Syamsidik says Indonesia gets upset with Malaysia a lot, but the Malaysians don’t pay attention.

Malaysia’s Helipad: Another Rift is More Indonesian Fatigue

Rifts between Indonesian and Malaysian people have persistent records. A fresh rift began this week when a senior West Kalimantan forestry officer briefed the media that a helicopter landing pad has been built just 7 meters from the Indonesia-Malaysia border.

If this is true, it may violate the Malaysia-Indonesia (Malindo) 1967 border agreement. This issue easily sparked anger in Jakarta with some House of Representative (DPR) members raising complaints. Just a few hours after the briefing the issue was bombarding all news channels, from online news to television. Predictably, most of the comments were expressions of anger. However, this news issue has not appeared on any online news source in Malaysia until now. Similarly to what happened during previous tensions, the Indonesian side looks more frustrated than its neighbor.

Probably, for this year, this is the first public tension involving Malaysia. Prior to this, the number of disputes are nearly countless. Nevertheless, the tensions were dominated at the level of people to people relationships. At the formal level, there is little record showing that the two countries submitted complaints against each through diplomatic channels.

After Soeharto stepped down as president, there were only three serious rifts recorded. The first was when Indonesia had to bear the fact that the Sipadan-Ligitan Islands do not belong to it, and the second was the Ambalat crisis. The third was related to a case of whipping of illegal immigrants. It is ominous that similar tensions, although relative in magnitude, may arise in the future.

In fact, Malaysians are rather distant from most of the rifts. We still remember how the Rasa Sayange case appeared in public. Most ordinary Malaysians did not pay any attention to this case. It seems they felt a little bit corny to comment on what they considered a trivial matter. Indonesians however felt much differently. And, here we go again with this Helipad construction. It is not worth covering such a claim for Malaysians as can be seen from the lack of news coverage in that country. The repeated number of rifts show how exasperated Indonesia’s media and people feel to our neighbor.

We seem to have a more delicate nationalism and too easy to jump on the anger wagon without a second thought. Malaysia, especially its media, are perhaps showing a kura-kura dalam perahu policy if not over censorship of news coverage.

This problem wouldn’t emerge if all parties were able to manage the issues wisely without isolating them within a limited circle of knowledge, and if there were a settled method that can ensure both nations do not trigger any potential diplomatic rows.

Taking an approach that dealt with poverty and development issues along the border area on Indonesia’s side would help to mitigate the detrimental issues between the countries. Most know that Indonesian citizens who live along the border have to face so many living problems unlike people on the other side of the border. This makes the border become the most susceptible thing that can be exaggerated into rifts. Although this approach has been raised for a long time, the Indonesian government has still not been fast enough in deploying its border development policy to produce tangible results. The progress of strengthening Indonesia-Malaysia border relations by the RI government has been bogged down.

Looking at it differently, RI seems to show a lack of cohesive understanding within its high level of bureaucrats. Foreign Minister, Mr. Hasan Wirayuda, confirmed that the helipad construction had been known about by the RI government but Defense Minister, Mr. Juwono Sudarsono, said he needed to check this info first. The question is at what level of unity this government would react on such issue.

The House of Representatives showed how hysterical its members can become when they heard about this Helipad construction. Several of them urged their executive counterparts to file diplomatic protest to Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Helipad construction issue has yet to be verified and there has been no detailed explanation to the public about what’s going on. Few Indonesians understand why this Helipad construction matters and what the exact predicament is. Rather than elaborating on this issue by taking the advice of international law experts, they choose to push the government to enter into a potentially damaging diplomatic row. Appallingly, one of the House of Representatives members even suggested shooting at any suspicious object if it is considered provocative, a scenario that we will surely regret one day if it happened.

The complexity of legislature and executive entanglements may impede the border area empowerment process, the real issue of this conundrum. There have been a lot of negative issues in this nation recently, starting with the fuel price hike, corruption, high frequency of crimes, daily transportation disaster, malnutrition, and now this one: the nation’s border security. In the end, the profusion of problems will make the people apathetic. Thus, all high level institutions should try to learn to minimize parading this complicated issue in an unwise way. Sure, it does not mean that the problem should be kept away from public, the people have the right to know how this nation is being protected, but likewise their nationalism should not be exploited by imprudent measures.

Tags: Corruption, DPR, Foreign Relations, Indonesians, Juwono Sudarsono, Kalimantan, Malay, Malaysia, Media, Nationalism, Poverty, Press, Relationships, Security, Television