A Third Kelantan-Thailand Border Crossing Near Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia

On December 21st, 2007, the Malaysian and Thai Government officiated the third border crossing in the Kelantan-Narathiwat region. In Kelantan, this third border crossing is situated at the Bukit Bunga (BB) border on the Malaysian side and Ban Buketa (BB) on the Thai side. Bukit Bunga is in a small municipality of Kampung (Kg.) Bukit (Bt.) Bunga (herein, KBB). KBB is within a bigger municipality called Ayer Lanas (AL), and both KBB and AL are within the district council of Jeli (Majlis Daerah Jeli [MDJ]), Kelantan. Hence, MDJ administers this whole region, except the BB Immigration and Customs Quarantine (BBICQS). The city of Jeli is about 19.3 km to the BBICQS on Highway (Hwy) 4, which serves as the main road network in these areas.

The only public transportation that serve the Jeli-Ayer Lanas area are the Cityliner buses from Kota Bharu and (charted) taxis from Tanah Merah, Kelantan. The Cityliner bus from Kota Bharu's final destination is Kuala Balah but it passes by KBB, AL along the way. However, from KBB, the walking distance is about 1.3 km (roughly about 16 mins) on the dry and hot asphalt. Charted taxis may cost as much as RM 30.00 from Tanah Merah (TM), Kelantan, about a 40 minutes journey and depending on the traffic as well. The Cityliner buses from Kota Bharu do alight at TM Bus Station before proceeding onward to KBB, Jeli, and its final destination at Kuala Balah.

This BB, Kelantan-Ban Buketa, Narathiwat border actually serves more to the locals from this Southern region of the Narathiwat province. The people and folks here converse a heavy accented Kelate and many of the Jeli-Ayer Lanas area are also civil servant retirees who are either Kelantanese or elsewhere from other parts of the peninsular married to Kelantanese or Narathiwatians. The former Trade and Industry Minister, Dato' Seri Mustapa bin Mohamad ('Tok Pa'), a Member for Parliament for Jeli constituency, resides not far from these quiet areas. Not far from the border, a branch of the University Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli is situated on the Hwy 4 about 13 kms from the border. Jeli is also a place for many Malaysians who are convicted under a Preventive Corrective Order (PCO) and are told to serve their sentence by residing in this quiet pristine region of Jeli environs.

The Northern Kelantan between Kota Bharu and Kuala Balah has a significant amount of cross border relationships between both nationalities. Here, we are talking about family and community relationships. The third border crossing between Kelantan and Narathiwat actually alleviate the hardships of Narathiwatians in Ban Buketa and Waeng. Poverty, civil strives, and perhaps terrorism did take a toll on the lives of many livelihoods of residents in Ban Buketa and Waeng. Security is still very tight and just a month ago in Sungei Golok, a bomb went off and fortunately no one was hurt in that blast. A conversation with the Manager of Hotel Jeli Inn, what he informed me was seemingly interesting at least from the standpoint of at least another conversation I had with another Northern person in Thailand some years back. So what basically transpired was the fact that they told me there aren't any civil strife and the terrorism were carried out by the Thai military so that they are able to inject manpower security in the South of Thailand. He said that the Thai Malays do not have any misgivings at the Thai government and these acts of violence are the work of the military or gangsters. Of course when I tried to reason with him about some of the mugshots of 'wanted persons' I saw at the Sungei Golok ICQS (just outside the immigration complex); he refuted me and told me that those 'wanted persons' are gangsters or drug dealers. Of course, and again I did not want to rile a conversation with him since he was nice enough to bring me to the BBICQS and later returned me to the Inn. Moreover, I have serious reservations that this Kelantanese could actually be Thai as well and had lived in Malaysia for quite sometime for whatever reasons. From the conversations sought too, he's tacitly defiant about Thai nationalism and there are many like him that also refused to identify themselves as Thais and speak the language. In fact many Southern Thais (from Jala, Narathiwat, and Pattani) of a middle-age and older disposition have a dislike for the Thai central government. Perhaps in another part of this area on border surveillance, I will devote a whole part on the history of this region and my o' my is certainly an exciting journey to examine the history of Northern Malaya and the Kra Isthmus.

On Saturday morning, the Manager of Hotel Jeli Inn offered to give me a ride to the BBICQS in his Ford pickup. Saturday was a quiet morning in Kelantan after the Friday public holiday. The ride was peppered with his views about the KBB, the distance, and the folks that goes there. All which I have said pretty much in the earlier part of this write up. He looked a bit like a normal Malay guy but his intelligence is commendable and he spoke Bahasa Malaysia and not Bahasa Kelate. When he swerved into a paved asphalt road before reaching the BBICQS, I noticed the walled and fenced up structures just about 400 meters before the ICQS. It's impressively strengthened and as we approached the complex, it's huge like the ones at Bukit Kayu, Rantau Panjang, and Pengkalan Hulu ICQS.  As a matter of fact in terms of its width, its probably slightly smaller as compared to the Southern Integrated Gateway in Johor. Not sure whether a massive building like this would have any use in this remote area; perhaps many years later, these many spaces (in this ICQS) will nor be wasted otherwise it may become 'a white elephant'.


I alighted the pickup truck and headed straight to the immigration office. As Saturday is a public holiday, there weren't much activities. I walked straight to the signboard that mentioned 'Pedestrian Lane' (Laluan Perjalanan Kaki). As I walked to the windows, I noticed that the offices were closed and blue-colored queue control retractable stretch posts safs were used and stretched across to block the entrances to denote closure.  Another staff pointed further up advised that I proceeded to the vehicular immigration post as only one is operable on that very day. As the incoming traffic was particular naught, I was the only individual heading towards Ban Buketa. The immigration officer was pleasant and typically scanned and chopped my passport without much fuss despite asking me where I was heading. I told him I wanted to see the Ban Buketa Saturday morning market. He smiled and replied "von voyage" respectfully. I walked and observed that the traffic coming into Malaysia was slightly more active.  As I approached the customs, the customs officers were nonchalantly quiet and unobtrusive. Furthermore, their scanning x-ray machines on the other side was non-operable. As a matter of fact the top part of the machine is covered by tarpaulin.

As I proceeded further away and into the open areas of the other end of the complex and carrying my phone with me. Suddenly, two police officers in military T-shirts and khaki attires stopped me in my tracks and asked me to come over. They wanted to know whether I filmed them and demanded my phone for their investigation. They queried me why I was there and what I was up to and whether I filmed them or not. Apparently, they were aware of the fact that taking pictures of them was illegal. My intention was to see whether anybody was aware of the fact, apart from these officers. They reasoned, queried, and listened to my positions in a respectable and professional manner. I was impressed with their alertness disposition (as this was an important trait lacking in many of these border areas). After they were satisfied, they took a picture of my passport, allowed me to proceed, and advised me to be cautious whilst in Thailand.

The "Friendship Bridge" as its being labelled by both Thailand and Malaysia is solidly built and very impressive. As I looked forward and backward, I noticed that Malaysia spent a lot of money for the ICQS and the Thai side seemed nothing like it and rather more like an isolated wild west outpost. The Friendship Bridge crosses the Golok River (Sungai Golok) and at its low ebb, one can virtually cross the river easily even without using the bridge. Even the island in the river has some weeds overgrown. Apparently the bridge's lightings are powered by Thai solar systems. There's also some sort of a remote camera system that's powered by solar and peering down into the river (actually not very sure what's the reason for, perhaps as a sort of flood waters monitoring on rainy seasons). The Golok River was known to swell and become treacherous on rainy seasons.

As I approached the Thai ICQS at Ban Buketa, both sides of the opposite oncoming traffic had cars parked on the sides of them. Apparently passengers and drivers were required to parked and alighted their vehicles to get their passports verified and stamped. The queues were not particularly long today but I do think that on weekdays they could even stretch out to the Malaysian side of the bridge. The Thai officer verified, checked the tourist or traveler immigration card and returned to me.  There were a couple of customs officers but they smiled and waved me on.

Just off the Ban Buketa ICQS, there was a military checking post. Despite it's empty, and as I peered to the left, I noticed that soldiers were busy checking a vehicle. The soldiers were armed with assault rifles. Apparently they took time checking it as mentioned that a month ago, a bomb went off at Sungai Golok.

There was a time when in Songkhla and Thais advises were never to tour, visit, and travel the utmost South provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Jala. Ban Buketa does not have much going at all. Despite the roads are properly paved and asphalted, many people in the surrounding areas are satisfied with the village or kampung life. Goods and foodstuffs are relatively simple, styled like five-foot-way simple convenient shop lots. Merchandises depending on who are selling and making monies, if its a Thai Malay stall, things are really cheap. The Thai-Chinese (even though the ethnicity is considered absolved into a one-Thai nationality) sold their merchandises in a much pricier way and the activities inside the sundry shop was busy in organizing and the bargaining of prices with another middle men or proprietor. Most of the goods do come from across the border from either Tanah Merah or Jeli but there are also some Thai made goods. As compared to Sungai Golok, it seemed the retailers there have decided to sell more goods made in Thailand. However, in Ban Buketa and the surrounding areas, it seemed only the morning market in Kampung Bukit Bunga just off the the road proceeding to the BBICQS in Malaysia is a more popular area. Its not that Ban Buketa is not popular, there is a morning market that sells mostly local foodstuffs like meat, fish, vegetables, etc., and that's just directly to the left of where the vehicle was checked by the soldiers.

The Southern region has become a sore thumb for vehicular and individual checks that many Southern Thais find it difficult to progress and do business efficiently. Just for example, when I came out of the Ban Buketa checkpoint, there's a military outpost as the one shown above. However, within the city limits and zones, there are at least four other military checkpoints. It's not even the checks on vehicles, and when I completed my tour from within the city limits, I saw a senior military figure walking into a mosque compound and shook hands with the hosts and an Iman (who also happened to be a (colleague) military officer). Presumably, its not an invitation but somehow it's to acknowledge the ceremony and to see who are the attendees. The question is whether these sorts of surveillance are effective in curtailing threats or are these monitoring and surveillance just bore brunt in the everyday normal livelihoods of these peaceful residents. Perhaps, what the driver told me could be true, the military themselves defaulting into acts of treachery to serve their purpose as military officers and a reason for job creations. The South is neglected (for a long time) and these harassments cannot be ideal way to resolve conflicts. When and if the bombings do get suspiciously serious then they'd be curfews and because of these curfews, the stress may get to these people as discrimination and thus a tit-for-tat revenge.

The tough monitoring and business interests do make many of these Thais in Ban Buketa, Waeng or any part of Southern Thailand to head South into Malaysia. The Thai Malays here identify themselves naturally by the conversant of the language they used and that is Kelate. Everyone speaks perfect Kelate and its difficult to acknowledge who's Malaysian and who's Thai, unless they lapsed into Thai language. Here in this Jeli Inn Hotel, most of the staff are Thais, especially the food sellers and cooks. Thai Malay food is popular in these parts.

One of the interesting facts about this border is the fact that many of the border areas within Bukit Bunga and Ban Buketa are pretty much under control. However, upon my return from Ban Buketa, and after crossing the Bukit Bunga ICQS, the Manager from Jeli Inn brought me to the illegal route where many would have utilized the route as a convenience either to come to Kelantan and within the Peninsula. The amazing thing is that this route is situated just behind and beside the Bukit Bunga ICQS. He told me that many locals from Kelantan and Malaysians, as well, used this very route to go to the Ban Buketa morning market that's just beside the Ban Buketa ICQS. He drove me close to the dirt lane and I saw a number of Malaysian cars of different plates from different states parked by the roadside by the lane. There were some 40 cars or so but I think most would have cross just to go to the market. Nevertheless, desperate people will make use of this illegal lane/s during odd hours of the day to cross into Malaysia or fugitives on the run to Thailand.

It's relatively difficult to control all illegal land routes. Normal and honest people will not use these places, unless its just for a short excursion to the market without any fuss. However, since the border is already that sufficiently weak and porous, such excursions are likelihoods for smuggling, trafficking, and even to a certain extent kidnapping. Nobody bothers this route and even if there are Thai nationals ready to participate to bring people over on their bikes for a nominal fee, with no questions asked, no one actually bothers to acknowledge the legality of it, and not even enforcement officers as well. The real dawning and blow-off-the-mind question is whether building such a wonderful and huge complex at the BBICQS can determine and deter smuggling and trafficking purposes, which in effect is countered by 'rat' routes or holes to filter across both sides of the divide. No wonder the customs officials when I crossed looked nonchalantly unobtrusive as they knew what's the point of enforcement when people from both sides can filter easily. No wonder they had their scanning x-ray machines covered in tarpaulin because they are not going to use it anyway when if desperate patrons saw the stiffness of surveillance they can just use these illegal 'rat' routes or holes. Its time the government look into these issues and address them evenly at each of these borderlands, otherwise, weapons and drugs will keep coming into Malaysia. Pastor Koh, that was cornered and disappeared in Petaling Jaya be very well could be brought into Thailand with these illegal 'rat' routes. The Thais in these parts are desperate, hence, with sufficient adequate funds anything is doable.