Sultan Ahmad Shah State Mosque also the state mosque of Pahang, Kuantan. Malaysia, Aug 2005. Wikimedia Commons
Jamal Khasoggi’s assassination by Saudi agents has raised more than a few eyebrows in the west. While the resulting indignation and handwringing have not resulted in substantial policy changes, the Istanbul episode has given way to new scrutiny on Saudi Arabia and its escapades around the world. It is high time we, too, in Southeast Asia examine relations with Saudi Arabia as we bear a high human cost in maintaining closer ties with that country.
As this week’s Spotlight articles will explore, ties between Southeast Asia and Saudi Arabia matter beyond the clear and the expected. While Islam provides the main pillar for links with Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, too, find work in Saudi Arabia and its Middle Eastern allies. Nevertheless, unlike the murder in Istanbul, the lost lives of dozens of migrant workers from Southeast Asia have so far failed to generate public interest in taking a second look at ties between the region and Saudi Arabia.
Our first article by Asmiati Malik and Scott Edwards, both researchers at the University of Birmingham, sketches Saudi Arabia’s influence in Southeast Asia, in particular in Indonesia and Malaysia. Saudi funding of schools and higher-education institutions in both countries has had an outsized contribution in spreading austere and intolerant interpretations of Islam. In turn, this has had a profound effect on the domestic politics of Indonesia and Malaysia: the rise of more vocal Islamist politicians and bureaucrats. Economic linkages further embed Saudi Arabia’s influence in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Economic linkages also serve as a main pillar of Saudi-Philippine relations as Saudi Arabia remains a top destination for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Like Indonesia, which also sends thousands of workers to Saudi Arabia, the Philippines has struggled with mitigating the human costs of migrant work. Our second article by foreign affairs analyst Lucio Blanco Pitlo III looks at the many ways the Philippines has strengthened protection of OFWs against abuse of domestic workers, exploitation of labor, citizens finding themselves on death row and so forth.
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