Conflict In Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. It consists of Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Brunei, Thailand and Myanmar. In this essay, I would be focusing more on Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The ‘Oxford Learner’s Dictionary’ defines conflict as “a situation in which people, groups or countries are involved in a serious disagreement or argument”, “a violent situation or period of fighting between two countries” or “a situation in which there are opposing ideas, opinions, feelings or wishes; a situation in which it is difficult to choose”. On the other hand, cooperation is defined as “the fact of doing something together or of working together towards a shared aim” or

As wars and protests are caused by a clash in opinion, they can easily be identified as a consequence of conflict. For example, Vietnam went through the First Indochina War due to conflict between whether they should be an independent communist country or a non-communist country ruled by the French. Philippines also went through the Philippines-American War for a similar reason. The Indonesians had not gone through major wars, but instead mini wars between the Dutch and the Indonesian Nationalists caused by conflict of whether they were independent or not. While these countries suffered through war and losses, Malaysian locals were protesting against the Malayan Union taking away all power and rights from the British. In Singapore, the locals also protested but this time to the British wanting to develop Singapore as a military base after once abandoning them during the Second World War. These five countries have all gone through conflict in one way or another. Thus, it is shown of how Southeast Asia’s route to independence could be one of

Some of these countries had also self-declared independence which led to disapproval from their colonisers. This disapproval is a sign of conflict as it shows that the two countries were not in agreement with each other’s decision. An example of these countries would be Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh had self-declared Vietnam’s independence soon after the end of the Japanese Occupation while making use of the power vacuum after Japan had left and France had not returned. The disapproval of the French had indeed been the reason behind the First Indochina War. Another example would be Philippines. Philippines had self-proclaimed independence from Spain on June 12, 1898. The proclamation was neither approved by the Spanish nor the United States. Sukarno and Hatta had also self-declared independence for Indonesia on August 17, 1945 slightly before the end of the Japanese Occupation. Many of the Dutch had gone back home to help fight for their country which was being attacked by Germany during the Second World War and Indonesia had taken this opportunity to declare their independence. Once the Dutch found out about this, they returned to Indonesia from disapproval. These examples of self-declaration tell us more about the conflict between the colonisers and the colonised caused by difference in opinion; thus proving that Southeast Asia’s route to independence was very well