Quora Answer: What Do Singaporeans Think about Opening the Borders at Johor?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What do Singaporeans think about opening the borders at Johor?”

To have open borders between Singapore and Johor effectively means to have open borders between Singapore and all of Peninsular Malaysia.  That is a terrible idea.

Firstly, due to the development and wealth disparity, Singapore would be inundated with immigrants from Malaysia.  Compared to Singapore, Malaysia has weaker border controls due to a variety of reasons.  This would mean a lot of undesirables slipping in, compromising our safety, and security.  This would be the primary concern.

Secondly, we have to consider an open border also means a loss of control of egress.  People can commit crimes here, and be gone before we have effectively managed to establish their identity.  Cross border crime would skyrocket.

Open borders with Malaysia do not grant us significantly discernible economic benefits, as compared to what we have now.  There is that balance between sovereign control and economic growth.  We would be giving up more in security than we would gain in economic growth.