Thoughts on AFF and Indonesia vs Malaysia Confrontation

Happy New Year, everybody. And congratulation, Indonesian national football team for the very good performance on AFF Cup. Congratulation, Malaysia for winning the cup. I know this topic is so yesterday, but I haven't had time to say thank you to my three favorite teams in this year's AFF cup: Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia. You guys have shown us a world-class game (I know, it's not as fabulous as the Premiere League, Champions League, or World Cup matches. But I'm impressed with the last 4 matches of the competition. And I'm not easily impressed, believe me).

As about the AFF Final's controversy, I didn't take side on any team. My nationality rate is very low, I just wanted to enjoy the games. I have to admit that Malaysia played much better than Indonesia in the finals. It's unfortunate indeed because in fact Indonesia has more potentials to win the cup (according to statistics, of course. They won more matches, scored more goals, less fouls, compared to other countries). And yes, I do have to admit that Malaysian supporters in Bukit Jalil were not supportive at all. But what Indonesians did on the twitter was also another way to ignite quarrels. So I'm not proud of either of them.

I know that Indonesia and Malaysia have been against one another since 1960s when Soekarno considered Malaysia as a "British puppet" (forgive him, dear Malaysians. He was a great man after all). Things have gone much better between the two countries during Suharto's New Order, but since late 1990s, there raised again a conflict related to torture on Indonesian maids in Malaysia. After that, there's an issue on cultural heritage competition. Not to mention the issues on national borders and claims on islands. We've been through a lot like brothers hating each other. And now we got the football issue to complete our confrontation list.

This is weird, because in fact Indonesians and Malaysians have many things in common. They were both colonized by West Europeans for centuries. The root of their language is the same. They share many cultural similarities. They both came from the same race. The majority of them are Muslims. They basically share similar ways of life.

However, maybe this is the law of the nature that the more we share similarities with people, the more we are close to people, the more we are involved in confrontation against them. It's like hating your own self, and I know exactly how it feels.

Very well, I know I have no right to talk much about this. But when I see people fight, cooperate, fight, and cooperate again, I cannot think of any word to describe it other than "Love." Yes, I guess there's a very passionate love between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Kill me now.