Asean Area Geopolitics

https://theaseanpost.com/article/sabah-malaysias-or-philippines


Good morning all,

Per ...

The picture caption is incorrect. Three "sovereign" nations are on Borneo island.

Article mentions Sulu, Phillippines. The place is nearly as dangerous as West Garfield Park, Chicago. China also claims the Sulu arch under one of their "Unequal Treaties".

Some of the Phillippino "camp" assert claims to an island a little west of Sandakan, Sabah, Borneo and therefore Sabah, Malaysia is much closer than ~ 500 km from Philipines.

Funny: "British colonial enterprise". Without the Brits' presence the place would have remained a cannibal's discount buffet.

I have a piece of correspondence on letterhead stationery with city name of "Jesselton". This is now KK, Sabah.

My main thought is Sulu. My big hunch are arrangements for all of Borneo to become part of Indonesia. I've worked oil rigs in the area and can see the place getting developed.

My guess is that the Sultan of Brunei will be a guest lecturer at some college. Any remaining Br Army and their Gurka contingent ...... unless they've already left ...... in south portion of Brunei will relocate. The future is the cold areas of the north.

End of rambling ....................

 

At least there isn't institutionalized slavery nowadays unlike the old days of colonization. Unfortunately the left over institutionalized racism still persist there.

Here's some quick & simplified history lesson. The present days Serawak was originally part of Sultanate of Brunei, while the present days Sabah was part of the Sultanate of Sulu. Now the Sultanate of Brunei still exist as their own sovereign state. And yet the Sultan of Brunei doesn't make any claim whatsoever regarding reclaiming any part of Serawak based upon any historical claim. While the Sultanate of Sulu for all purpose and intent has been dissolved into the ashes of history without leaving any successor state. Those Philippines politician whose making noise to laid claim upon Sabah were doing it for domestic politic (getting votes by playing tough guy).

The whole region is rather cluster fuck if you ask me. There is always some pirates roaming around at the Sulu Sea. Daesh affiliate group making crossing & smuggling things back & forth across the border. All those went uncheck by Malaysian & Philippines authorities either for lack of funding or lack of political will (I'm guessing it is both). Eventually Indonesia end up footing most of the bill for hosting Joint Exercise for all the basin nations and doing most of the patrols.

Anyway, nobody in Indonesia side willing to accept incorporating any of those region other than maybe few wack job politician that I've never heard about. The region has nothing of value to offer, even the petroleum is drying up. However having those region in Malaysia care will provide the buffer zone that Indonesia need without the need of spending money on them.

BTW this is what the land border between Indonesia - Malaysia look like at some places

They still around in small number, although I'm not sure as the strength. But my guess is around company in strength mostly functioning as the Sultan security details. Curiously Indonesia Army is the one who has been training their instructors for the past decade or so.

 

Good morning Varuna,

I guess it depends on the current term "institutionalized".

There are some fishing towns near you using child and teen labor to process shellfish for export. Some talk says these laborers are not free citizens.

It's not just your area. There are 200,000 young women working in the textile trades in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Some say these young women are indentured servants or other labor category.

Add the Sultanate of Brunei and the Sultanate of Sulu and the many other historical entities and term "cluster ___" is definitely applicable.

Ref: [Borneo region] "nobody in Indonesia side willing to accept ..."; The view is less about natural resources and more so geopolitics. For an illustration -only for an example - under current arrangements, the Sultanate of Brunei can sign a defense treaty with, for example, Iran. "If" the Sultan of Brunei gets a retirement job teaching once a month at some nice university, arrangements can be made that foreign powers do not set up shop on Borneo Island.

Appreciate the update on the Indonesian Army training of the Gurka unit.

 

Meaning in shrined in their constitution and laws

Whats wrong with children who want to make money for themselves? Have you been reading BBC or something lately? When CNN crew were served by 14 - 16 yo children (as in taking all their luggage up into the mountain, pitching up their tent, cooking & serving their foods) And they very happy of it. Even give praises of how hard working those kids to keep them comfortable at near frozen temperature while wearing very l little cloths themselves. Never mention anything about being enslaved or implying any.

Many peoples still haven't enlightened enough to embrace Socialism, thus need to work or doing business to make money (myselves included). Next some medias will make a claim as how many women were trafficked as commercial sex worker. If only they knew that those girls were there on their own device.

NOT the Gurkha, but the Brunei Army unit (which isn't much of an army) They were extremely surprised with how we (Indonesian) trained our breathing technique (which is by running underwater in full kit)

 

Good afternoon Varuna,

Every observer does not use constitutional and legal definitions.

Had not discussed children - and teens - working to make money. I discussed the labor situation.

I do read BBC and a little of CNN - I do this because they're easy to load - but I treat both just like the Washington Post, NY Times, etc. Had been to one of those "fishing villages".

The 200,000 young women working in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands were not given the jobs via personal traditional market economics. Thry were recruited from 2 or 3 Asian nations and arrived under a special type of visa.

There is trafficking in young women and girls in that area. Trafficking is also present here and visible when I'm working an emergency shelter.

Appreciate clarification on the Indonesian Army training the special Brunei unit. Signapore Defense Forces (SDF) used to train in Brunei and the USN watches the areas with US oil companies. It's not an isolated island by any means.

 

You know the idea that it is somehow wrong to have kids work is alien to me. I think that idea is part of what is wrong in America today. I had a job before school unloading and loading trucks when I was 15. i worked every summer from about 14 on and even before that, I worked doing day work and mowing yards. I have thrown hay bales for a nickel a bale on the wagon in the fields and another nickel from on the wagon into the loft.

Kids these days often go all the way through college and have never actually worked and then when they finally finish school they try to go to work and flop because they don't have a clue what work is. I can't believe how many "kids" that are in their late 20s and even early 30s are still living with their parents. I was out and on my own by 19 and never went back.

Education is good UP TO A POINT. What good is a college education if it doesn't provide you with a skill that offers you a realistic probability of employment? If you live in a place where life is pretty much hand to mouth what benefit is it to a child to educate them and then after teaching them all of this stuff expect them to be happy working in the fields. Education just for education's sake is stupid if it doesn't benefit you in any realistic way.

How many middle managers do we need if there are no people left that are willing and trained to actually WORK? One of the reasons that most of our manufacturing jobs are leaving this country is the simple fact that we don't have many people that are willing to work in that sort of job. The good news for those that push their kids into working is that you can't imagine what you have to pay to find a crew of people that are willing to show up every day and actually do physical work. Most people would rather just be on welfare or stay and live with Mommy and Daddy than get their hands dirty.

I tried for years to find a young man that wanted to learn a trade from me and help me. I offered good wages and the promise that once you learned and even better wage and eventually a career that would well support you. I never found one. I charged a 50 dollar service call and then 50 dollars an hour after 30 minutes and was the cheapest in town to fix Appliances, AC/Heating and anything in a commercial kitchen or laundry. It went to 100 dollar service call and 75 an hour on the weekends.

All of the men in my area that are or were doing this sort of work are over 55 and there are no younger people coming up because everyone wants to go to college and be a "Boss". Those kids over there that are working are learning something far more valuable than anything that you will learn in college. A job that feeds you is better than a diploma that you can't eat. In their world, there is a lot of demand for workers and not much demand for middle managers. My Dad graduated from high school when he was 15. Back then highschool only went through the 11th grade. They offered an education that allowed him to go out and go to work. Because of the war he ended up getting a University education...in Naval Science that the Navy paid for but when the war was over that was not the most useful degree in the world but his lifetime of hard work and willingness to work served him well.

As our world slows down the nations with workers are going to be in a much better place than our nation full of unemployed middle managers. An education is a wonderful thing IF there is a reason for it. What use to me is all of the higher math that I learned. I don't remember the last time that I worked with a quadratic equation. Calculus is useless to me. I took it because my plans for my future at that time included the need for that sort of thing but in the end, the things that served me best were an ability and willingness to work.

 

i agree texdanm i was working at 14 for 2.75 hour mowing lawns for an apartment complex every kid should have a side job starting at about 14/15 even before that if its a paper route...

 

Good morning TexDanm,

In our American modern times, it started with FDR inheriting the Great Depression.

The kids not working was part of the FDR labor economics program.

The idea was to restrict jobs to one per family so the kids were kept in school for a couple of years longer.

Later in the FDR labor economics program, they added the CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps. Youth could enroll and receive a small stipend. Most had to be sent home to the family and a little kept by youth worker. Over the years I've heard of different financial numbers used in different areas of country.

Virginia has a museum or tourism park of some sort on the CCC.

After WWII, there were powerful cartels arriving on the domestic labor scene and one was the educators. We had expanded programs on art history, western philosophy, sports and so forth.

After WWII, the Social Security retirement program started to drain away investment capital so new jobs slowly began evaporating. Our current experience has the ATM - automatic teller machine - and the pump your own gasoline and clean your own windshield. The payrolls were thinned out when labor became too expensive. Aforesaid example not applicable to the publc sector.

I mowed lawns and had a paper route.

Only by having lower labor costs can normalacy return.

We'll see some official changes starting January.