Malaysia Always A Safe Home For International Terrorists

Malaysia's position as a very naive member of the brotherhood of Islamic countries and its location in South East Asia has made it a support base for all sorts of terrorist movements, including non Islamic ones too.

Terrorists movements from neighboring states, especially Islamic terrorists, have long sought refuge in Malaysia. 

1. The Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) maintained a foothold among Acehnese immigrant communities in Kedah. They later established a leadership cell in Ampang in Kuala Lumpur. Of course their platform of setting up a Shariah state in Aceh made them useful vote getters among the villages for local politicians.  One day one of their leaders was shot to death by mysterious assailants in a restaurant in Ampang. The assassins were never caught - most likely Indonesian hitmen. 

2. The Indian Sikh terrorists of the Khalistan separatist group also had a presence here in Malaysia, with supporters in Bangsar Baru (Jalan Terasek, exactly down the road from our house). One of their more flamboyant local supporters used to ride a big bike. One day he died when his big bike crashed in Jalan Bangsar (so I was informed).  They used to go jogging in the evenings wearing conspicuous saffron headgear !! Their greatest achievement was when Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi cancelled a visit to Malaysia based on intelligence that there would be an assassination attempt against him in KL by Sikh militants.

  
3. I found out recently that the Chechens (Islamic separatists from Chechnya / Dagestan) also had a presence here in Kuala Lumpur.  I knew of at least one Chechen guy who used to work in the Jalan Masjid India area. A very fit and tall young man who wore the Galatsaray (Turkish) football jersey.  A source said that there was an attempted bomb attack against the Russian Embassy here in Kuala Lumpur, carried out by Muslim Chechen separatists. To plan a bomb attack like that would require substantial  logistics, safe houses and networking. They can get it all here in Malaysia.

4. Abu Bakar Bashir of the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah was a long time resident of Malaysia. He had PR status here throughout the 1990s. Who gave him the PR? He was not only based here but he recruited the 'Malaysian Islamic terrorists' who would become famous later as the Bali bombmakers, the Al Qaeda cells, the Guantanamo Bay detainees (that one fellow is still there) and such.

5. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have had the longest presence here in Malaysia. Although the LTTE has been militarily defeated in Sri Lanka their struggle is far from over. The Police have made recent arrests of LTTE members  hiding in Malaysia for many years - who are seeking to revive the LTTE struggle.  Here is a hint : they eat at restaurants either owned or frequented by their people.

6.  Malaysia has also long played host to the Moro fighters from the Philippines. Before, the Moros served as a trump card against Philippine claims and interference in Sabah. You kacau me, I kacau you. So the Moros found sanctuary here. Now the Moro issue has also evolved into the naieve and even more dangerous pan-Islamic brotherhood thing. Why do we support the Moros? Because they are Muslims. Well I hope the Sulu attack last February has woken up our naive players from their slumber. Muslim or Islam, they gouged out the eyes of our boys. 

7.  The southern Thai conflict has never been 'foreign'. Folks our brethren in Kelantan are actually the cultural inheritors of the Pattani Sultanate, a common heritage they share with four million Thai Malays across the border. The Pattani liberation movement can blend in anytime inside Kelantan. Their dialect is identical.

8. Now even more recent international terrorists find Malaysia a useful staging area. The Al Qaeda had cells here which they activated for the 9-11 attack. Their people transited thrugh Malaysia, picking up money and stuff along the way.

9.  I believe the Kashmiris like the Lashkar E Tayyiba and the Jaish e Muhammad are also here. Possibly collecting money and developing safe houses. There is a sizeable number of Pakistani migrant traders in Malaysia (perhaps larger than the entire Malaysian Pakistani population in Malaysia) who are always counduits as well as sources of funds and support for their brethren in Pakistan.

10.  Today we read that the Islamic State head-choppers also have their network in Malaysia. Someone is being watched or has been arrested for helping transfer money from Australia to the ISIS whackos in Syria. This is the 'Islamic' connection again. As long as it is Muslim guys, it must be good. Dapat pahala. 

11. A contact said that even Hamas has their network here. I will not be surprised because our PM himself has visited the Hamas in Gaza. 

12. The Iranian Qods Force would also have a presence here. They do not stir up trouble.  But I believe they are here to observe things as well as help in spreading the Shia message.  

13. The newest kids on the block are the Chinese Uighur Muslims or Xinjiang Muslims. They are arriving here by the plane loads. And they all traverse through Masjid India. Many are shoppers and cantankerous tourists. Some are more quiet. Watching and observing. I think some will end up staying behind.  We are so accomodating.  But for what real purposes we may not know.  This month four Uighurs with alleged ISIS links were detained on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.  These men had left China by way of South-East Asia (err Malaysia).

It is impossible that our security boys do not know the presence of all these terrorist and other groups here.  And the politicians too. Dont play with fire. Dont try to manipulate them for political bargaining or political manouevring. You are playing with fire. 

Here is my advice : this 'lets wait and see what they are up to' game is very dangerous.  Each time a bomb blows up in Iraq, they may recruit one extra 'jihadi bodoh' from among our kampong boys. 

Each time ISIS  shows another beheading video on YouTube another university graduate may decide to travel to Syria to donate her body for 'jihad al munakaha'. 

I am positive when the Sultan of Brunei declared Brunei a Shariah State, all the Islamic terror groups here were able to recuit a few more new recruits on that same day. They would have all become excited that there was now a Daulah Islamiyah in the region. The Sultan's advisors did not warn him of that possibility. 

Our security boys have a long history of watching, observing and managing these terror groups. 

Our neighbours knew this too and found it hard to trust Malaysia (I am referring to Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines). Even now when Malaysia is facilitating the peace talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Manila there is an absence of 100% trust towards Malaysia. They know we can screw things up for them. This is because of our overly Islamic identity. Can 'Islamic brotherhood' oriented Malaysia be completely fair beween Muslim Moros and a Catholic Filipino government? If your judgement is clouded by religious persuasion, how can we achieve peace between the Moros and the Catholics? We will not be fair to both parties.

And it applies even more for the Thai Malay Muslims. Let not religion cloud our role as referee. My suggestion is not to assume a religious angle which is always disastrous. My suggestion is massive economic engagement to uplift the economic status of the Moros and the Thai Malays. An economic integration of the border areas (Thai-Malaysia and Mindanao-Sabah) would bring about real long term peace. 

Bangkok and Manila are both 1000 km away from the conflict zones in their respective southern zones. Their democratically elected Parliamentarians and Congressmen could not be bothered about the 'problematic Muslims' who make up about 3% of their population.  Live in peace as Thais and Filipinos  but lets trade and prosper. 

I fear that a new element is throwing the equation out of balance - the Islam thing. With UMNO becoming more religion crazy than PAS, and with UMNO holding power, confused UMNO Ministers may pursue a more 'religion' oriented agenda in our foreign policy as well as in deaing with regional conflict issues. To canvas more votes among the increasingly religion oriented UMNO supporters. Maksudnya bodoh baru pula timbul. Create even more havoc in the region. 

And why do you want to become so prejudiced in favour of Muslims or against non Muslims? All because of a magical flying animal. I hope our security planners will be more mature than that.