Is Malaysia prepared against the threat of South-east Asia becoming the second front of IS (Islamic State)?

A visitor from Mars would not think so, as Malaysians seem to be distracted in the past week by the hitherto unheard-of issue of LTTE revival, with the arrest of Malaysians for involvement in suspected revival of the LTTE, as old photographs and videos – some of which dating back a decade ago – are being recycled on the Internet to create a “siege” mentality and to provide so-called proof of the revival of the defunct LTTE.

In 2012, the then former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, contributed US$1 million to Sri Lanka Tamils for relief as a result of their displacement. Is this now to be construed as support for the Tamil Tigers?

Worldwide, attention is focussing on what is going to happen in the Syrian prisons since the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate collapsed earlier this year.

The Syrian jails are packed with about 12,000 jihadist fighters, with about 65 from Malaysia and “several hundred” from Indonesia, which do not include their displaced wives and children.

Will these jihadists return home undetected and will they recruit new members and launch attacks?

We must heed the warning of experts of international terrorism, two of whom recently warned:

“Southeast Asia may be the newest breeding ground for militant Islam.

“The violence perpetrated by pro-ISIS groups in this region has been episodic and uncoordinated, but the underlying trend is clear—ISIS has shifted away from its initial concern with sovereignty over land and people, moving, in the process, toward a decentralized, global insurgency model.”

Malaysia must not be caught unguarded.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, October 18, 2019)