Love and hate across the Malacca Straits

As immediate neighbours, Indonesia and Malaysia often have a love-hate relationship as demonstrated by their ongoing territorial and 'cultural' disputes.

Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur have been negotiating on the overlapping claims to the oil-rich Ambalat Block in East Kalimantan waters.

More recently, dozens of Balinese artists in Denpasar, Bali staged a demonstration in protest of a Malaysian tourism advertisement featuring the Balinese 'pendet' dance.

Malaysia had since explained that the dance was featured by mistake in a tourism promotion video clip produced by a private company and broadcast over the Discovery Channel.

Some Indonesians had earlier protested against alleged Malaysia's claims over East Java's Reog Ponorogo dance and Maluku's 'Rasa Sayange' song.

SBY to visit KL next month

Early next month, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will visit Kuala Lumpur to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and this will be an opportunity to soothe fray ties between the two countries.

The president’s plan to visit Kuala Lumpur was conveyed to the Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia Zainal Abidin Mohamed Zin when the latter bid farewell at the presidential palace last August, weeks before the latest incident which sparked off another round of outrage and anger in Indonesia.

"Jakarta will visit early October 2009, and Malaysia offers Oct 9, 2009," Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Da'i Bachtiar told Malaysian and Indonesian press in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

The agenda of the bilateral meeting between the two leaders would include issues on food security, regional security and terrorism.

The visit will be President Yudhoyono's first visit since Najib took over as Malaysian prime minister in April this year.

Najib had a two-day state visit to Indonesia three weeks after being sworn in as Malaysian prime minister to replace Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on April 3.

Yudhoyono's last visit to Malaysia was in January 2008 where both Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur agreed to improve bilateral ties.

"Now, it's how to strengthen the relations between the two countries' peoples and press," ambassador Da'i Bachtiar said.

"We have a programme on inter media dialog inviting Malaysian editors to Jakarta, and vice-verse," he said, adding that the two nations would also carry out an exchange of visit of artists and historians.

‘Sweep Malaysia’ campaign

On the current tension on the Malaysian and Indonesian relations following the accusation by some Indonesians of Malaysia 'stealing' Indonesian culture, Yudhoyono has expressed regret over the threat of violence against Malaysian nationals in Jakarta.

The president was referring to a group of Indonesian nationalists who carried sharpened bamboo sticks and sought out Malaysians along Jalan Diponegoro, Jakarta, last week in a ‘Sweep Malaysia’ campaign.

"The president has asked the security personnel to take stern actions against those conducting such a sweeping. The president also has guaranteed the security of Malaysian nationals in Indonesia," Bachtiar said.

The group claimed they were dissatisfied over the Indonesian government's ‘soft stand’ against Malaysia over the alleged 'theft' of the Balinese dance.

President Yudhoyono said a sweeping operation would only create new problems as the government had already sent a note of protest to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman had summoned Indonesia's ambassador to Malaysia Da'i Bachtiar to Wisma Putra last Wednesday to express Kaula Lumpur's position on the conflict.

Anifah said the Malaysian government expressed grave concern over the actions of the armed nationalists in Jakarta.

Anifah will arrive in Jakarta next week to meet with his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, specifically to address the recent spats between the neighbouring countries.

Historical links

The `cultural' disputes perhaps are unnecessary given that both Indonesia and Malaysia share the same historical roots, said Riau culturalist Tenas Effendi.

Indonesia and Malaysia once even shared the same peninsula and the Johor Riau kingdom was centered in Bintan, Riau Islands in the past, he said.

"From those cultural roots, the Malay (Melayu) language was born and later became Indonesia's national language," Tenas said.

According to historical records, Indonesia and Malaysia were separated in 1824 as a result of the London Treaty which divided the peninsula into two parts, he said.

"The upper peninsula was colonized by Britain, and the lower part by the Netherlands. Later, the upper peninsula became Malaysia and the lower one became Indonesia. Since then, administratively our governments are separated, but our cultures remained one," he said.

- Bernama