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It is difficult for any uninformed reader to make head or tail of the article now. It lacks clarity and is vague regarding which islands are part of the Barat Daya Islands. Also there is a confusion between a restricted sense and a wider sense of what are the Southwestern Moluccas (The Indonesian term "Barat Daya" seems to have a too restricted and obscure sense). Especially, since the article is supposed to talk about the Southwestern Islands of Maluku, perhaps it would be better to do away with the Indonesian term and rename the article Southwestern Moluccas in English. According to the chapter Southwestern Islands (of the Moluccas) in the Periplus Editions guide there are two arc sections within SW Maluku. One goes from Manuk to Damar (the provincial border between Maluku and Northern Maluku cutting across it). And the other arc from Babar to Wetar. If you check Google Earth this is quite apparent. Furthermore the geology of both arc sections differentiates them. The first arc between Manuk and Damar is made up of volcanic islands, the second one between Babar and Wetar consists generally of limestone and low-lying swampy islands. The jumble between administrative and geographic classifications needs resolution. A map needs to be added, as well as a comprehensive list of islands. Whether the SW Maluku connect with or are part of other wider arcs highlights islands that are not part of the SW Maluku area and adds to the confusion. Xufanc (talk) 10:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You are right that it might not be very easy to understand which islands are part of the Barat Daya Islands, and which ones are not. The use of the term southwerstern islands in the article makes it even more complex. After all, "southwestern islands" might also include Leti, Moa, Lakor, the Luang Sermata group and Babar, like the historical Dutch name Zuidwestereilanden does. It seems to me that the original author and the major contributors where writing about the islands in South-West Maluku that are part of the Inner Banda Arc, explicitly excluding the islands that are in the outer arc. Therefore I would suggest we keep on using the name Barat Daya Islands, and we remove the words southwestern islands from the article.
If you have a close look at the map, you can see that there is one arc from the Wetar islands to Banda, via Romang, Damer (pobably written as Damar), Teon, Nila, Serua and [[Manuk]. Because I am not sure wether Teon, Nila and Serua are to be considered part of the Barat Daya Islands or not, I have removed the statement that the Islands are part of the Maluku Barat Daya Regency.
I believe it would be a good idea to start another article about the political region Kabupaten Maluku Barat Daya as well. Then we can start this article with the sentence: "This article is about the Moluccan island group Barat Daya Islands. For the political region in South-West Maluku see Maluku Barat Daya (kabupaten).", or something like that.
The Periplus Adventure Guide, which Xufanc mentions, refers to them as the South Western Islands in a 3-page section of the book (confusingly as part of a larger chapter on "Southeast Maluku"), as does the book's main map of the Maluku. I haven't found mention of the term "Barat Daya" in the book. --Merbabu (talk) 13:03, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The name of the chapter in the guide does not sound very strange to me. South-West Maluku is often refered to as "Tenggara Jauh" (Far South-East in English.) Until 1999 the islands were politicaly part of Kabupaten Maluku Tenggara (South-East Maluku Regency). From 1999 to 2008 the South-Western Islands were part of Kabupaten Maluku Tenggara Barat (West South-East Maluku Regency). The islands that are now part of kabupaten Maluku Barat Daya, were once part of the Dutch Indic "Onderafdeeling Zuidwester-eilanden". (See id:Onderafdeeling to see what an Onderafdeeling usede to be.) This can be translated as "Sub-Departement South-Western Islands".
As you can see on this old map, "Kepulauan Barat Daya" is not the same as "South-Western Islands": Kepulauan Leti, the Luang-Sermata group and the [[Babar Islands] are named seperatly. This makes me believe that the statement in the article "The Barat Daya and Banda islands constitute an inner arc" and the statement that was removed today by Xufanc on 15 februari: "and are similarly separated from Kisar Island, the Leti Islands, Sermata Islands and Babar Islands." are in fact correct. --Tjibbe I (talk) 15:03, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The merit of the Periplus Guide is that it classifies well the Maluku islands, helping the reader understanding where the individual islands and subgroups lie. There are articles about certain areas in Maluku missing in Wikipedia, like the islands of Lakor, Moa, the Sermata Islands (Kapala, Luang and Sermata). I don't know which title would be best, but other islands like Kisar Island and the Babar Islands could be mentioned as part of a subgroup of Maluku somewhere in an article about the subregion. It would be very useful for the uninformed reader. Xufanc (talk) 07:26, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Moa and Lakor (beautiful island , I have been there), are part of the Leti Islands. That article could (should) be improved, but the islands are mentioned. The Luang-Sermata group (a.k.a. Mdona Hiera) is indeed missing. --Tjibbe I (talk) 14:25, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
