Today, 27/05/2013, Yazid Sufaat and
Muhammad Hilmi Hasim were rearrested for terrorism under the Security Offences
(Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) 2012. They were arrested under section 130K (a)
of the Penal Code, which falls under SOSMA, for harbouring terrorists for
terrorist activities.
On 20/5/2013, Yazid Sufaat, the man
named in 9/11 Commission Report who is detained with another two suspects are acquitted
by High Court of Kuala Lumpur. The High
Court threw out the initial charges against Yazid, Muhammad Hilmi and Halimah,
after allowing their applications to strike out the charges for “inciting
unrest” in Syria.
When handing down the judgment,
Justice Kamardin Hashim said the court was satisfied that there was merit in
the submission by the defence pertaining to the charges and the application of
SOSMA, which was enacted under Article 149 of the Federal Constitution.
In his judgment, Kamardin said
Article 149 was only applicable for acts of threats in Malaysia. He released
them because they are not threat to Malaysia and citied that their activities only
inciting unrest in Syria.
In my opinion it is a narrow interpretation
of the Article 149 and section 130G (a) of SOSMA because they provoking
terrorist activities against an independent nation using Malaysia as the base.
This intricately allows other countries labeling us as the country that harbourning
terrorism. The implications of such labeling have huge impact of our economic and
political mileages. It’s had a detrimental means on our national security
because the history had proven in USA and UK that allowing a known terrorist
freely has the explicit implication on peace and security of these countries.
The latest terrorist attack in London had proven on this notion.
Yazid previously detained by the
Malaysian authority shortly after the September 11th World Trade
Centre attacks in USA under Internal Security Act which was repealed in 2012. Later
he was released by authorities from detention in Kamunting when they convinced
that he was fully rehabilitated.
Unfortunately, in February he and
two others were detained on the suspicious that they may involve with terrorist
related activities. Yazid was charged under section 130G (a) of the Penal Code
while the others were charged under section 109 of SOSMA.
He has been suspected has the main
recruiter as the two Malaysians who had been detained in Lebanon early this
year are closing associated with him. Apart from that in December 2012, a
Malaysian Mohd Noor Fikrie Abd Kahar, 26, shot dead by Philippine police at a
hotel after a scuffle with police who wanted to inspect a sling bag carried by
his wife containing a homemade bomb also closely related to Yazid according to
Phillipines authorities.
Now they are rearrested by the
authority. The hardcore terrorists are always dangerous to the society and
nation. Even though they seem to be apathetic to launch any attacks here but
the future is cannot be guaranteed.
On 23/005/13, in London, an active
military officer was murdered by two suspected terrorists in Woolwich. That
incident happened near to the military base which is regarded as the sensitive
place and the Prime Minister Cameron, had called for COBRA meeting which deemed
to be serious national security problem that needs a serious attention. One of
the terrorist had stated that we [representing a group of people] killed Lee
Rigby because Muslims are dying daily elsewhere and he will not stop fighting
you [British army] until you [British army] leave
us alone. Interestingly the both are locals who are radicalized to kill their
own people because they feel that the injustice is done by their army on ‘their
own people’ in other countries. These are the home grown terrorists who will
endanger the national security on the country where they born and raised. This
kind of terrorists is very difficult and hard to be contained. Even though one
of the terrorist on Mi5 radar of investigation but they concluded that he is
not the biggest threat and able to evolve from their monitoring system. This is
very much similar to the lax of monitoring prior to the Boston attack.
A few days ago, Moscow was attacked
by the terrorist as well. Russia’s security service, the FSB, killed two
suspected militants and detained a third in the Moscow region town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo.
The suspected militants were planning a terror attack in central Moscow. They
are reported to be Russian citizens, but trained for the operation in Pakistan
and Afghanistan.
On 25/05/13, in Dagestan, a terrorist
widow who had acted as the suicidal bomber injured two policemen with the blast
and a few days earlier, two car bombs in the same region killed four people and
injured dozens more. Stimulatingly, the Boston bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had visited
this region last year.
On 15/4/2013 there are two bombs
exploded during the Boston marathon. The authority said that at least three
people are killed including an 8 years old boy and more than 200 people were
injured. The investigation had concluded that two ethnic Chechens are
implicated to this terror attack.
This terror attack is an astounding
attack. The authority had said that there is no imminent threat. It is
evidenced that the bombs are detonated by the brothers near to finishing line
of marathon. They had chosen strategic places to detonate bombs where the bombs
were packed in an unsuspected way and were exploded in between 12 seconds
The suspected terrorist siblings are
who come from Dagestan had been living in the United States for more than a decade
but had been radicalized and motivated to launch as attacks on American soil
thorough the handler ‘Misha’ and various jihadi internet portals. According to
the younger brother the involvement of USA on Afghanistan and Iraq further
infuriated his elder brother to do such an act.
The attack is premeditated, well
planned and executed. These attacks had evaded without detected by enforcement
and intelligence agencies.
With events that had happened in
Boston, Moscow and London, the legitimacy of the PDRM to rearrested the know
terrorists is justifiable. The pattern of the terrorist attacked in those
cities is very similar. The locals especially the young ones who had be radicalized
to do a terrorist attack in their own country. This is absolutely intolerable
and for whatever reasons the authority cannot allow these people to walk
freely.
Further there some Malaysian terrorist
are named in the United Nations, under the Security Council resolution i.e. The
Consolidated List established and maintained by the 1267 Committee with respect
to Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden, and the Taliban and other individuals, groups,
undertakings and entities associated. They are Wan Min Wan Mat, Yazid Sufaat,
Amran Mansor, Abdul Manaf Kasmuri, Zulkepli Bin Marzuki and Zulkifli Abdul Hir
as the potential terrorists.
Until now, all their terrorist
activities are outside Malaysia. In future there are possibilities that they
can turn against our country. That’s the biggest security challenge face by
United Kingdom now. Before the September 11th they had very liberal
policies towards fundamentalists who were expelled and prosecuted by their own
countries. The authorities in UK believed that by allowing these extremists,
they can able to contain any attacks within UK. That’s undone by the homegrown
terrorist attacks in London on July 7th, 2005. These extremists and
fundamentalists are able to influence the vulnerable young persons’ mind to
attack their homeland. The Woolwich attack further proved on this notion.
National security is paramount. No
one is above the law. Then, again, a terrorist is a terrorist always. In my
opinion, a hardcore terrorist cannot be rehabilitated. There is no way to assurance
that they will not go to the terrorist path again.
If there is any loopholes in SOSMA
then, we are bound by the duty to do necessary measures or steps to exterminate
such gaps to make sure that the known terrorist suspects are punished to
safeguards our national security.
Under SOSMA, the arbitrary powers to
detain an individual indefinitely and without charge are longer available. The ability
of a security law is to use to fight against global terrorism. For such need,
the law must provide the necessary platform to the authority to detain a known
terrorist who becomes threat to the national security. Unfortunately there are
some people who are disagreed with this notion. The rights of a small group of
people must be snubbed for the interest of the nation.
Therefore the intelligence and
enforcement agencies in Malaysia must be vigilant and take serious measures to
contain any threats from these people.
Again, national security can not be
compromised for any one. National sovereignty with peace and security are the
important pillars for any independent nation.
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