🇲🇾 Fighting words but little concrete support in Anwar's Palestine battle

Hello friends!

As promised, two very different neighbours take very different approaches to the conflict in Gaza. For Malaysia, the Palestinian cause has been significant for a very long time — but that doesn’t mean the government doesn’t see the utility in its support. Across the border in Thailand, the high-profile hostage-taking of dozens of migrant workers by Hamas has many seeing the conflict differently while highlighting the extreme choices migrant workers have been forced to make in the last month. 

See you next week when we’ll catch up with the king news (not that one) and the rise of a new nepo baby in Thailand,

Erin Cook

🇲🇾 Anwar’s support for Palestine can be many things at once

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is by far the most vocal supporter of Palestine in Southeast Asia, wrote Julia Lau and Francis Hutchinson for Fulcrum last week. Their excellent overview notes that Malaysian support for Palestine is certainly no new thing and dates back to the 1960s. This is supported by Malaysians broadly as well as by Anwar, who has a long history of activism on that front. But what I found most interesting in this piece is the ‘political expediency’ of Anwar’s position as it currently stands. 

“Taking this strong pro-Palestinian stance is politically expedient in today’s Malaysia. Surveys consistently indicate that younger Malaysians are growing more religiously conservative. The opposition coalition, Perikatan Nasional, has been gathering momentum in the past year, garnering one-third of seats in Parliament and control of four state governments. Palestine is a topic on which other senior Malaysian politicians, such as Anwar’s nemesis Mahathir Mohamad, have long been vocal. Consequently, the PM can ill afford to be seen as equivocating on this issue,” the pair note. 

Western states like the US have been leaning on Anwar to condemn Hamas, according to Anwar’s telling. “Malaysia will not change its stance, particularly our reluctance to consider Hamas as a terrorist group. Malaysia maintains its independent position,” the PM told parliament in mid-October. Anwar certainly appears to be enjoying playing a champion for the Palestinian cause and having those dastardly Americans lean on can only be a winner. It’s unlikely the Americans care that much, notes Sebastian Strangio in the Diplomat yesterday: “The fact that the US has not been public in its criticism suggests, first, that it does not expect Malaysia to change its position, and second, that is unwilling to expend political capital in order to induce it to do so. As such, the wide gulf between Malaysia and its Western partners is unlikely to have a marked impact on their diplomatic relationships.”

I read this fascinating older piece published by New Naratif back in 2021, after friend of the letter Deborah Augustin forwarded it over. Wael Qarssifi, himself a refugee and writer, took on what he calls the hypocrisy at the heart of Malaysia’s response to the Palestine crisis. Note this was written during Muhyiddin Yassin’s era and shortly after Israeli police raided Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan prayers. Malaysian leaders are happy to take a strong stance in support of Palestine on the national or international stage, but when it comes time to help actual Palestinian refugees (among others) in Malaysia, it’s another story:

I’ve seen Wael Qarssifi speak out online about this repeatedly, both for Palestinians specifically and refugees more generally and I’m always stunned by the response. He is frequently told to be ‘grateful’ or that his view isn’t needed, given he’s only ‘temporary.’ Which really raises the question, for so many people what is the point? And for the government, if support for Palestine — and, crucially, Palestinians — is an essential aspect of foreign policy, how can that be when support at home is like this? It doesn’t strike me as particularly pragmatic or helpful to the cause. It’s theatre. And a lot of people like Wael and others have been poking holes recently, so I wonder if concrete change is on the way. 

🇹🇭 In Thailand, the stakes are very personal

Thai nationals represent the largest non-Israeli group held hostage in Gaza by Hamas since the conflict began on Oct. 7. Far be it for me to give the Thai government too much credit ever, but I think this would be an immense test for any government and especially for a new one. I really respect Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and his government’s handling of this so far. So, almost a month on — where are we?

Shia Muslims in Thailand leader SaiyidSulaiman Husaini met with representatives of Hamas in Tehran on Wednesday to negotiate how best to release and repatriate Thai nationals currently held, the Bangkok Post reported. I’m a bit confused about numbers — there are 19 nationals known and another three who have not been publicly identified.

The Rafah border crossing was floated as the likely exit for them, he added, though this will depend on further negotiations with Egypt. Hamas told SaiyidSulaiman Husaini that the Thai nationals were in good health and were ‘safe.’

Not safe enough for Sunan Chombua, whose son, 29-year-old Komkrit Chombua, is stuck in Gaza. “When I looked at the phone and I saw his picture, I knew immediately it was him. I want the government to negotiate with them quicker, faster. I want to see him again, I want him to come home,” Sunan told the Guardian this week. 

Komkrit’s story is a familiar one, reports the Guardian. He moved to Israel four years ago to work in the agriculture sector. “He just wanted to help us. Before, we didn’t have a proper house, just a small little hut. We didn’t have money,” Sunan said, adding that Komkrit had yet to see the house his earnings had built for the family. 

This is a phenomenal piece and I’m really struck by the comments made by Assia Ladizhinskaya, a spokesperson for the marginalised workers organisation Kav LaOved: “Many workers, they have never heard a siren before. We have been interviewing workers in previous wars and they didn’t know this sound means danger — they didn’t know that they have to run and hide.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin got on a call with Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, Bangkok Post reports. Netanyahu reportedly told Srettha that rescue and repatriation is a high priority for Israel as the Thais have worked hard for the country and are not outright involved in the war. I’m not personally convinced that Netanyahu’s enthusiasm matches Srettha’s, but I will remain hopeful. 

New York University researcher Daungyewa Utarasint has a very interesting piece in Nikkei Asia that notes the hostage-taking of Thai nationals has had a very bad PR effect. Understandable, really, but there’s more to it than that, she writes. It’s put Thailand firmly on the Israel side of the conflict that has split some of Asean down religious lines. Daungyewa writes that comments she has made, as well as other Thai researchers who have supported civilian Palestinians, have drawn online attacks. For Daungyewa that’s doubled given she is also Muslim: “Thousands have commented on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, saying that I should not be considered Thai since I have sympathized with Palestinian civilians and am a Muslim scholar.”

Around 30,000 Thais were working in Israel before the conflict kicked off, she writes, and that so few have returned underlines the financial desperation faced by many migrant workers. “Thus, even as the fighting in Gaza intensifies and rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel increases, many Thais are more willing to face the dangers of war than to return to Thailand because they can earn 10 times as much as migrants.”