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Indonesia The Philippines
Although a contiguous state and an ASEAN partner,
Indonesia's
relations with the Philippines were more distant than with
its
other immediate neighbors. The Philippines' aligned status
with
the United States and its simmering territorial dispute
with
Malaysia over the sovereignty of Sabah inhibited a close
relationship with Indonesia and other ASEAN members. Most
worrisome for Jakarta was the seeming inability of the
Philippines' government to put an end to its internal
wars.
Indonesia viewed the growth of the communist New People's
Army as
destablizing for the region. Moreover, the Muslim
insurrection in
the Philippines' south had implications for regional
territorial
integrity as well as Indonesian Muslim politics.
As the Ferdinand Marcos regime came to an end in 1986,
Jakarta associated itself with the other ASEAN states in
welcoming a peaceful transfer of power to Corazon Aquino.
Jakarta
was the first capital visited by the Philippines' new
president,
unprecedentedly even before Washington, and Suharto took
the
opportunity to press the urgency of defeating the New
People's
Army. To show support for Aquino's government, Suharto
insisted
that the 1987 ASEAN Manila Summit meeting go forward
despite
apprehensions in other ASEAN capitals about the security
situation. Jakarta was not displeased that Aquino was
succeeded
in 1992 by Fidel Ramos, who, as chief of staff of the
Armed
Forces of the Philippines and later secretary of national
defense, was well-known to ABRI's senior leadership.
Data as of November 1992
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