Nowadays, Indonesia has not been considered as a Maritime State yet this country has a huge potential of maritime resources as an Archipelago State. Bearing the predicate of Maritime State could only be achieved if the government is able to explore the maritime resources using its own capability and not depends on other country. In fact, Indonesia has not fully maximized its effort to develop the potential of maritime resources. In this modern era, Indonesia has no longer maritime culture and maritime character as Majapahit and Sriwijaya Kingdom is truly identical with both of it. On traditional shipping (Pelayaran Rakyat), practically, Pelayaran Rakyat has not been developed well. Even, it almost dies since there is no support from the government by creating regulation that will possibly encourage the role of Pelayaran Rakyat as one of maritime strength. Facing this challenges, UU Pelayaran is supposed tobe put forward in order to strengthen national shipping. Taking a look at the definition of Pelayaran Rakyat, it is said that Pelayaran Rakyat is a small business made by people traditionally. Based on that definition, ?traditional? term refers to ship that should be made by wood and use wind power. Consequently, it becomes a boundary to develop small business that is related to Pelayaran Rakyat. At the end, Pelayaran Rakyat cannot compete with other shipping and is left by the customers because they need speed, safety and reliable transportation for their business.