Jakarta - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been urged to raise a range of controversial issues when he meets with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later this week.
"It`s time for the President to be frank and tell the Malaysian prime minister how the Indonesian people feel, for instance, about the migrant workers or Malaysian claims on Indonesian cultural products," the head of the House of Representatives`s Commission I on defense, security and foreign affairs, Theo Sambuaga, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Theo, who represents the country`s largest political party, Golkar, added that Yudhoyono should also tell Badawi the sort of results Indonesians want to see.
"By expressing all Indonesian concerns and listening attentively to what Malaysia wants, both leaders could find practical ways to end the ongoing rows," he said.
Yudhoyono will meet Badawi in Kuala Lumpur during a three-day visit to discuss, among other things, recent issues of contention between the two countries, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said earlier.
On the first day of his visit on Thursday, the President will receive the highest award from the Malaysian government while on Friday both leaders begin their bilateral meeting.
Another lawmaker, Yusron Ihza Mahendra of the Crescent Star Party, agreed on the need for both leaders to be frank, saying it was urgent that they find ways to overcome the bilateral problems before they escalated into widespread hatred within both societies.
"Both leaders have to declare that they want to solve the problems, and that Indonesia and Malaysia need each other, without wanting to hurt each other, in facing challenges in the globalized world. Then the two leaders can find concrete ways to overcome the problems," he told the Post.
Several attacks on Indonesian citizens and migrant workers in Malaysia, along with a row over intellectual copyright, have seen relations between Indonesia and Malaysia sour recently.
In August last year an Indonesian karate referee was assaulted by four Malaysian police officers for reasons that remain unclear. The next month, the Malaysian government was found to be using a Maluku song, Rasa Sayange, for Malaysian tourism purposes.
A Malaysian delegation then stunned the Indonesian public after singing a Minangkabau song before an international audience at Asia Festival 2007 in October, in Osaka, Japan, and claiming the song had Malaysian origins.
It was followed by the claim that the batik shirt and reog dance from Ponorogo, East Java, originally came from Malaysia.
Fueled by media reports, a series of anti-Malaysia demonstrations were organized by nationalist organizations in Indonesia. Mailing lists were inundated with anti-Malaysia hysteria and the term "Malingsia" (Maling is an Indonesian word for thief) become popular.
Although both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments have claimed the issues have had no effect on diplomatic relations between the two countries, others have said the incidents augmented the already present mistrust between Malaysians and Indonesians.
International relations expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Bantarto Bandoro said that as leaders of neighboring countries, Yudhoyono and Abdullah should acknowledge that there have been problems in bilateral relations.
"The acknowledgment will open the opportunity to fix the relations," he told the Post.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (9 Januari 2008)
