Security checks are essential as some 90,000 people pass through Woodlands Checkpoint daily. - The Straits Times/ANN
MALAYSIA carried out more than 100 arrests of people suspected of having links to the Islamic State (IS) terror group and foiled seven terrorist plots last year.
Indonesia made at least 74 terror-related arrests and prevented nine plots last year – yet an attack occurred in Jakarta on Jan 14 this year.
By the year end, 150 people now imprisoned in Indonesian jails for terror-related offences will be released. And at least 100 Indonesians have returned from Syria, while 200 others have been deported by Turkey while trying to get there.
These worrying developments in Singapore's immediate neighbours were cited by the island nation's home affairs minister K. Shanmugam in a speech to some 300 senior Home Team officers Friday, where he outlined strategies Singapore was taking to counter the growing terror threat.The rise of IS means that the threat of a terror attack here is at its highest level in recent times. So countermeasures have to be stepped up, he told the Home Team Leaders' Forum, an annual platform for the minister to update top officers of Home Team agencies on key issues and strategic directions for the year ahead.
Singapore home affairs minister K. Shanmugam.- AFP
"In 2015, we saw the terror threat morph into a very different, newer, much more powerful large monster.
"It is now a qualitatively different and much more dangerous threat. IS presents a far graver threat than Al-Qaeda and its affiliates ever were," he said.
Last year, IS directed or inspired at least 56 attacks outside Iraq and Syria. Many targeted civilians, and Shanmugam cited seven major attacks this year alone.
IS' control of large territories and oil resources has also earned it hundreds of millions of dollars.
It also uses social media skilfully, makes people believe they need to kill in the name of God, and has recruited over 30,000 foreign fighters - some 1,000 of them from South-east Asia.
"In scale, network, finances, propaganda, IS is at a different level and sophistication compared with other terrorist groups," he said.
IS also seeks to set up a regional caliphate that includes Singapore.
Shanmugam had, in a speech two months ago, set out at length how the political backdrop in the region made it fertile ground for a climate of rising extremism.
"We have to keep that political backdrop (in mind) because when politics fails, then everything else fails, and that is unfortunately happening," he said.
He noted how in Malaysia, some of those arrested for IS links were commandos, police officers and civil servants. There was also a substantial threat posed by "clean skins" - people with no criminal records and who are not under the scrutiny of security agencies.
They come together through social media, and last April, Malaysia arrested 12 such militants who could get past immigration checks undetected if they travelled.
"Every day, we have more than 400,000 persons crossing our land checkpoints in Woodlands and Tuas both ways. In Woodlands alone, we have about 90,000 travellers via motorcycles and 80,000 travellers via cars, every single day," he said.
"You can work out for yourself the nature of the threat to us, from a would-be terrorist in Malaysia."
"When we complain about jams, one has got to take it in perspective, but it is very difficult to bring this point across to the broader public. The checks are necessary," he said.
As for Indonesia, he said some pro-IS groups are coming together under the banner of Jamaah Ansharul Khilafah. Other groups are also competing for attention, raising the risk of one-upmanship attacks.
The situation is exacerbated by shortcomings in Indonesian law, which currently does not allow for the detention of those who want to join IS. As a result, home-grown terrorists, individuals who are released, and those who have returned from Syria and Iraq are coalescing.
The last group poses a significant risk as they are battle-hardened with combat skills and violent tendencies, Shanmugam noted.
"They want to destroy what there is and replace (it) with what there is in Iraq and Syria, and in territories in control by them," he said.
South-east Asian militants in Syria and Iraq are also actively encouraging militants in the region to strike.
They include IS' Malay Archipelago Unit leader Bahrun Naim, who has encouraged attacks in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Last year, Thailand was hit by bombings in Bangkok's Siam Paragon mall in February, in Koh Samui in April, and at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok in August.
Some Philippine and Malaysian militants have reportedly pledged allegiance to IS, which could lead to the setting up of a wilayat or province in southern Philippines.
Shanmugam noted that extremist Uighur militants have also linked up with militant networks in this region, and as many as 3,500 Uighurs are fighting in Syria and Iraq.
Groups sympathetic to the perceived mistreatment of Uighurs in China could also target Chinese interests in South-east Asia and elsewhere. In Turkey, the Thai consulate was attacked after Thailand deported 109 Uighurs in July last year.
The Rohingya issue also has potential security implications, with IS targeting some 220,000 Rohingya refugees vulnerable to radicalisation in camps in Malaysia and Thailand. Shanmugam noted that the Rohingya have attempted retaliatory attacks on Myanmar interests.
"There are multiple layers of threats in this region - complex, interwoven, fusing religion with domestic political grievances," he said. "And we are in the middle, an oasis of calm, and a prime target for all." - The Straits Times/Asia News Network
