A border is a line dividing two or more countries by agreement of the countries

involved to ensure the security of the nation and the people. Malaysia shared its
border with a bunch of countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and
Indonesia politically and some of the countries were divided by the ocean, Malacca
straits, South China sea and Sulu sea. During recent years, there are many reports that
Malaysian border were used by badly intention terrorist to operate their network. The
reports written shows that the Malaysian border are vulnerable enough for the terrorist
do foul work in Malaysian soil.

There are many factors affecting the border safety. Some may caused by political
interference of another country such as war happened in Ukraine and Russia.
Meanwhile, the war Malaysian are fighting are caused by geographical factors.
Malaysian border is not well guarded and porous to terrorist attack due to the fact the
Malaysian authorities are not capable of keeping the border away from the terrorist.
Malaysian long and open Sabah and Sarawak coastline and land border lure the
terrorist to use the open path as their way to enter Malaysia. The threat brought by the
terrorist entering a country is unbearable. This can be reflected on the case 11
February 2013 Malaysian was shocked by the news of armed force of Sulu militant
group entrance in Tanduo, a region in Tawau, Sabah. In the attempt of neutralizing
terrorist attack, Najiah (2013) reported the whole has taken the life of 15 Malaysian
and uncountable destruction of property. Chew (2013) taken a report from Ansyaad
Mbai, Chairman of Indonesias National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) saying
that until today, the route from Kalimantan, Sabah to the southern Philippines is the
route always used by the terrorist. This is the same route the militants use to escape
from Indonesian security forces to southern Philippines. The long coastline and land
borders make it difficult for the governments to secure completely. This show that the
Malaysian border is out of government control. Many things could be done to increase
the safety of the border such as placing more army post and troops in the border to
eradicate illegal entry and to increase surveillance.

Malaysias border security is not just weak in stopping terrorist attack, it is also
poor in security check procedure at immigration counters. It showed serious security
loophole in the immigration counters when the Malaysian authorities indicate that two
passengers bought their tickets at the same time using travel documents that had been
stolen in Thailand, one belonging to an Italian man and the other to an Austrian
(Mike, 2014). In other hand, border of Thailand and Malaysia, people can travel
between two countries without any travel documents. There is a convert service
offered by motorcyclists turned taxi men at the Malaysia-Thailand checkpoint in
Bukit Kayu Hitam which charge between RM80-RM200.(Masriwanie, 2016). These
showed a very serious problem in immigration security check, with low security
check at immigration counters and border checkpoints been revealed, terrorist groups
might put Malaysia as an easy target destination for their attack as their people can
sneak into Malaysia easily just by using fake passports or sneaking in without any
document. The border of a country is to ensure the security of their people, but
Malaysia fails to do so. Moreover, the coastline of Sabah is very easy for people from
the southern Philippines to come in and out of Sabah, it only take about one to two
hour with speedboat. A group of military armed people called Sulu Sultanate was an
Islamic state that ruled the southern Philippines and gather in southern Philippines'
island which is close to Sabah. They go in and out on speed boat or fishing boat with
ease under the cover of darkness. One of the armed Philippines Fauzi said "The
policeman looked at the ID card and then waved me on. The ID card does not have
my name or photo. But in the dark of the night, they never look at the photo to check
whether it matched my face."(Amy, 2013). These cases show not only Malaysia
border was orderless and it had put the people of both countries in danger. Thorough
security check by the immigration council must be improved and should never be
taken lightly by updating the database of the fake passports provided by Interpol.

Some says the efforts to increase the security of the coastal and border area of
Malaysia are already strengthened by the government of Malaysia throughout the year
after the reports. Special security forces like Eastern Sabah Security Command
Control (ESSCOM) were formed. According to Bernama (2013) Malaysias Prime
Minister Najib Tun Razak has launched ESSCOM in Lahad Datu as a part of
government initiatives to enhance the security of the sea and border following the
intrusion by the Philippines militant group into the area earlier that year. ESSCOM is
expected to improve the coastal surveillance and improve the ability to intercept and
capture any terrorist activity coming from the sea. Other than that, there is also
collaboration with neighbouring countries like Philippines and Indonesia to guard
coastal and border security. Cochcrane (2016) reported that the three neighbouring
countries consist of Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines have agreed to perform
coordinated sea patrols and form a hotline in order to deal with the terrorism activities
especially of piracy and kidnapping in that area. However, despite the forming of
special security forces like ESSCOM and collaboration with neighbouring countries
with Philippines and Indonesia, some crisis involving border issue are still reported
and until now the government is still unable to guarantee safety to the people. Series
of kidnapping by a militant group are reported in Sandakan few months after the
initiatives of collaboration are done, involving local citizen and foreign tourist. That
includes an incident of five Malaysian who was kidnapped and being held hostage by
a militant group in the southern Philippines as well as an abduction of two Indonesian
fishermen in Malaysia waters in a more recent report by Avila and Awang (2016).
Curfew in Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZONE) in Sabah also are still extended
until now since the terrorist attack in Lahad Datu (Bernama, 2016). It can be seen that
all efforts done are still inadequate to guarantee the peoples safety. Therefore, the
government must be urged and forced to find new and more effective initiatives in
order to guard our border and sovereignty better that no enemies cannot penetrate into
our country.

In conclusion, all the evidence and cases had prove that Malaysias border was
not in good control. The poor and weak security at Malaysia border line is not a new
issue to us. Over the years, the security problems had not showing improvement and
yet it is getting worse. If this continues to going worse, the situation will not just harm
Malaysians safety and also hurt the safety of neighbouring countries. Although
Malaysia government had put many efforts toward the problem but it is still not
enough to protect the security of our nations border. The security at our countrys
border is inadequate to ensure the safety of our people. So that, Malaysia gouverment
must put more attention on the border security issue. To archieve thise, we must urge
our government to take any possible action needed to secure our countrys border
better and never feel comfortable with all the efforts that are already done before
because the peoples safety is not something that should be taken for granted. I hope
that Malaysia gourverment will have a big improvement in secure our nations border
after all the hard work and archieve invulnerable border line in the coming years.
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