Regional tensions in Southeast Asia

The history of Interstate tensions in Southeast Asia has been prevalent since independence; interstate tensions are conflicts between countries which have resulted in either military invasion or inability to agree on political issues. The main causes of interstate tensions can be separated into two broad categories- political differences and ethnic-cultural divisions. Under political differences, there are three main factors- firstly, security and sovereignty concerns, secondly, the immediate political context of a country and its foreign policies priorities and thirdly, the role of leaders which directly influence the direction of politics in the country. Under ethnic-cultural divisions, the main factor will be the division of ethnic-cultural groups under colonial rule. Historical animosity, in this case, is not taken into context as it is itself a result of both political differences and ethnic-cultural divisions, and a form of interstate tension. In my point of view, interstate tensions in Southeast Asia since independence are more a result of political differences rather then ethnic-cultural divisions.

For a start, interstate tensions in Southeast Asia since independence were a result of ethnic-cultural divisions. This is evident in the case of the Mindanao Muslims in the Philippines. Interstate tensions between Malaysia and Philippines arose because of the unnatural displacement of Mindanao Muslims into Christian-majority Philippines when they were in fact had a much closer relationship with Sabah which shares the same religion under US colonial rule in 1989. As a result, Sabah’s chief minister Tun Mustapha provided a supply route of weapons and military training camps to aid the liberation of Mindanao Muslims causing Malaysia and Philippines to be in conflict. Similarly, interstate tensions between Thailand and Malaysia arose because of the unnatural displacement of the Pattani Muslims into Buddhist-majority Thailand when the Pattani Muslims had closer ties with Malaysia. Like the situation in Sabah, separatist movements to liberate the Pattani Muslims were formed in Kelantan such as National Patani Liberation Front (BNPP) and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) which caused Thailand and Malaysia to be in conflict. In the above two cases, interstate tensions were a result of ethnic-cultural divisions due to the unnatural displacement of communities under colonial rule.

However, ethnic-cultural divisions were not the most important factor in interstate