Rasa Sayang

Malaysia and Indonesia are fighting. Over a song. According to the papers, Malaysia wanted to use the song, Rasa Sayang, in its tourism campaign but Indonesian government is trying to block that by claiming copyrights to the song.

Pardon my ignorance, but Rasa Sayang sounds like a Malay folk song to me so why can't Malaysia use it in their tourism campaign? I am sure other people have used this song for commercial purposes to represent the Malay culture, so why does the Indonesian government only make a stand to claim Rasa Sayang's origins now?

Somehow I am apt to think that this is again triggered by some stupid political issue. Indonesian government, after all, has the tendency to find excuses to fault other countries. It started with Singapore affecting Indonesia's ecology by importing sand used for construction, then it is Malaysia ripping off her heritage by using the song Rasa Sayang. Indonesia does not even know the composer of the song so what right does she have over the song?