ABSTRACT
The evolution of boundaries in Southeast Asia has not followed the classical model of an international boundary. It is observed that due to the political discontinuity created by the intervention of European colonial powers, the evolution of boundaries in Southeast Asia has seen a discursive development. 1 Generally, the four stages-namely, allocation or defi nition, delimitation, demarcation and administration 2 -are not conducted in a linear order. Instead, the map, if not physically connoted, has been more like a patchwork piece, which is imbued with boundary disputes and confl icts being festered at different stages. Unfortunately, before regional countries can once and for all dismiss the chaos in Southeast Asian continent, rough and tumble appears to creep to the great swathes of South China Sea waters that several of Southeast Asian countries have bordered. To some extent, the increasing involvement of Southeast Asian countries in the scuffl e in the South China Sea is once assimilated as what had been happening in the pre-colonial era of old kingdoms, 3 when they keenly looked into the sea as a source of wealth and revenue of royal and dynastic authorities.
