Last
month, France was under siege for three days by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) and Al-Qaeda in Yemen or Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
terrorists. It’s regarded as the vilest paroxysm of terrorism in France since
the Algerian War and was labeled as France’s 9/11. The impact created by these
atrocious attacks intensified worries about the failure of the French security
and intelligence agencies. Apart from that the home grown threat is very much evidence
on these attacks. This phenomenon is held as new terrorism. Typically, home grown
terrorists are emerging from sleeper cells and their attacks on civilian
targets will be decisive as evidence in Paris attacks.
Last week,
the most wanted terrorist in South East Asia, Zulkifli bin Adhir, alias Marwan has
been killed in Maguindanao, South Philippines as reported by media. He is from
Malaysia. The growing concern on terrorism especially the false attraction of
ISIS on recruiting young Malaysians fighting in foreign lands and possible
terrorist attacks in Malaysia make government to take forward-thinking steps to
tackle it. In my opinion it is a right direction as home grown terrorists and sleeper
cells are the biggest threats for our national security.
Recently,
a Malaysian married couple was deported from Australia suspected to be involved
with activities related to ISIS. This Malaysian couple under surveillance by
the Malaysia authorities and the husband is suspected to be an active recruiter
and had a constant contact with Malaysian militants in Syria. On 28 December
last year, an ex-army commando who was an expert in making and defusing bombs
was detained along ISIS-linked militants in Riyadh by the Saudi authorities.
Last year, two suicide bombers from Malaysia killed soldiers from Iraq and
Syria. It’s a startling development because no one here had thought this is
possible until it happened.
Apart
from that, the recruiters within Malaysia and abroad successfully ingrained the
sympathizers to become potential ISIS terrorists. For instances, the arrest of
a senior officer of a ministry, a trainer of National Services, two civil
servants and two members of the security forces. They are also recruited a
young person at the age of 14 years old and women including house wives and
female undergraduates.
This
is an unprecedented development for our security and intelligence forces. They
have to be more vigilant to identify and fight against the suspected sympathizers
and terrorist of ISIS from sleeper cells within Malaysia. For security and
intelligence forces this is an uphill task.
The
recent pledges of commitment to ISIS by the regional terror groups like Abu Sayyaf,
Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) and Darul Islam Sabah is alarming. Further the
arrest of former ISA detainees again under the Security Offences (Special
Measures) Act 2012 and the escape of three suspected terrorist to
neighboring country last year are arraigning the threat is real.
One
of the biggest challenges of our intelligence and security forces is to
neutralize the homegrown terrorist, sympathizers and uncover sleeper cells. The
recruiters and propagandists of ISIS are known for using social media for the
recruitment effectively. Therefore the relevant security and intelligence
agencies must come up with an alternative psychological ‘info-fare’ by
using social media to counter these recruiters of ISIS.
During
emergency, Malaysia used various effective counter propaganda tools to
communicate with people to defuse the threat of communists. Therefore our
intelligence and security agencies can use such methods/tools to counter
terrorism.
For
instance, France has launched a website to counter jihadist propaganda. This
website aims young people at peril of radicalization. It’s also outline the threat,
the government's retort, effective ways to deflate jihadist propaganda and the
role French people to counter terrorism. In addition, its provide a toll free
number where the families and friends who have recognize the radical changes on
suspected people can provide such information to the authorities. It’s regarded
as a deterrent measure to stop radicalization. Therefore friends, families and authorities
have to work closely and this is seen as a comprehensive step to prevent terrorist
attacks. The legislation, intelligence and security forces measures can be
considered as add on together with public involvement which is indicated as the
most prominent step to prevent terrorist attack. The lack of manpower and
resources are implicated as the biggest contributing factors for the lapse of
security in Paris terrorist attacks.
With
the new legislation and monitoring intelligence methods to unearth the entire
terrorist network, the relevant agencies also must maintain and updates a
terrorist database. This database must compile local terrorists and
sympathizers who are frequented to terrorist ‘hot spot’ countries like Yemen,
Iraq and Syria. In addition, this database also can collect female terrorist/
sympathizers. The creation of this database with cooperation and coordination
with various intelligence and security agencies worldwide will help to prevent
or minimize risk of a terrorist attack in Malaysia.
In a nutshell, to eliminate this threat in Malaysia, the collaboration between government and non-government agencies is so crucial. Further, the public’s pro-active role by filling the gap by assisting and supporting the relevant agencies on security issues will safeguard the national sovereignty from such perpetrators.
Kuala Lumpur.
This article was published:
http://www.thesundaily.my/node/294269
http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Letters/2015/02/05/Be-vigilant-against-IS-sympathisers/
This article was published:
http://www.thesundaily.my/node/294269
http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Letters/2015/02/05/Be-vigilant-against-IS-sympathisers/
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