli as suppliers of highly desired forest products. Pressures of modernity, the nation-state, and the competitive global economy made the lifestyle and economic pursuits of the forest and hill people increasingly irrelevant and undervalued among the Malays (Razha Rashid, 1995). Orang Asli reluctance to embrace Islam and to abandon their foraging and shifting agricultural lifestyle confirmed the Malay view that they lacked “civilization”. This is the dominant perception in Malay and foreign accounts from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Malays then began to marginalize the Orang Asli as economic partners and as human beings.

The shift in attitude was reflected in the growing scorn and contempt with which the Malays began to treat the Orang Asli. Their way of life, dress, and even their physical bodies became objects of ridicule. Contributing further to the weakening position of the Orang Asli was the influx in the late 19th century of Chinese and European capital for the development of the tin, rubber, palm oil, and timber industries. Orang Asli lands were viewed as uninhabited and undeveloped and were often seized to accommodate the new industries. The Malays then began to regard the Orang Asli lifestyle as an impediment to the country’s economic and social development. The earlier, more amenable, relations between the two groups were conveniently forgotten in the drive towards modernity (Andaya, 2008).

Conclusion

In tracing the historical relationships between Malays, Bugis, Orang Laut, and Orang Asli, this article has discussed an interconnected world shaped by trade, kinship, and adaptive political alliances. Far from being peripheral, the Orang Laut and Orang Asli were central to the economic and ecological foundations of Malay polities, while the Bugis leveraged diasporic networks to embed themselves in courtly power. Over time, however, colonial and postcolonial forces redefined these communities—elevating some, erasing others, and recasting fluid identities into rigid hierarchies.

By recovering these layered histories, we not only challenge dominant narratives of Malay modernity but also honour the diverse actors who sustained it. The past, as shown here, is not a static inheritance but a dynamic terrain of collaboration, contestation, and cultural resilience.