We will always be victorious in the Sea

The motto used by the Indonesian Navy is Jalesveva Jayamahe derived from Sanskrit, and can be loosely translated in the sea we are always victorious. This expression has been used since the Majapahit era as a means to motivate its navy, so the strength of our navy since the Majapahit era is indeed worthy of gratitude. 

But success at sea should not be limited to military power, in the economic field, especially in transportation, food and energy issues – we must also be victorious. Here is the guidance taken from The Book of Guidance, namely the Qur’an (huda!) so that we can be successful in the sea.

For a start we can change how we talk about the sea, for example we should change how we view the sea. Instead of saying ‘…separated by the ocean…’, we should say  ‘…connected by the ocean…’. Why is that ? The ocean contains a lot benefits some already discovered, some are still hidden.

The Potential of the Sea

Sea transportation is the cheapest transportation, because ships do not need to climb mountains and go down valleys, all roads on the sea are flat and with minimum friction, fuel becomes the cheapest. The sea is a link, not a divider!

Governments all over the world are trying hard to persuade its citizens to opt for public transportation in order  to reduce congestion. On land people inevitably have to use public transportation in various forms of crossing. On busy days with heavy traffic, the traffic congestion are on land roads, not sea routes.

The Sea and the Quran

Sea transportation is the most mentioned in the Qur’an, there are dozens of verses that discuss it. These verses about ships sailing in the ocean at the same time add to the evidence of the truth of the Qur’an that he is not the composition of Muhammad SAW, because even the 2nd Caliph – Umar bin Khattab- was still reluctant to cross the ocean. Mecca and Medina are far from the sea, while the Qur’an is very much about the sea.

By connecting one island to another by sea, our industry should actually be able to spread to all corners of the country because the transportation of raw materials – as well as their products is cheap – because the transportation costs that should be cheap are mentioned above. At sea, we don’t need toll roads because everything has toll roads, we don’t need to build bridges – because they are not needed.

The Sea as source of food

The second area is food which is our basic need, the ocean should also be the cheapest and most abundant source of food. If farmers still need to work hard with big capital to cultivate the land, plant and maintain their crops until harvest – the sailors don’t need all of this, they just have to harvest whenever they want.

If the meat from farm animals we have to be careful with the halal, the halal animal becomes unclean if the meat is not slaughtered by mentioning His name, even if it has been slaughtered in His name, it can still be haram to eat if it turns out that the halal animal is a nettle animal (which is fed with food). najis), fish from the sea are all halal!

In fact, Allah twice specifically mentions fresh meat or lahman thoriyyan as fish from the sea (Surah 16:14 and 35:12). Indonesia ocean area which reaches 3.5 million km2 or 65% of the entire territory of Indonesia where the land is only 1.9 million km2,

The sea can help mitigate our reliance on meat import, which in addition to its halalness needs to be continuously researched, there is also no guarantee of freshness,

The Sea as source of Energy

In the field of energy and industrial raw materials, it is no less interesting. That the sea is a source of energy, we have been inspired to think about through a short verse – wal bahril masjuur and the sea that contains fire (Qur’an 52:6). Departing from here alone, we will not be able to find a source of fire or energy from the sea.

It can be in the form of wave energy, wind, oil, geothermal and no less interesting is piezoelectricity – which can be produced from crystals whose raw material is sea water that has become salt. 

What has been discovered since two centuries ago is the piezoelectricity of Rochelle salt, and what is currently in the hunt for the most efficient technology is what is called Sodium Potassium Niobate (KNN).

As the name suggests, the largest component of this ‘magic substance’ that produces electricity when pressed or deformed – the raw material is seawater, namely Sodium (Sodium, Na) which is the largest component of seawater besides its own water (H2O).

Imagine when the technology reaches economies of scale, seawater that has been processed into KNN becomes a producer of energy – it becomes an endless source of energy. In contrast to fossil energy – the process occurred millions of years ago, because it is consumed continuously in time it will run out.

Other renewable energy such as bio fuel etc., because it is consumed – it also runs out, although then it can be produced again. Material like KNN is different, in itself it is not consumed – so it is not depleted. 

He generates energy when under pressure or changes form, the energy is then stored and used – then depleted, but when this KNN is pressed again or changes shape again – he quickly generates new energy again, and so on.

Sea a source of mineral

In addition to energy, seawater which contains around 90 minerals is also a raw material for almost all types of industries. In fact, the world’s largest salt market is not eaten by humans, only 6% of sea salt is processed into food grade salt, the largest 68% is for raw materials for various industries.

There are at least 14,000 types of salt used as industrial raw materials, including for the plastic, paper, glass, polyester, rubber, fertilizer, soap, detergent, dye/paint industries, etc. All people in the world live with salt either directly eaten through their food – there is no delicious food without salt, or indirectly using industrial products where one of the raw materials is salt.

So there is only one way for us to be truly Jalesveva Jayamahe – Victorious in the ocean, which is to be grateful that we live on an earth that is almost 2/3 of the area of ​​this ocean. Not only being grateful with words, but of course also with actions – cultivating this abundant resource as fairly as possible. With this gratitude Allah will increase His favors to us .

Muhaimin Iqbal, Chairman, Institute of Bioeconomy Science and Technology

Muhaimin Iqbal is the Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Bioeconomy Science and Technology, Indonesia. He is also the Founder and Chairman of iGrow Resources, Indonesia –  an agriculture resource integrator and market integrator.