Malaysia Insider | The Feud Between Neighbors

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The Feud Between Neighbors

If you want to know if someone is a good person or not, ask his neighbor. If you asked anyone closed to him/her like friends or with family ties, most probably they will tell only the good things. In modern days, neighbor are liked watchdog, they looked at you for your lackings, whatever might be your wrongdoings as their eyes hawked over for your dirty laundry. Neighbors supposedly talked about each others, good or bad, undiscriminately, usually behind your back.

So they say.

Bordering with Malaysia are Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia . These are Malaysia’s most immediate neighbors.

In not so old days, Singapore used to be just a district in Johore, one of Malaysia’s 13 states. Recently Malaysia has lost the Pedra Blanca or Pulau Batu Putih to Singapore in the International Court of Justice. The general Malaysian public was furious for losing a piece of land to a runaway island.

3 southernmost states in Thailand; Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani used to be part of ancient Hindu Malay kingdom Langkasuka, together with Kelantan, Perlis and Kedah of Malaysia’s northernmost. These 3 states, mainly consist from Malay muslim population, are now in turmoil with capital Bangkok over Muslim separatist movement.

The region of present-day Sabah was part of the Sultanate of Brunei around the early 16th century. The present-day Brunei is tiny compared to its glory days. Recently Brunei has officially dropped its long-standing territorial claim over Limbang, a northern division in Sarawak, ending the long-standing Malaysia-Brunei boundary issues.

The Philippines has dormant claim over Sabah as part of the Sultan of Sulu’s sovereignty, once a prize for helping the Sultan of Brunei against his enemies.

Indonesia has the most dispute with Malaysia. Historically parts of Malaysia used to be Indonesia and vice versa, depending on which period of civilization you looked at. Most favored by the Indonesian is the Majapahit era whilst most favored by Malaysian would probably be during the Malay Sultanate of Malacca. However, major parts of both countries were once united under the ancient Buddhist Malay Kingdom of Srivijaya on the island of Sumatra. Dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia nowadays mainly involved territorial claims and border related issues. Recently Indonesia has lost Sipadan and Ligitan island to Malaysia in the International Court of Justice, causing Malaysia’s subsequent claim over Ambalat. This and with other matters has caused the Indonesian public rewaging a ‘Ganyang Malaysia’ (destroy Malaysia) sentiment, once waged by the late President Sukarno over the inclusion of Sabah and Sarawak and formation of Malaysia in 1963 . As of today, the Malaysia map is following what was once determined by the Bristish, as Indonesia’s by the Dutch.

So basically we are screwed and mainly surrounded with enemies as neighbors. In that case, should you wanting to know about Malaysia, check your sources, its better if you read it from us first hand.