From Agha Ali
When the waters began swallowing the streets of Hatyai last week, rising fast, dark and unforgiving, it was not the statistics that first gripped Malaysians watching from home.
It was the grainy videos of families wading through chest-high currents, the trembling voices on phone calls asking for help, and the quiet dread of knowing that thousands of our own people were caught in a foreign city suddenly cut off from the world.
The foreign ministry, more commonly known as Wisma Putra, did far more than simply extract Malaysians. Its officers went into flooded zones, working with Thai agencies and volunteers to clear routes that helped mixed groups of travellers and locals alike. The mission quietly became a humanitarian effort rather than a narrow rescue.
Wisma Putra activated its consulate’s humanitarian response in Songkhla almost immediately. Malaysian officers went door to door, floor to floor, message group to message group, accounting for the stranded and calming the anxious.
Even as the situation deteriorated on Nov 25, with roads severed and currents turning treacherous, a team from the embassy in Bangkok pushed through to Hatyai to reinforce the front line.
More than 6,300 Malaysians had already crossed the border by Nov 24, according to immigration figures. Another 1,210 were evacuated in just two days. There were 340 on Nov 24 and 870 on Nov 25, moved through a coordinated chain of diplomatic staff, volunteers, Malaysian NGOs and Thai authorities.
Some 300 Malaysians gathered at Central Hatyai on the worst day, hoping for a way out, and they got one. Trucks routed them toward airports and border crossings, sometimes inching through waters strong enough to halt rescue boats. When even those boats were not enough, 22 jet skis from Pasukan Bomba Sukarelawan were dispatched to carve a path where nature had closed one.
Geography makes Malaysia and Thailand share monsoons, border towns, trade, families and, inevitably, disasters.
Good diplomacy in such moments is not just about formal notes or official communiqués. It is about the human practice of being present when it matters.
There are lessons too, but they point to strengths we can build on rather than faults to assign. The Hatyai floods reminded us that crisis support is strongest when everyone is connected.
As more Malaysians travel across borders every weekend, a simple act like registering with our missions or staying linked to local Malaysian groups can make assistance faster and more precise.
Eventually, the waters would recede, and Malaysians return home. But perhaps the story that lingers is not only of a flood but of the people who refused to let one another face it alone.
Malaysia has spent the year speaking of a people-centred regionalism. Here, we saw a glimpse of what that looks like beyond the summit halls.
In the end, that may be the quietest yet truest measure of what it means to be neighbours – and, more importantly, what it means to lead in Asean.
Agha Ali is an associate at Strategic Counsel, a public affairs and policy communications firm.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.