National Security
SeaDemon Says
Scenario One
Heavily-armed group of men wearing black crosses the Strait of Melaka in twenty speedboats at night from the island of Rupat, 50 kilometers from the coastal town of Port Dickson. Travelling at 36 knots it takes them just 47 minutes to reach the Negeri Sembilan shores. Most land at the beach in Pasir Panjang to distract the security forces while three land at the town itself. Sending a group of armed men with suicide bombers hitting the waterfront cafes, the rest making for the refinery and power station in cars provided by sleeper agents. Being an insurgency or homeland security in nature, the OCPD could only declare the area as an emergency area but lacks the resources to combat them. He could not readily ask for the assistance from the various army units located there without having to go through the red tapes. Stretched thin in terms of manpower, there is very little that the police could do.
Scenario Two
The Chief Minister of Penang (whomever that may be) with members of the Penang State Executive Committee holds a function in the vicinity of Weld Quay. Several heavily armed men emerges from an abandoned building across the road and randomly fires into the crowd. Two of them managed to get close to the podium before blowing themselves up.
When two rival gangs got involved in a quarrel that culminated in a grenade-throwing incident in Bukit Bintang in October 2014, I went on air to discuss the matter and registered my concerns about the possibility of terror attacks in Kuala Lumpur and how real they could get. The attack in Puchong by Daesh sympathisers underscores this concern and shows that the police cannot cover everything.
Scenario One above is an enhancement of two actual events that took place in Sabah – both in Lahad Datu in 1985 and in 2013. In 1985, a group of 15-20 armed men from the Philippines robbed the Chartered Bank and Malaysia Airlines office in Lahad Datu. These men fired randomly at onlookers killing at least 21 people and injuring 11 others. The outnumbered and outgunned police sought help from the nearest military unit but were told that it was beyond them as the incident was a robbery and not an invasion. In 2013, a group of heavily armed men landed at Kampung Tanduo and started what was known as the Lahad Datu stand off. Insurgency by nature, the military was not made involved until after several policemen were killed.
Several years ago the police stopped three youths in Johor Baru from carrying out a suicide mission at the Causeway. When the police questioned one of the youths on the reason for wanting to blow himself up, the latter replied, “I would go straight to heaven, I could pick ten of my family members whom I would want to be in heaven with me, and I would get 72 virgins.” When asked what would he do with these 72 virgins he simply replied, “I don’t know.”
He was 13 when arrested, had no idea what he was doing but he thought what he was about to do would do his religion, him and his family a lot of good.
In times like this, the traditional school of thought where “terrorism is a network where one cell controls other cells” no longer applies. No longer does the body wither when the head is taken off. The terrorism of nowadays only needs likeminded people who share the same interest, ideology and wavelength. No longer do you need so many people to conduct a terror attack – and at times, lone wolves obsessed with the lunacy of the “teachings” would be enough to drive someone to blow himself up in the name of religion.
The recent arrests of Daesh-related operatives in Batam whom had planned a rocket attack on the Singapore CBD shows how dangerous these pockets of terrorists are. They are totally detached from what is considered as the main body of Daesh. All it takes for the network to expand and work are social media and phone apps.
