16 June 2022
WP338 | From Competition to Cooperation: The Global Palm Oil “Sustainability Turn” as a Turning Point for the Malaysia-Indonesia “Special Relationship”
Abstract
Palm oil is the source of a common identity between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two largest palm oil producers globally. As with many other socio-cultural aspects of the Malaysia-Indonesia “special relationship”, palm oil has also led to heightened competition between both nations. However, recent negative sentiments towards palm oil originating from sustainability-conscious markets in the north have threatened both states’ access to important export markets. This paper examines how these developments have marked an important turning point in Malaysia-Indonesia relations. Faced with such external pressures, both states are now increasingly reliant on each other’s continued prominence for their own market survival — their shared strategic interests tending to facilitate cooperation instead of conflict or competition. This paper takes the Malaysian perspective in illustrating the shift from competition to cooperation within the palm oil sector. Of particular interest are the issues over transboundary haze, where Malaysia’s responses have been increasingly geared towards appeasement, restrained by concerns about related fallouts in the palm oil sector.
About the Author
Dr Helena Varkkey is an Associate Professor at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her research focuses on the governance of transboundary pollution or “haze” in Southeast Asia. More broadly, she seeks to understand how economic development can be reconciled with environmental sustainability in this resource-rich region. The findings from her PhD at the University of Sydney has been published as a book in 2016 as part of the Routledge Malaysian Studies Series, entitled “The Haze Problem in Southeast Asia: Palm Oil and Patronage”. She has consulted for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia and the ASEAN Secretariat on these topics, and continues to undertake research in this field. She undertook a Visiting Senior Research Fellowship at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore in 2021.
Abstract
Palm oil is the source of a common identity between Malaysia and Indonesia, the two largest palm oil producers globally. As with many other socio-cultural aspects of the Malaysia-Indonesia “special relationship”, palm oil has also led to heightened competition between both nations. However, recent negative sentiments towards palm oil originating from sustainability-conscious markets in the north have threatened both states’ access to important export markets. This paper examines how these developments have marked an important turning point in Malaysia-Indonesia relations. Faced with such external pressures, both states are now increasingly reliant on each other’s continued prominence for their own market survival — their shared strategic interests tending to facilitate cooperation instead of conflict or competition. This paper takes the Malaysian perspective in illustrating the shift from competition to cooperation within the palm oil sector. Of particular interest are the issues over transboundary haze, where Malaysia’s responses have been increasingly geared towards appeasement, restrained by concerns about related fallouts in the palm oil sector.
About the Author
Dr Helena Varkkey is an Associate Professor at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her research focuses on the governance of transboundary pollution or “haze” in Southeast Asia. More broadly, she seeks to understand how economic development can be reconciled with environmental sustainability in this resource-rich region. The findings from her PhD at the University of Sydney has been published as a book in 2016 as part of the Routledge Malaysian Studies Series, entitled “The Haze Problem in Southeast Asia: Palm Oil and Patronage”. She has consulted for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia and the ASEAN Secretariat on these topics, and continues to undertake research in this field. She undertook a Visiting Senior Research Fellowship at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore in 2021.
