Knowledge of history contributes to understanding the present. Looking at Indonesia's history solely from changes and developments progressing on land has resulted in a rather unbalanced or lopsided knowledge and view of the past. Thus, each writing of history with the pretension or with aspirations towards a sense of national history can only be considered incomplete, when in a nation that in truth is both land and sea bound, only land related elements are taken into account and prioritized.

There have been plenty allusions which quote Van Leur's statement that Indonesian history should not only beseen from the deck of a Dutch ship or a VOC' fortification, as was done by many Dutch writers of that epoch. In studying Indonesian history, one should use an approach from within, or (to borrow a term from Resink) use an approach which is Indonesia-centric. In reality though, attempts to approach the archipelago's history from a nationally subjective viewpoint has tended to be more of a "hinterland" approach, often forgetting that a national perspective of Indonesia's history is an approach where the view from the deck of native boats and seaports should not be ignored.