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By Mihar Dias November 2024
Every weekend, the youth of Kelantan make the pilgrimage across the border to Golok, Thailand, where food is affordable, nightclubs are abundant, and entertainment doesn’t carry the restrictive moral labels we’re so fond of at home.
Apparently, Golok has become the after-hours hot spot for a generation that Kelantan can’t seem to keep entertained. .
But with recent drug arrests staining this well-worn path, there’s chatter about building a wall to regulate illegal crossings into Thailand. But the border is so porous that such a wall may be impossible to build with private jetties behind homes of residents fronting River Golok.
Golok’s MP, Amin Mat Yusof, insists that his town’s 40 newly bustling venues aren’t the seedy dens of vice some may imagine. Most of these young visitors, he argues, are simply out for an affordable night of dining, dancing, and blowing off steam. “Not everyone is involved in drug abuse,” he explains.
And he’s right: there’s a big difference between enjoying a little nightlife and carrying a pharmacy’s worth of yaba pills. In fact, Amin has been quick to put a five-year suspension on any venue caught with drugs. That’s about as harsh as it gets in a place that understands entertainment as more than a luxury — it’s an industry sustaining the local economy.
So why the wave of moral panic and sudden urgency to control the flow of Malaysians into Golok?
Kelantan, for one, has yet to come up with an alternative for the fun and freedom it doesn’t want to officially recognize. If we put aside the judgement for just a moment, we might see that Malaysia’s citizens aren’t escaping across the border for some act of rebellion; they’re looking for an outlet that their own state isn’t providing. It’s cheaper, it’s closer, and frankly, it’s less judgmental.
If we’re serious about supporting the youth of Kelantan, then maybe it’s time to bring some form of regulated, responsible entertainment options a little closer to home. That doesn’t mean Golok is going to be any less attractive for those chasing late-night fun, but it would certainly mean Kelantan wouldn’t have to monitor the border crossings with such hand-wringing intensity.
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