Dr Kanul says apt name for the sea fronting Borneo island is Borneo Sea

There should be Borneo Sea from now on, says activist Dr Kanul Gindol from Sabah.

Luke Rintod, 28-9-2024

KOTA BELUD : A well-known Sabah activist has suggested that the vast sea on the west side of the Borneo Island should be named the Borneo Sea.

"I suggest Malaysia consider to rename the large part of sea fronting the island of Borneo as the Borneo Sea," he said in a statement issued from Kota Belud today.

He was commenting on suggestions by various observers lately to rename the South China Sea, partly to counterbalance communist China asserting claim to the whole of South China Sea.

Dr Kanul, who worked as journalist before, said for that matter the three Borneo's states of Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak must be in agreement to name such sea as the Borneo Sea.

"If we have Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea and Java Sea, there is no reason a sea-surrounded large island of Borneo can't have a Borneo Sea, at least the vast sea on its western frontage.

"This part of the sea was used to be known in old scripts as Sea of Puni or Poni or Poli, perhaps the Poni referred to Borneo or Brunei," he pointed out.

He further said that this does not discount others from naming the vast sea fronting the Cambodia and Vietnam lands as the Champa Sea.

Dr Kanul is currently a chairman of an NGO, the 

Gindol Initiative for Civil Society Borneo. He is also the Coordinator for North Zone for Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri.#