KOLONIALISASI RUANG MARITIM: TRANSFORMASI SEKTOR PERIKANAN DI BORNEO UTARA, 1914-1936

COLONIALISING MARITIME SPACE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE FISHERIES SECTOR IN NORTH BORNEO, 1914-1936

Abstract

Artikel ini menganalisis transformasi sektor perikanan di Borneo Utara antara tahun 1914 hingga 1936 melalui kerangka kolonialisasi ruang maritim. Tahun 1914 dipilih sebagai titik permulaan kerana penggubalan Boats and Fisheries Ordinance No. 10 of 1914 menandakan penginstitusian yang lebih sistematik terhadap pengurusan perahu, alat menangkap ikan dan kegiatan perikanan oleh British North Borneo Company (BNBC). Tahun 1936 pula digunakan sebagai batas analisis untuk menilai tahap kematangan dan ketegangan sistem pengawalseliaan tersebut selepas pengenalan Credit to Natives (Restriction) Ordinance 1934 dan perbahasan berhubung pengecualian lesen perahu kecil pada 1935, sebelum pindaan perundangan pada penghujung dekad 1930-an. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan sejarah secara kualitatif melalui penelitian terhadap rekod pentadbiran BNBC, British North Borneo Herald, North Borneo Central Archives, ordinan kolonial serta karya sekunder mengenai sejarah perikanan, komuniti Bajau dan perkembangan ekonomi kolonial Borneo Utara. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa BNBC tidak mentransformasikan sektor perikanan melalui pelaburan langsung dalam pengeluaran, tetapi melalui empat mekanisme utama, iaitu pengawalseliaan dan pengukuhan kawalan pentadbiran terhadap ruang maritim, penjanaan hasil kolonial daripada kegiatan perikanan, kapitalisasi dan penyusunan semula hubungan pengeluaran serta pengawalan mobiliti masyarakat maritim.. Kajian ini juga mendapati bahawa transformasi tersebut bukan sekadar proses pemodenan ekonomi, tetapi satu proses kolonialisasi ruang maritim apabila laut, perahu, teknologi, modal, tenaga kerja dan hasil tangkapan semakin dimasukkan ke dalam kerangka undang-undang, pentadbiran, hasil dan pasaran kolonial. Perubahan tersebut memperlihatkan peralihan daripada penguasaan sumber kepada penguasaan sistem maritim.

This article examines the transformation of the fisheries sector in North Borneo between 1914 and 1936 through the analytical framework of the colonialisation of maritime space. The year 1914 is selected as the starting point because the enactment of the Boats and Fisheries Ordinance No. 10 of 1914 marked a more systematic institutionalisation of the management of boats, fishing gear, and fishing activities by the British North Borneo Company (BNBC). The year 1936 is used as the analytical endpoint to assess the maturity and emerging tensions of this regulatory system following the introduction of the Credit to Natives (Restriction) Ordinance 1934 and the 1935 debate over exemptions for small boats, prior to further legislative amendments at the end of the 1930s. This study adopts a qualitative historical approach based on an examination of BNBC administrative records, the British North Borneo Herald, documents from the North Borneo Central Archives, colonial ordinances, and secondary works on fisheries history, Bajau communities, and the colonial economy of North Borneo. The findings show that the BNBC did not transform the fisheries sector through direct investment in production, but through four principal mechanisms: regulation and the strengthening of administrative control over maritime space, the generation of colonial revenue from fishing activities, the capitalisation and restructuring of production relations, and the control of maritime community mobility. The study further argues that these changes represented more than a process of economic modernisation. Rather, they constituted a process of colonialising maritime space in which the sea, boats, technology, capital, labour, and catches were progressively incorporated into colonial legal, administrative, revenue, and market structures. This transformation marked a significant shift from the direct control of resources to the control of the wider maritime system.