The Bilateral Relationship Between Malaysia And Indonesia

The relationship between Malaysia and Indonesia is known to be a diplomatic pleasantry among the region with a special relationship of shared values and common cultural traditions originating from the same ancestors. This bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia is considered as one of the most important relationship as Indonesia is ranked fourth in the most populous countries and ranked third for having the largest democracy. This relationship has been built at all levels of interactions in the past years.

Both countries have been interacting for years to have this committed relationship at a level to be called "siblings" at government level, particularly after the Konfrontasi (Konfrontasi or Confrontation, 1963–1966 was Indonesia’s response to the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, arising from the British decolonization process in Southeast Asia which involved bomb attacks, incursions and other subversive acts aimed at destabilizing the states that were to be included in the Federation, namely, Malaya, Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah). However, bilateral ties during the most recent decade have been set apart by contention, bitterness and struggle. Issues related to political, socio-cultural and economical aspects of both countries.

The two countries started having issues in the first decade of the 21st century (Clark, Nov2013). These issues include the hatred caused from the poor treatment of Indonesian workers in Malaysia, strong public reaction to maritime boundary disputes, the cross-border impact of haze from Indonesian forest fires, claims over each country's cultural heritage and the widespread believed that Malaysians regard Indonesians as their poor cousins. Significant to the remainder of these, Ali Alatas, Indonesia's Foreign Minister (1988-1999), in 2007 outlined the view of the relationship hence: "Malaysians are arrogant, Indonesians are jealous'. Konfrontasi was discussed by Jamie Mackie (1974) a previous generation of scholar who was fortunate enough to be in the thick of the action. He has argued that understanding domestic politics is crucial to understanding not only Konfrontasi but also bilateral relationship between the Malaysia and Indonesia. One would tend to

agree with this affirmation, especially in light of the fact that after relations achieved their nadir with Konfrontasi, political ties enhanced with the difference in administration in Indonesia, when Suharto (previous leader of Indonesia) expelled President Mr.Sukarno.

The Malaysian press put forth an admirable attempt to depict Suharto as the absolute opposite in identity of Sukarno. In contrast with Sukarno, who was respected, most importantly, as sporadic, Mr.Sukarno was depicted as humble, delicate, persevering, hesitant. This was trailed by three many years of moderately calm relations between the two nations, with progressively enhanced security and economic cooperation. Accentuation was likewise set on encouraging ASEAN and establishing regional security architecture. Mr. Suharto's New Order of administration was stable enough to renew the spirit of "blood brotherhood" and the close affinity with Malaysia. All things considered, personal relations amongst Mr. Suharto and his Malaysian partner, the furiously eager, Malay Prime Minister Mr. Mahathir Mohamad, were thorny. The two countries became sparring partners in a quest to secure greater regional prestige and economics at the bilateral level of change. The present time frame, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 – 98 and the ensuing departure of Mahathir and Suharto, has been set apart by an attention on financial aspects and military collaboration, including shared maritime security arrangement and joint border exercises.

Bilateral trade doubled and Malaysian investments in Indonesia markedly increased between 2001 and 2005. Likewise, there are numerous more Malaysian vacationers going by Indonesia during the most recent decade, a considerable lot of whom buy a lot of cheap Indonesian products to be sold in Malaysia. In the interim, around 1.2 million Indonesians work in Malaysia, more than any other foreign country. A critical part of Malaysian labor force which is comprised around 70% of all foreign workers in Malaysia are represented by these workers. However, as said prior Malaysia has a record of abuse of Indonesian laborers and many Indonesians despise Malaysia's hateful arrangements towards Indonesian vagrant specialists (Arifianto 2009). In this way it has not all been smooth sailing and the general increase of territorial and additional local associations has been punctuated by sporadic pressures and a lot of exaggerated showing off. However, bilateral ties between the two countries haves generally been marked by acrimony, rivalry and conflict.

In 2009 the Prince of Kelantan was accused for domestic violence towards his Indonesian bride Manohara Odelia Pinot. In the same year, Discovery Channel has featured a series of documentaries and clips on Malaysia featuring the Pendet, a sacred Balinese temple dance performed by a Balinese dancer. According Indonesia this was another attempt by Malaysian to steal the Indonesian culture increasing their anger towards Malaysia. Although Malaysian Minister of Culture and Tourism has sent an apology regarding this matter to Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minister, The cultural heritage claims has yet not been settled, making Malaysian impatient towards Indonesians thus making things more problematic.

The most resent problem that arose in between these two countries was during SEAGame in 2017 known as "flag incident". The Indonesian flag was printed upside down in the opening ceremony guidebook of Sea games which made Indonesian's sports minister to share uneasy feelings in twitter towards Malaysia for this incident. Malaysia's Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has later apologized through twitter regarding this matter, however it was not fully accepted by the Indonesians as they believe an official apology is required in this matter.

These are the obstacles in the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia, however they are still hoping these problems to be resolved bilaterally. One way the other both countries need to realize that they are from the same roots and stop these rivalry games and build up connections instead. Intense interactions between the leaderships and between their societies can lessen this uneasiness. Malaysia should see the positive side of Indonesia and Indonesia needs to the same towards Malaysia for this to work. I think the most important this in a leadership is to pursue better ties between two countries than create enemies. It is important to have a closer relationship between these two countries as they are both founding members of ASEAN and any friction between them could affect the ASEAN community. They need to accept apologies made for the past mistakes and establish a way to resolve any tension that might cause in the future for them to work together.

This is not only important because they are member of ASEAN countries. This has become very important as both countries share a lot more common connections between the citizens than they realize. Let's take education as an example. Around 12,000 Indonesian students are recorded to be studying in Malaysia while there are around 6,000 Malaysian studying in Indonesia. This is a people-to-people relationship going on despite all the problems that has not been solved yet. It is for the future that these two countries need to resolve the problems and start working together for better development of both of the countries.