Confronting the Spectres of Borneo’s Borderlands

A Hauntological Analysis of Cinematic Representations and Ethnography

Bibliographic Data

ID19220957
AuthorsChun Sheng Goh (0000-0003-1209-6591, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-15
Publication date2026-06-08
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Borderlands Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0886-5655 • E-ISSN: 2159-1229
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08865655.2026.2681032
OpenAlexW7163910610
LanguageEN
References cited12

Borderlands are haunted – not only by literal tales of spectres, but by the haunted histories, phantom sovereignty, invisible populations, and ghostly violence that shape everyday life at the frontier. This paper advances a border hauntology for Borneo’s borderlands by reading two films distributed via Netflix, Borderless Fog (2024) and Conquer: Lahad Datu (2024) alongside six ethnographic studies (Eilenberg 2012; Mee 2014; Carson 2016; Solmiah 2022; Zulkipli & Askandar 2021; Cheong et al., 2025). Methodologically, it treats film as an interlocutor that makes tangible the affective textures of poverty and mobility that statistics and policy reports obscure. Analytically, it shows how cinematic “ghosts” represent (1) the lingering legacies of militarization, counter-insurgency and territorial claims, (2) contested sovereignty intertwined with ethnic tensions, (3) embodied vulnerabilities produced by structural marginalization of women, youth, and children, and (4) persistent human insecurity rooted in weak protection mechanisms. The paper concludes that a hauntological lens helps reveal how these spectres continue to shape everyday life in borderlands, enriching borderland studies by highlighting the affective dimensions of insecurity and the experiences of marginalized communities

Discourse analysis · Ethnography · Narrative · The Imaginary · Asian Studies and History · Philippine History and Culture · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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