By Jan-David Franke*
Bangkok Post-Apr 9
Optimism reigns on the 60th anniversary of Thai-Malaysian diplomatic relations. Yet some contentious issues, in particular Thai-Malay dual citizenship and a planned border wall in Songkhla, remain a challenge for the two immediate neighbors.
Both countries which share a historical, ethnic and cultural heritage, are currently celebrating what amounts to a cordial friendship in many ways. Yet, over the last 50 years, relations have also undergone colder periods, such as in the 1970s when both countries accused each other of harboring secessionist groups.
Damrong Kraikruan, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, as chairman of a symposium on “reflections on the past, visions on the future”, which was recently held as part of a commemorative program, stressed the two countries’ history of overcoming challenges together. In particular, he referred to maritime border disputes (in the Gulf of Thailand in the 1970s), cooperation in combatting violent insurgencies on both sides of the border, and the pursuit of economic and political integration, both bilaterally and regionally.
Thriving trade is one outstanding area in the countries’ relationship, with Malaysia ranking as Thailand’s fourth largest trading partner and Thailand as Malaysia’s fifth largest. The total trade volume is projected to reach US$30 billion annually for the first time this year, an increase of nearly 50% since 2016 alone.
More than two thirds of the entire bilateral trade already occurs overland, a share that is prospected to increase as round-the-clock custom operation hours at various border checkpoints are to take effect in 2019. Open borders and geographic proximity have also aided a flourishing bidirectional tourism sector.
Yet, this trajectory of increasing, liberal inter-connectedness appears to be at odds with recent bilateral announcements regarding the planned eradication of Thai-Malaysian dual citizenship and the fortification of the common border. This ostensible contradiction indicates that the relationship between Thailand and Malaysia features elements of what appears to be a recent global trend: the coincidence of economic liberalization with efforts to maintain or return to a territorially sovereign nation state, a seemingly diverging development which often tends to leave the most vulnerable segments of population at the wayside.
While authorities hope that a new border wall in Songkhla area will combat transnational crime, mainly human trafficking and smuggling, it also carries an outspoken ‘security’ purpose that is aimed at exerting greater control over the movement of ‘dangerous’ individuals across the border. Such individuals principally include holders of dual-citizenship, a status which the Thai government regards as a legal loophole allowing people who carried out attacks to easily slip across the border into Malaysia for shelter. Thai authorities are in the process of finding out the number of dual citizenship holders.
Prof Chaiwat Satha-Anand, a political scientist at Thammasat University, questioned the securitisation of dual-citizenship holders. “The idea that dual-citizenship holders posed a security threat is all but constructed,” he said, adding that those with dual citizenship were not dangerous and those who were dangerous (the captured violent insurgents) had been found to have no dual citizenship. The academic is concerned that the act of transforming Malay-Thais into matters of security had the potential to jeopardize the relationship both at a state and a people level.
Yet, Thailand and Malaysia seem highly intent on avoiding another phase of soured relations, especially when there is so much to gain economically. It stands to reason that the true ramifications of a continued securitization of the South and its people will not be felt at an inter-state level but within the very population which bears testimony to the countries’ common roots. There are concerns that the revocation of dual citizenship is part of an attempt to expedite the dissolution of complex identity in the South. Furthermore, with forcing Malay-Thais to discard the legal component of their two-pronged identity comes, at the very least, the risk of dividing longstanding communities, which benefit from the movement privileges of dual-citizenship.
As citizens of each country can only stay for 30 days on the other side without obtaining a visa, communities that span across the border will inevitably be burdened. “If you have a border, then by all means police it effectively, but then that should be it. For a very long time, communities have lived in the border area and it can be disruptive if they have neighbors, family, relatives, suddenly being divided. There are some houses where the front door is in one country and the back door is in another,” said Bunn Nagara, a senior fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Strategic & International Studies.
But more than that, the tragedy that is the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar also requires a heightened general caution towards minority politics in the region.
Mala Sathian, a lecturer at the Department of South East Asian Studies at the University of Malaya, noted the issues of Thai-Malays are “national problems that hopefully will be met with national solutions” and, as the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on dual citizenship suggested once again, Malaysia seems happy to discard the potentially contentious issue by fully returning it to Thai sovereignty.
Thailand and Malaysia may have successfully bridged religious fault lines in their diplomatic relationship, but peaceful coexistence within Thailand’s South has not always been the dominant prerogative. As Khaosod English reported in October, cross-religious tensions are on the rise and anti-Islamic conspiracy theories and hate speech enjoy great popularity online. It will require an active effort on behalf of Thai authorities to calm these tensions and curb Islamophobia.
On the 60th anniversary of having established diplomatic relations, there is indeed good reason for general celebration. At the same time, with Malay-Thais put under general suspicion, dual-citizenship status about to be revoked, and border walls erected to, among other things, better monitor their movement, Thailand and Malaysia, both, are in danger of forgetting about the community which most vividly reflects the countries’ common roots. This would be a tragedy that even ever-increasing commercial connectivity could not outshine.
*Jan-David Franke is an intern journalist. He obtained an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.
(first published in Bangkok Post – https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1443267/repeal-of-thai-malay-dual-citizenship-a-risky-deal)
