Terrorism and the New Malaysia (original) (raw)

COMMENT | Last month, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) arrested five suspected terrorists, among them three foreigners including a former member of the Al Qaeda. They also arrested a woman and a man from Sabah who were involved in terrorist financing. Meanwhile, two months ago, the PDRM detained eight suspected terrorists in Perlis comprising seven foreigners and a Malaysian. Their aim was to establish a learning centre promoting Salafi Jihadism in Southeast Asia. Last July, the PDRM also arrested another seven suspected terrorists including three Indonesians and a woman who were sending money regularly to Abu Gomez, a Malaysian terrorist in Syria. According to PDRM, since February 2013 more than 400 suspected terrorists have been arrested including more than 40 women. Recently, the inspector-general of police Mohamad Fuzi Harun stated that a total of 45 foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) have been detained since early this year and most of them are ISIS-linked terrorists. The current pattern of terrorist activities in Malaysia is startling. The influx of FTFs from various foreign countries is a matter of concern. These FTFs are from Europe, the US, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia and South East Asia. In my opinion, Malaysia is becoming a conducive environment or an incubator for terrorist groups like Isis, Al Qaeda, the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Fetullah Terrorist Organisation, the Jammtul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-E-Taiba and other extremist groups who spread their ideology to influence Malaysians to declare war on their own nation. In addition, they also want to recruit locals based on their false religious teachings by declaring the Malaysian democratic system as " toghut " , that is, un-Islamic. Further, the significant rise of women participation in terrorist activities-especially in financing matters – is evident because they pose less risk. Further, the terrorist groups view the contribution of women highly and they are considered an integral part of terrorist activities now. The vigorous movement of terrorist groups within Malaysia indicates that they are no longer interested in parallel activities outside of Malaysia. Another serious indication is the rise in the detention of women and foreigners for terrorist-related offences here. Therefore, there is a very high possibility for terrorists to launch an attack in Malaysia by targeting public places and prominent people. Unfortunately, there are now calls by NGOs and human right organisations in Malaysia to abolish security legislation like the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) When there is a conflict between individual rights and the rights of a nation and its people, which one is more important? Can we allow one person or a group of people to destroy this nation by killing innocent children and women in the name of religion or the ideology they subscribe to? We must be foolish to believe that these hardcore terrorists who do not accept our belief system will not harm us in the future. We must recognise that these terrorists are a totally different breed of people. For them, their ideology is the way of their life. They are very difficult to reform. The classic example is Yazid Sufaat.