KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Putrajaya must explain to the public the extent of the Islamic State’s (IS) influence in Malaysia, Lim Kit Siang said, following revelations from the police yesterday claiming Malaysia is not completely free from threat from the outlawed terrorist network.
The Gelang Patah MP said the police and the government are duty-bound to inform the public and lawmakers about the dangers the IS pose on them, instead of hiding the matter and giving the impression that everything was under control.
“The question that cries out for answer is why Members of Parliament, whether from Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, who had all taken the oath of an MP to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution, had not been briefed on the updates of the threats from Islamic State and Islamic extremism?
“When did the threats from Islamic State and Islamic extremism in Malaysia suddenly become so grim and bleak?” the DAP leader said in a statement.
Yesterday Bukit Aman’s counter-terrorism director Datuk Ayub Khan Mydin said no country in the world is safe from the IS threat, including Malaysia,
In a special briefing on the twin threats of the IS and Islamic extremism in the country, the counter-terrorism director said police intelligence has shown the need to increase security measures to face the threat.
“There is no country in world that is 100 per cent guaranteed to be free from the IS threat, including Malaysia,” he said in executive media briefing here.
Ayub presented evidence at the briefing to support his claim, but the details were barred from public disclosure.
Lim said Parliament and Malaysians are entitled to a full explanation why the police counter-terrorism campaign had failed to prevent IS and Islamic extremists “from gaining a foothold in Malaysia”.
He also rapped Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar for his alleged failure to contain the IS threat, accusing him of negligence for focusing too much on policing the opposition instead of dealing with genuine security threats.
“With such a “grim and bleak” account of the threats posed by Islamic State and Islamic extremists to Malaysia, it is all the more regrettable that the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had been barking up the wrong tree in the past year or so – twittering his attacks on Pakatan Rakyat leaders, NGO and civil society activists who want to bring about political changes through peaceful and democratic means but who completely renounce the tactics and strategy of terrorism,” he said.
The government said the threats of IS prompted them to draft and table the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in a bid contain the group’s influence from spreading further in Malaysia, which already has 63 of its citizens joining the group in Syria and Iraq.
Opposition lawmakers oppose the law as it allows for preventive detention.
Lim called for the government to delay POTA’s legislation to allow time to delve into the whole subject of terrorism with greater depth.
He called for assistance from the Police Anti-Terrorism Unit and the setting up of a Parliamentary Select Committee to provide a report to Parliament on the seven proposed anti-terrorism bills and on IS and Islamic extremists threats before the next meeting.
