By Khor, Kok Kheng written on 19-Feb-2009
National Library Board Singapore

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Pulau Berkas is a small island flung east of Pulau Pawai, and north of Pulau Senang, a part of the most southerly group of the southern islands. 'Pulau' is Malay for island or an isolated piece of rising ground in the sea.  The word 'berkas' is suggestive for it carries, apart from the older definitions of 'a tied bundle',  'a bale of otherwise disconnected objects', and 'a bundle (of firewood, antlers)', the more modern definitions of 'to round up as criminals' and 'to arrest'. The latter definitions have connotations of crime and outlaw and point to the history of the southern islands as a pirate haunt, bringing to mind the colonial years when piracy was a serious threat to the trade of 19^th century Singapore.

Location
Pulau Berkas is a small island flung east of Pulau Pawai, and north of Pulau Senang, a part of the most southerly group of the southern islands.  Pulau Pawai and Pulau Senang are within the military live firing zone.

Historical Name
'Pulau' is Malay for island or an isolated piece of rising ground in a sea. The word 'berkas' is suggestive for it carries, apart from the older definitions of 'a tied bundle',  'a bale of otherwise disconnected objects', and 'a bundle (of firewood, antlers)', the more modern definitions of 'to round up as criminals' and 'to arrest'.

The modern meanings of 'berkas' seem connected to the history of the islands as a pirate haunt, piracy being a serious problem in the early years after Singapore's founding. Singapore before the British occupation was a nest for pirates, and thereafter the piratical base was transferred to the Karimun islands, from where the roving hordes attacked the trade of the British port.

The Orang Laut, or Sea-Jakun or sea-gypsies, were wandering coast tribes whose permanent dwelling was usually their boats.  Their headquarters were the narrow straits between the islands of the Johor archipelago, defined as consisting of the innumerable islands lying between Singapore and Billiton island, which must certainly include the southern islands of Singapore, Pulau Berkas among them.  The archipelago was thinly peopled by the Orang Laut tribes known collectively as Orang Pe-suku-an, a name which means people divided into tribes.  There were at least 12 of these tribes. When Raffles first landed on Singapore, there was a settlement of Orang Laut a little way up the Singapore River. Some are of the view that the Johor archipelago was peopled by these men of Malayan origin who spent most of their time on the water, and that almost every community of these people was called by a different name, often the name of the locality it occupied for the time being.

It has been suggested that the Orang Laut of Singapore owe their origin largely to the Sakai hill tribes in the Riau-lingga archipelago; that these, whether through pressure of Malay immigration or other causes, took to the sea, and reinforced by mere Malay adventurers, developed into the famous piratical race which under the generic name of Orang Laut became for a time the terror of all who sailed the Eastern seas.  It has been argued that while the evolution of one of the mildest mannered and most timid races on earth into ferocious pirates would appear unaccountable, there arise greater difficulties in explaining the phenomenon if evolution was rejected.



Author
Khor Kok Kheng