No Man's Land by Justin V. Hastings

Author:Justin V. Hastings [Hastings, Justin V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Southeast Asia, Globalization, Social Science, Political Science, Asia, History, Human Geography
ISBN: 9780801476792
Google: HWh5DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 9378555
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2010-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Importance of Malaysia

As the country immediately across the Strait of Malacca from Aceh, Malaysia was the logical place for GAM to flee, but its importance even after GAM had begun using new communication technologies is an indication of GAM’s continued dependence on geography, physical movement, and the limited options it faced when trying to enter or leave Aceh. GAM received most of its financial support from Malaysia, used it as a way station for refugees (and occasionally weapons), and ran an intelligence network from the country.83 There has long been an Acehnese presence in the Malaysian state of Kedah, but the largest community was in Penang. During the conflict, GAM’s presence was a sensitive issue in Malaysia, so much so that the Malaysian government turned over the problem of Acehnese refugees to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and washed its hands of the matter.84 At one point in 1997, hostility from the Malaysian government grew to the point where Malik Mahmud told hundreds of Acehnese to return to Aceh to fight rather than be caught in Malaysia.85 Due to political sensitivities, GAM was not a formal organization in Malaysia, and when it held meetings, it did so quietly; whether the meeting was broken up was up to the discretion of individual policemen.86 As a result, GAM did not have a specific headquarters in Malaysia, but moved around as its operations warranted.87

The Acehnese community in Malaysia was large enough to provide some measure of support to GAM. Before the Memorandum of Understanding, an estimated 40,000 Acehnese were living illegally in Malaysia, plus perhaps another 20,000 legal Acehnese.88 According to UNHCR, in 2004 approximately 8,000 Acehnese had a refugee protection card, and 11,000 were waiting for the card. As long as Acehnese could find a boat to take them across to Malaysia, they could get into the country. An Acehnese refugee organization would then aid new arrivals, and teach them how to hide from the Malaysian police.89 The Acehnese refugees were insular, and created their own community rather than living with other Indonesians.90 They were also supportive of GAM. One senior member of GAM’s negotiating team estimated that perhaps 80 percent of the Acehnese refugees in Malaysia sympathized with GAM’s cause, and provided some financial support. In fact, it was rich Acehnese in Malaysia and elsewhere who provided the financial backbone of GAM’s struggle.91 One expert estimates that approximately 5,000 Acehnese, concentrated in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, sent money to GAM.92 This base of support, even if slightly illicit, along with Malaysia’s geographic centrality to GAM’s transnational network, encouraged the concentration of GAM’s activities in Malaysia. Although GAM was a globalized network, the very act of globalizing encouraged the organization to centralize its activities for both legitimate and illicit activities. When tracking clandestine transnational organizations, it would behoove us to look at countries that are at the nexus of legitimate and illicit routes. These countries are where high-flying groups must go to ground to get back into their target area.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.