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| AsiaViews, Edition: 45/VI/February2010 |
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| A Fragile Peace |
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| Thousand of Reog Ponorogo artists protesting againts Malaysia's claim of reog as their traditional art in front of the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta November last year. TEMPO/ARIE BASUKI |
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Countless cross-border disputes still mar the South East Asian archipelago, sparked by a variety of factors, from the historical to cultural, from political to economic. More often than not, they are also fanned by domestic politics of involved states.
Tensions persist particularly among countries that share common frontiers such as Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and East Timor. Some disputes are resolved through peaceful means and treaties while some remain unresolved.
Malaysia and Singapore, for instance, have long been engaged in racial and ethnic conflicts and there remains a pending dispute over maritime boundaries in the Johor and Singapore Straits. Meanwhile, Indonesia and East Timor are disputing the sovereignty of the Oeusse Enclave and the uninhabited coral island of Batu Batek/Fatu Sinai with tensions intensifying after 9 Indonesian soldiers entered Naktuka village in the Enclave last year. The East-Timor Indonesia Joint Boundary Committee is still trying to find ways to resolve the issues. Going further north, in 2008 Burma demanded the return of Loilang, called Doilang in Thailand, accusing Thailand of violating territorial integrity. This matter too remains unsettled
Arguably the more critical among the inter-ASEAN rows is the one between Malaysia and Indonesia. Reasons for endless bickering range from the serious – the dispute over Ambalat, Sipadan and Ligitan; the mistreatment of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia; cultural rights over batik and a number of songs – to the petty and absurd marital feud between an Indonesian model and her husband of Malaysian royal descent.
Despite the cordiality maintained by the governments, tensions reached a peak in June last year when Indonesian and Malaysian naval vessels came close to a high sea confrontation in the disputed Ambalat islands. The heated situation worsened in August 2009 when the Indonesian public, outraged by Malaysia’s use of the Balinese pendet dance in their tourism promo ad on Disney TV channel, demanded the government to take high level measures against Malaysia. Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat, one of several anti-Malaysian groups in Indonesia, even threatened to wage war on Malaysia. As naïve and ridiculous as their threat may sound, they obviously represent the deeply rooted and negative Indonesian sentiments towards their neighbor.
Over in the South China Sea, the situation is also heating up. In March of 2009, the Philippines, Malaysia and China moved to renew their long standing claims on the resource-rich chain of islands, including the Paracels and Spratly islands. China sent its patrol vessel, a converted warship, to the disputed area and its ships ran into a confrontation with US naval surveillance vessels resulting in a buildup of tension.
Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei, along with China and Taiwan, all laid their overlapping claims while China argues that virtually all of the South China Sea, including the Spratly islets and reefs, were part of the country since the Han dynasty. In 2002, China signed the “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea” with ASEAN which helped ease the tension, but lacking a legally binding code of conduct, it did not offer any resolutions and many overlapping maritime boundary claims are still in dispute. Apart from being rich with oil and gas reserves, the South China Sea is also one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and largest commercial fishing areas and as such, the complex, multilateral disputes are likely to continue for a long time.
Fortunately, none of these tensions have developed into an armed conflict, at least not in the 42-year history of ASEAN. That was until October 2008 when Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged gunfire in the disputed border area around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple. Clashes first occurred in late 2008 after UNESCO granted world heritage status to the temple, the ownership of which was already awarded to Cambodia by the IJC in 1962. The hostility between the two dropped to a new low when Cambodia’s Hun Sen appointed Thailand’s fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as economic advisor and both governments subsequently recalled their ambassadors. The protracted stand-off has so far claimed the lives of at least 6 soldiers from both sides and several more injured. This has been the most serious armed standoff between two ASEAN member states and many wonder if ASEAN could have defused the situation at an earlier stage, preventing bloodshed. ASEAN Secretary General, Surin Pitsuwan, had expressed ASEAN’s readiness to help settle the dispute but fell short of taking a more substantial step to pacify the situation. Meanwhile from the disputants’ side, Cambodia appealed to ASEAN for intervention while Thailand rejected the involvement of ASEAN.
Unquestionably, these cross-border conflicts pose a challenge to ASEAN’s roadmap towards creating an integrated community. It is high time that ASEAN sets up and mobilizes a workable conflict resolution mechanism to prevent and manage such conflicts, particularly among its own member states. At stake is not only the credibility of the association, but also regional peace and stability and, most importantly, the wellbeing and livelihood of those in the conflicted areas. |
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| By Sakia Kyu |
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| Asiaviews, Vol.III No.9 January-February 2010 |
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