Dynamics of Maritime Connection in Sulu-Sabah-Indonesia Region
Ikuya Tokoro (ILCAA-TUFS Japan)
It is well known fact that the social and cultural connection between Indonesia, Eastern Malaysia and the Philippines, especially its Southern parts, has been centuries old. Today, in the context of so-called BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines) framework, these historical ties are reinvigorated with new　agendas, business interests and other challenges, which includes serious security concerns such as illegal immigrants, managing the territorial disputes, piracies and cross-border terrorism.
What I try to do in this short paper is, firstly, to put this connection in the broad historical and/or the cultural context so that we could look the contemporary issues in not only in the narrow myopic time span. By focusing on some maritime ethnic groups like the Sama (Orang Bajau) and/or Tausug (Orang Sulluk), who originally inhabited in Sulu Archipelago, Southern Philippines, I would try to show the historical background of the connection which links Sulu, Sabah, East Malaysia, and some parts of Indonesia (especially Eastern Kalimantan and Northern Sulawesi). The second purpose of this paper is to draw attention on the very dynamic contemporary reality of this cross-border connection, which includes many aspects such as social, politico-economical, cultural, religious- and also security dimensions.
