I refer to the Malaysiakini report Cultural spat rooted in common heritage .

In a famous Biblical story, King Solomon judged a dispute between two mothers who declared themselves the biological mothers of a baby boy. The good king said: ‘I've decided to split the baby into half, for each mother.’

Then he awarded the baby to the first mother who screamed 'no'.

At this moment, Malaysia and Indonesia are like the two mothers. Native Malaysian/Native Indonesian culture is the baby. Indonesia looks like the mother who screamed 'no' first and as Shakespeare said 'hell hath no fury like a mother scorned'.

But Indonesia and Malaysia are not mothers in the literal sense of the word. Johor is the mother of Native Malaysian/Native Indonesian culture and language.

Indonesia claims that the Johor of Malaysia is not the real Johor and that there is a Johor in Indonesia that is centred in the Riau Islands' provincial capital city of Tanjung Pinang.

In 1812, Sultan Mahmud Shah III of Johor died in his capital city, Tanjung Pinang. He declared his favourite son Tengku Abdul Rahman as his successor. Tengku Abdul Rahman was installed as the new Sultan of Johor, and was known as Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah.

At that time the Dutch were in control of Johor. They occupied Johor in 1784 after a fierce battle with Sultan Mahmud Shah in Melaka. The Dutch influenced Sultan Mahmud Shah to name his younger son Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah as his heir.

The elder son Tengku Hussein did not recognise Dutch power and declared himself the rightful Sultan of Johor, Sultan Hussein Shah. He was supported by Johor's vassals the Sultans of Kedah, Perak, Terengganu and Kelantan and the Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan.

The Sultan of Selangor, independent of Johor since 1760, also supported Sultan Hussein Shah.

In 1819, Sultan Hussein Shah sold Singapore to the British in return for superpower Britain's recognition of him as the rightful Sultan of Johor.

The British granted Sultan Hussein his wish and vice-versa. In 1824, Britain, Holland, Sultan Hussein Shah and Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah sat down at the table and inked the London Treaty.

They decided to split the Johor Empire into two regions - one Dutch and the other 'ripe for British picking when the time came'.

The Dutch portion was known as Batavia or the Dutch East Indies with its capital in the city of Batavia (today Jakarta) on the island of Java.

Batavia or the Dutch East Indies was to be jointly ruled by the Dutch Governor of Batavia, representing the King of Holland in Amsterdam, and the Sultan of South Johor or Riau, that is Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah.

Batavia covered the whole of modern-day Indonesia. Shortly after World War I, Holland abolished the Sultanate of South Johor or Riau. At this time, Ahmad Sukarno declared a revolution to rid Batavia of Dutch rule and to form a modern republic called Indonesia.

At this time too, the Sultanate of North Johor which was ruled by Sultan Ibrahim Shah succumbed to British rule.

It's pretty hard to say which Johor is the rightful Johor. Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah was his dad's choice. Sultan Hussein Shah was the choice of Johor tradition (the eldest son succeeds his father on the throne).

And in 1877, Sultan Hussein Shah's line was ousted from the throne of the Sultanate of North Johor by the line of Sultan Abu Bakar Shah, the father of Sultan Ibrahim Shah.

The line of Sultan Abu Bakar Shah rules the Sultanate of North Johor today. Sultan Abu Bakar Shah, Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah and Sultan Hussein Shah were all great-grandsons of Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah IV, who ruled Johor from 1699-1722.

Sultan Abu Bakar Shah was descended from Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah's eldest son Tengku Abdul Majid.

Sultan Hussein Shah and Sultan Abdul Rahman Shah were descended from Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah's youngest son Sultan Sulaiman Shah, who succeeded Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah after his death.

As it's difficult to ascertain which is the rightful Johor, both Johors that is North Johor and South Johor are rightful entities. Only that South Johor is now known as Indonesia.

Thus, Native Malaysian and Native Indonesian culture are the same and neither should claim ownership of the other.

But Malaysia deserves the rude shock right now. I hope it will make us think twice about keeping our history and culture in the museum store room.