The waters rose in that area around 11,000 years ago give or...

The waters rose in that area around 11,000 years ago give or take a thousand years or so.
It was a bout of global warming that caused the water to rise.

People from the Philippines , Malaysia , Burma , Thailand , Laos , Vietnam , God for bid CHINA, the Japanese , etc would walk sail , row freely between land masses , for centuries , including what we call Australia today, therefore I guess all of the above would also have cultural ties to this stretch of water.

Seriously , think about it , all of South East Asia have cultural ties to this water , they have been fighting each other ever since man in his present form walked on this planet.

So ,lets employ some woke greedy lawyers , some corrupt judges , some good for nothing Politician's , a handful of brain washed locals , some aggressive activists and GIVE THIS LAND BACK TO SOUTH EAST ASIA.

Once the dust settles, the Sea Land has been cut up and handed to every tom , dick and harry looking for a free ride in life , lets then give STO the go ahead to produce some gas here to help keep the lot of them warm and feed.

Every body wins a prize, how simple is that.