MALINDO AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL APPROACHES TO THE ENHANCEMENT OF INDONESIA-MALAYSIA RELATIONS

This paper aims to identify major social and cultural problems facing the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia, and to explore policy options to resolve them. The argument is that there is pressing need for a comprehensive approach, paralleled by institutionalization, which can manage incompatibilities arising in the interactions between peoples and governments of Indonesia and Malaysia. We proceed to discuss it in three sections. Firstly, the paper analyses three important issues, including disputes over cultural heritage, migrant workers, and diasporas issue, which so far have become hot topics in texts and talks of Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur links. Secondly, it tries to provide some feasible policy choices to deal with the aforementioned issues. And Þ nally, it highlights the relevance of institutional building – in the form of MALINDO – for conß ict management purposes between Indonesia and Malaysia. Importantly, this design can have saliency in Southeast Asian context. Keywords: Indonesia, Malaysia, MALINDO, conß ict management, social and cultural approaches