r/HistoryWhatIf • u/Janganthot • 2d ago

What if Aceh break up with Indonesia and join Malaysia?

How could it ever be possible? What challenges will they face? What advantages will Malaysia have?

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

5

u/Black_Ironic 2d ago

The dutch only managed to annex them in the 1900s, what make you think they want to join under another kingdom/monarch lol

2

u/OriginalGoat1 1d ago

For that matter, it took a tsunami to quell the Acehnese rebellion against the Indonesian government. No way that Aceh would "join" Malaysia.

1

u/DerPanzerknacker 1d ago

1-Why do you keep posting this?

2-Aceh’s elite wins and most everyone else loses other than maybe some well connected Malay elites.

Malaysia gets a bunch of energy deposits on paper they can sell in theory with a rigidly religious population in practice that does not want to share/broadly develop them or play nicely with the rest of the same country. And since Malaysia has a rotating government system, there is a periodic political crisis unless aceh joins with a deal better than the indo autonomy agreement they currently have. And a better deal for Aceh would be a terrible deal for Malaysia.

For good measure it would also cause a Hot or Cold Conflict with Jakarta, since 1) Indo won’t risk letting any province go without encouraging separatism elsewhere. 2) it gives Malaysia total control over the Strait of Malacca. Which will piss off most of East Asia unless Malaysia agreed to only pay the cost of securing the (now-internal) Strait without profiting from it (ask Iran how profitable a contested waterway is).

So best case scenario both Indonesia and Malaysia get badly hurt, and ASEAN/regional trade gets gutted = huge increase in regional poverty. And mostly likely the conflict gets resolved by international mediation and/or the Chinese deciding that the Malacca Strait transit is essential to their security. Malaysia already has a problem with China’s nine dash line it can’t solve as it is.