Strategic Cultural Footprint of Colonial Diplomacy: Singaporean Interaction with the Neighbourhood of Maritime Society of Belakang Padang (Batam, Indonesia)

The sustainable development plan is required to integrally include all stakeholders in a neighborhood. The aim of this research is to analyze neighborhood relationships between two largely different cultures between the city-states of Singapore and maritime society of Belakang Padang that left behind by modernization. It departs from an assumption that the development of strategic culture results in the advancement on one side but left imbalance development on the other side. Utilizing the approach method of symbolic interaction, it reveals different usage of ethics and emic values in symbols and significations. Strategic cultural footprint as the heritage of colonial diplomacy is still visible on society’s genealogy, value development, and policy difference between the governments. The obedience of symbols usage and perception difference between the societies have created exclusivity and the inter-society gap so that strategic culture becomes separating lines between the societies. Efforts to integrate those two geographically neighboring societies can be done by involving various stakeholders through strategic management framework to develop its potentials and resources.