The bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia is generally very dynamic in that the positive and negative nature take their turns repeatedly. Despite repeated claims by leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia that the people of their two countries are ‘blood brothers’ and of the same ‘rumpun’ (racial stock), bilateral relations between these two major states in the Indo-Malay world have regularly experienced rivalry and discord beneath such espousals of fraternity. This state of affairs, however, has not deterred many, including people in political leadership, from continuing to look to concept of rumpunism for greater meaning and intelligibility in the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia. As an ideology or system of values, rumpunism is viewed as providing a framework that communally binds the two countries under a mutual and harmonious relationship.