How to Stop the Smuggling of Subsidised Cooking Oil to Sungai Golok 

By Dr Rahim Said 

Malaysia’s golden palm oil, once the pride of our kitchens and the symbol of government benevolence, has found new fans across the border — in the frying pans of southern Thailand. 

While we tighten our belts and queue for our 1kg packets of subsidised cooking oil, our northern neighbours are enjoying the same oil, cheaper, halal-certified, and smuggled straight from Malaysia’s subsidy coffers.

In short, Malaysians are footing the bill for Thailand’s sambal and tom yam.

The revelation by Kelantan’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) that subsidised oil meant for Malaysian households is being sold openly in Sungai Golok markets is both embarrassing and telling.

While we boast of our efficiency in subsidy management, our porous borders tell another story — one where smugglers, small traders, and opportunists make quick profit off a scheme that was supposed to help the rakyat cope with inflation.

Let’s be clear: the problem isn’t new. Cooking oil smuggling has been going on for decades. The incentives are obvious — our subsidised oil costs roughly RM2.50 per kilogram, while in Thailand, it fetches three times that. Add to that the “halal and trusted Malaysian brand” factor, and you’ve got a ready-made black market that even enforcement raids can’t seem to dent.

So, the question is not why this happens, but why it still happens.

Every few years, KPDN promises tougher action, more enforcement, and better coordination. 

Yet smugglers continue to operate as if Rantau Panjang and Pasir Mas were part of a single free trade zone. The oil flows northward as freely as the Golok River.

Enforcement officers make arrests, issue press statements, and pose with seized cartons for the media — but the next day, the shelves in Sungai Golok are restocked with fresh Malaysian packets, proudly displaying the halal logo and “Untuk Pasaran Malaysia.”

We must accept the truth: as long as subsidies exist, leakages will follow. The border is not the only problem — the system itself is flawed. The government subsidises the oil at the manufacturing level, not the consumer level. Once the oil leaves the factory, there’s little to stop it from being sold en masse to middlemen who divert it across the border.

Meanwhile, the local consumer — the supposed beneficiary — often finds supermarket shelves empty or rationed. The real winners are smugglers and traders like Somchai and Niran in Sungai Golok, who candidly told Bernama they sell subsidised Malaysian oil because “customers want it.”

How convenient.

If Malaysia is serious about protecting its subsidies, it’s time to move beyond slogans and symbolic raids. Here’s what needs to happen:

• Shift to targeted subsidies

Instead of blanketing the entire population with cheap oil, restrict subsidies to those who genuinely need them through digital cash transfers or subsidy cards. This reduces temptation for bulk diversion.

• Differentiate packaging

Introduce colour-coded packaging or embedded tracking features for subsidised oil to make illegal resale across the border more visible and traceable.

• Empower local enforcement, not just federal agencies

Border communities often know who’s moving the goods. Engage them as partners in monitoring.

• Legalise controlled export channels

As the Kelantan KPDN suggested, allow unsubsidised Malaysian oil to be exported legally to southern Thailand. This creates a legitimate market while starving smugglers of easy profit.

• Name and shame corporate leak sources

If manufacturers or wholesalers are complicit, make examples of them publicly. This problem persists not because of petty smugglers alone, but because of weak supply chain accountability.

At the end of the day, Malaysia’s subsidised oil scheme is meant to ease the cost of living for its own citizens — not to subsidise the frying oil for our neighbours. Compassion for the hungry across the border is admirable, but not when it drains our own kitchen budgets.

So while the tom yam in Narathiwat may taste a little richer thanks to Malaysian palm oil, the taste left in Malaysian mouths is far less pleasant — a bitter blend of inefficiency, corruption, and misplaced generosity.

Perhaps it’s time to remind ourselves: charity begins at home — not across the border.