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Subsequent reports have linked what was clearly a co-ordinated series of attacks on a group of Islamicists from Malaysia, Burma [Myanmar] and Pakistan who favour the creation of an Islamic state encompassing the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand. What is the history of this region? The terrain on both sides of the Thai-Malaysian border is difficult to control; mountainous and forested zones, in combination with the lengthy coastlines both to east and west of the isthmus and the numerous small islands ensure that the border itself is porous and very difficult to police effectively. The people of the region have for a century moved backwards and forwards as migrant labour in search of economic opportunities. The majority of the people are Muslims and they maintain a distinctive culture quite different from the Buddhist tradition of the remainder of Thailand - some 95% of the population of Thailand is Buddhist but Muslims are in the majority in the five southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun. The region has a lower level of income than Bangkok and central Thailand, although it is far from being the poorest region, since it benefits from some fertile agricultural ground and rubber plantations and benefits from cross-border activities. The lack of effective policing of the border facilitates a number of illicit activities. These include smuggling, especially of cars, in which smugglers can benefit from differential tariff rates. Human trafficking is also a significant problem, with people moved across the border not just for purposes of prostitution or illegal migrant labour but also to transfer babies from Thailand to Malaysia, where childless couples face the loss of their property after their decease. Inevitably, money laundering and drug smuggling are also widespread. Although a political border divides Thailand and Malaysia neatly, no such neat division exists in ethnic or cultural terms. Both Thailand and Malaysia are of course very diverse ethnically but, especially in Malaysia, what determines identity is a combination not only of Malayness but also Islam. Consequently, those ethnic Malays who found themselves on the Thai side of the border in 1948 had more in common with their cross-border former compatriots than with their closer Thai neighbours (Christie, 1996, pp.173-90). Subsequently, little has been done to ensure that the southern Thais have been very closely bound into the Kingdom as a whole.
The copyright of the article The Thai-Malaysian Border Region in History in East Asian History is owned by John Walsh. Permission to republish The Thai-Malaysian Border Region in History in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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