Indonesia Malaysia conflicts

VS

Brief History

1960-1966

Hot topic that everyone loves to talk about. Although the conflict had already begun since early 1960 in the era of President Sukarno. "Konfrontasi" is the term referring to the open conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia. The core problem that erupted the conflict was none other than territorial annexation in the island of Borneo (Kalimantan Indo term for the whole island) as the new federation of Malaysia was being established by the Great Britain. Three Great Britain territories located in the island of Borneo are Sabah, Brunei(Britain protectorate bull crap) and Sarawak whereas in South lays the province of Indonesia. Thus the unification of new federation of Malaysia backed by British is hardly opposed by President Sukarno as it may threatened the Independence of Indonesia, Sukarno consider Malaysia as the puppet of Great Britain. The conflict ends in 1966 with the signing of peace treaty and the formal acknowledgment of Malaysia federation.

Current Situation

2000 - Now

Tension raise again between both countries fueled by territorial dispute over the Ambalat block in the north coast of Kalimantan where Indonesia already lost several portion of the block with the lost of Sipadan and Ligitan islands which upsets most of Indonesian. The saga between Malaysia and Indonesia continues it bearish trend; not only territories, Malaysia also claims some of Indonesian cultural richness such as:

• Reog Ponorogo ( traditional dance from Java)

Reog ponorogo dance

• Rasa sayange song ( from Maluku Ambon)
• Batik(textile styling from Java)
• Wayang (traditional puppet from Java)
• Pendet(traditional dance from Bali)

Although all of the self proclaimed heritage ownership by Malaysia has been heavily opposed by many Indonesian real action needs to be done swiftly or else Indonesia may lose their rights again. One noticeable action by the government is the implementation of Batik mark certification issued by Indonesia department of Industry to protect the originality as well as the quality of the Indonesian batik itself. Bloody well done I said!

Batik pattern from Jogja

Closing Point

As a native Indonesian, native Javanese who were born in Surabaya (to emphasize my Indonesian trait) I can't helped but sad and upset. Angry close to boiling point? well yes but not really because somehow in my point of view it's partly our fault as well as an Indonesian.

Why?

• Its been like a habit to us (bad habit) to act reactively rather than proactively. Point proven in this case. All I'm saying is we had like a thousand or maybe a hundred thousand of unique heritage in Indonesia but we never really preserved what we had then we "overhypely" react over the lost of says one song which we Indonesian doesn't really know who wrote this song(rasa sayange).

• Patriotic, seemingly never ending iterations of this words being spread around and use among Indonesian nowadays. Many claims to be so called the most patriotic person in Indo but what have they done? Nothing! we make a lot of noises, we always do but in practice? ZERO. want some real example? we always said bad things about Indonesian products, we never support it, we talk bad about it (Garuda airline, Bata shoes). We also laugh and said bad things when one of our original Nike jersey is made in Indonesia. Why?! I don't care whether anyone will agree with me on this but I seen fact.

In the end by saying patriotic, we should protect, preserve and cherish our national assets, by saying assets that includes our national products, our heritage, our people and our land. Spread all of Indonesian goodness to the world by acting like one. By being angry all the time and doing nothing or event provoke anarchism is just plain stupid and nowhere near patriotic at all. Therefore, as an Indonesian I encourage fellow Indonesian to fight for our rights, not by rage, not by words, but by action of wisdom. Brain over brawl.

Indonesia unite! let's make our country the best place to live!

-R-

Reference

http://www.33ff.com/flags/ (for flag image)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

tugupahlawan.com(reog ponorogo image)

http://www.stratfor.com/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/nl/ (for Batik image)