‘Rerouting the Old Passage’: Covid 19-Pandemic, de-bordering and the reopening of ‘old’ trade corridors along the Indonesian-Malaysian-Philippine borders

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted border closures  and ‘extraordinary disruptions and constraints’ in the everyday practices of economy, everyday life and mobilities of people which signified continuities and increase in the b/ordering processes. However, this paper contends that the global pandemic has simultaneously become a (de)bordering opportunity for other borderland communities especially in (re)opening of ‘old’ trade corridors hence engendering new dynamics in borderland activities. Using the case of the land border of Sebatik Island located  between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, this paper examines the ‘unexpected’ opportunity presented by the COVID-19 pandemic through the reopening of the  informal cross-border trade between Indonesia and the Philippines. This is a vital component of what we call the rerouting of old passage and reclaiming old trading routes which existed before the establishment of political borders of nation-states between Malaysia and Indonesia. Based on key informant interviews and participant-observation in Sebatik Island between 2020 and 2023, this article analyzes how Sebatik Island traders and borderland communities initiated direct economic transactions with merchants, traders and buyers from the Philippines and produced a burgeoning (in)formal economy along this corridor. This illustrates how social actors demonstrate their agentive capacities by navigating the structural constraints presented by health and migration regimes through (dis)continuing economic activities and employing de-bordering practices hence we can conjecture that crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic does not only have one restrictive effect on borders but  has multifaceted effects on people and communities along and beyond borders.