JULY 4 — Losing a badminton match may not be quite the same as losing territory to a foreign power. But try telling that to the Indonesian badminton fans who jeered the Malaysian players participating in the 2009 Indonesian Open at Jakarta's Istora Gelora Bung Karno stadium last week.
Badminton is a serious business in Indonesia. And with tensions between the two countries rising as a result of the Ambalat border conflict, there was much to fuel the emotions of the Indonesian spectators. Recent allegations of Malaysian employers abusing Indonesian maids have also been getting plenty of coverage in the local media.
The fact that Malaysian champion Lee Chong Wei defeated home favourite Taufik Hidayat in the final simply made things worse. Indonesia has traditionally produced some of the best badminton players in the world.
But while the winner of the match was at least decided by an agreed set of rules, the same cannot be said for Ambalat. Indeed, the two countries have such differing approaches to the dispute it is hard to see them coming to any agreement at all.
Ambalat consists of two sea blocks off the coast of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan and south-east of the Malaysian state of Sabah. Believed to be rich in oil deposits, both are located close to the Sipadan and Ligitan islands, which the International Court of Justice awarded to Malaysia in 2002.
During a military standoff in April 2005, naval vessels from the two countries collided in the area. Despite a series of bilateral meetings since then, the issue remains unresolved, with both sides alleging regular incursions by the other. The claims have become a hot issue again in the run-up to the Indonesian presidential election scheduled for Wednesday.
But while Malaysia regards the current dispute as being primarily about economic opportunity, Indonesia sees the issue of sovereignty as being more important. This is the reason Jakarta rejected Malaysia's 2005 suggestion that the two countries discuss possible joint exploitation of the area's oil reserves.
Having lost Sipadan and Ligitan, policymakers in Jakarta are in no mood to make any more concessions. On June 2, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he had ordered Indonesian military chief General Djoko Santoso and air force chief of staff Marshal Subandrio to boost security measures in the Ambalat area, declaring that Jakarta did not intend to bargain with Malaysia.
Indeed, the intensity with which Indonesians see the retention of Ambalat as a matter of national pride should not be underestimated. Traditionally regarded as a diplomatic heavyweight in Asean, Indonesia has become increasingly irritated in recent years as countries such as Malaysia and Thailand have challenged its former dominance. And like last week's badminton match, the standoff with Malaysia over Ambalat has underlined the point that Indonesia's navy is no match for Malaysia's increasingly modern fleet.
The fate of domestic helpers working in Malaysia is yet another sore point. Jakarta has repeatedly urged Kuala Lumpur to pass legislation designed to protect poverty-stricken Indonesians working in Malaysia as domestic helpers from sexual harassment, non-payment of wages and poor conditions. In the latest case to make the headlines, an Indonesian maid was badly scarred after allegedly being tortured by her Malaysian female employer for three years.
More and more, Indonesia sees itself as the aggrieved party in its relations with Malaysia and other Asean nations in ways that could eventually have important foreign policy implications. Earlier this week, executive director of Jakarta's Centre for Strategic and International Studies Rizal Sukma wrote in the Jakarta Post that the country should no longer consider Asean the cornerstone of its foreign policy.
Indonesia's views on the need for a human rights charter in Asean, he argued, have long been ignored. Instead, the country is ridiculed by cynics whenever it tries to speak up. “We are asked to show restraint when our territory is violated either by Malaysian ships or Thai trawlers... We are repeatedly accused of harbouring terrorists by Singapore. We are also accused of not being serious in addressing the problem of haze... We should stand up and proclaim that enough is enough.”
When the presidential election campaign is over, and local politicians have no more reason to whip up emotions on such issues, relations between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur may well improve. But with Indonesians increasingly coming to regard themselves as being either ignored or forced into a corner by neighbouring countries, the respite may well be brief. — Straits Times
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