PUTRAJAYA, May 11 — Malaysia’s ranking in the 2022 Global Terrorism Index improved compared to the previous year, dropping by seven notches to sit at the 75th spot as authorities tightened their grip on domestic terror-related activities.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced the latest index ranking this afternoon after chairing the High-Level Committee Meeting on Terrorism Control here. He said Malaysian authorities only made two terror-related arrests in 2020, a huge reduction since several years ago.
“In 2016, 126 terror suspects were arrested but it dropped to 107 in 2017,” Zahid told a press conference.
“This is thanks to the prevention and enforcement of the Royal Malaysia Police, the Malaysian Armed Forces as well as the National Security Council.”
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, has grappled with the rise of Islamic radicalism in the post 9/11 era, which experts have attributed to growing support for a more conservative branch of Islam.
The US Department of State alleged in a 2019 report that the South-east Asian nation “remains a source, a transit point, and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for terrorist groups including Islamic State (IS), Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), Al-Qaeda, and Jemaah Islamiyah.”
Suspected IS supporters have also been deported from Turkey and individuals linked to IS or ASG planning to travel to the southern Philippines used Malaysia as a transit point.
Malaysian nationals are known to be among IS members, many having covertly travelled to the Levant region to fight alongside other militant sympathisers from around the world. Malaysian authorities believed they had been secretly trained in the Middle East.
Zahid said studies by the government showed terror suspects often have little understanding of religion but see theological-driven violence as a “shortcut into heaven”.
