Borders in Southeast Asia — Myth or reality and a source for conflict?
By: Bastian Friborg
Tags: Politics, International, History, Southeast Asia, Thailand

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

– William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2

“Words like “Southeast Asia” and “unicorn” enable us to discuss topics about which we would not otherwise be able to hold a conversation, but we should be wary of attributing any more solidity to these concepts than the facts will allow.”

– J.R.E. Waddell, An Introduction to Southeast Asian Politics

Southeast Asia is interesting, as its in-betweenness defines it. It is neither south nor east, and it is not merely Asia. The name has an interesting etymology, as the word ‘Asia’ can be traced back to around 1235 B.C. when a Hittite king has reported that he had conquered a place or people called “Assuva.” However, it wasn’t until the colonization that the word and pronunciation as ‘Asia’ were brought to the region.

Map of Southeast Asia

So, ‘Asia’ is an ancient description of the massive landmass between Europe and the water on the other side, the Bering Sea. The ‘Southeast’ part of Southeast Asia is a classification made by foreigners to the area, outsiders. In Western countries, with the logical mindsets that have prevailed there for centuries, it is logical to give the region its name according to its position (seen with western eyes). The region in question is south of China, a big player and a well-known entity, and east of India, another well-known entity due to the British rule and other European powers colonies in the vicinity. So, a part of Asia south of China and east of India must logically be called Southeast Asia.

The region, and others like it, has come into existence through a historical, political, and cultural process. There are many other ways in which the region could have been defined, for example: by language groups (families), countries, geographical position, religion, or simply by water. In many cultures, water constitutes borders due to the historic difficulties connected with crossing larger water bodies.

Map of Thailand

When I first came to Thailand and traveled around in the northeastern parts of the country, I noticed that their language was different from the language in Thailand’s central or southern parts; this made me wonder. It turned out that most of the Isan region of Thailand are people originally from Lao,s and they speak Lao or a mix between Lao and Thai. This showed that today’s borders are mainly politically constructed and don’t always take into account the actual population living in disputed areas. In the case of Thailand and Lao, it so happened that the political power drew the border at the Mekong river, and most Lao people ended up living on the ‘wrong’ side and became part of Thailand.

History has many examples where outsiders define an area and draw the borders without considering the situation on the ground. We have seen this in several places on the African continent and with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So, it is well known that there could be a potential conflict in the making when a region is given a name like this and outsiders decide what is and isn’t part of Southeast Asia.

However, this has not been the case with Southeast Asia. For people living in Southeast Asia, the term is kind of mot. It is a unicorn, aka not real, but for outsiders, the region is a rose, meaning something tangible that can be defined and quantified. The term is both describing something real and unreal and since it does not refer to an outside someone, it has a taste of independence and is, therefore, more manageable for the inhabitants to use and accept.

In the decades following WWII, many foreign scholars disagreed about SEA’s boundaries. Because of the Theravada Buddhism and the old headquarter of SEAC on Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), many included this island. They omitted the Philippines because the Philippines stood “outside the mainstream of historical developments” in the region. It was not until the late 1970’s that it finally was decided that SEA was to consist of ten nations: Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and to-be-independent Brunei. This means that Ceylon, Formosa (Taiwan), the Andamans, etc., were no longer considered part of the region.

Because the inhabitants do not define the region, it is not entirely legitimate; this can be seen in the region’s disagreements about borders — especially the fragile border between Vietnam and China — and what should be considered part of SEA. Nevertheless, the borders’ overall line is set, which means that the disagreements are somewhat limited. It means that even if multinational organizations as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) go out of existence, its ex-members are not likely to cease being SEA.

Parts of this were originally submitted as an assignment at the University of Copenhagen.