Ideological Factors and Indonesia-Malaysia Political Relations 1961-1971

This article discusses the ideological factors and their impact upon Indonesia-Malaysia’s political relations during the period 1961-1971. The ideological factors i.e. the democracy-capitalist and communist-socialist, greatly influenced the political relations between the two Southeast Asian countries during the bipolarity era. The ideological factors had a close relationship with the hegemonic powers’ (the United States and the Soviet Union) activities in Malaysia and Indonesia. The nature of political relations between Malaysia and Indonesia was based upon ideological factors. The changes in political relations between Indonesia and Malaysia after 1965 were dominated by the changes of political ideology in Indonesia (i.e. from communist-socialist to democracy-capitalist). Indonesia after 1965 under Suharto’s regime was a pro-capitalist state. The similar political ideology after 1965 between both countries influenced the political relations. The ideological factor was one of the vital factors in analysing Indonesia-Malaysia political relations during the period of 1961-1971. Keywords: Indonesia, Malaysia, ideological factors, bipolarity, the United States, the Soviet Union.