Abolishing ISA a blow to fighting terrorism
Published on: Friday, October 09, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Police are finding it tougher to handle cases of extremism with the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA), said Sabah Special Branch Chief SAC Datuk Clarence Rorote ak Sagon, here.He said the Prevention of Terrorism Act which was introduced after ISA was repealed provides for a much higher burden of proof."ISA had helped the police a lot, especially in carrying out their duties. For Pota, just like any other laws, if the suspect is detained, he or she still needs to be brought to the court with solid evidence.
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"With ISA, our (the police) work is much easier to contain all these cases because the moment we detect something we could investigate it and take action."But now, in some cases, the incident would have already happened and it's very difficult to get solid evidence. And in the court, the burden of proof is very high," Clarence said during the Sustainability on National Security Seminar, at Intan (Sabah Campus), near here.He presented a talk on Understanding and Preventing Extremism Influence from Malaysians: The Lesson and Direction of Security Threats.According to Clarence, even though there are many cases being brought to the court under Pota, to date, there are only one or two cases where the suspects were convicted.
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"It is only a prevention (Act) so it's not going to be easy to fight against IS (Islamic State) threats. There is still much to be done and we cannot turn back to ISA even though there are certain quarters who are pressuring for the law to be reinstated. "In some cases, they were released after they were detained due to the high burden of proof. So what will happen to them? Of course, we will continue to monitor them but it's not an easy task."
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The effectiveness of Pota, he said, in curbing extremism is also yet to be proven. Clarence also said currently the most highlighted and dangerous militant group is IS and Malaysia is not excluded from its influence."According to the latest figure in our record, 61 Malaysians had joined IS in Syria and we were informed that 10 of them had died."And this year, five suspects from Sabah had been detained." Some of the former ISA detainees involved with militant groups even went back to their previous activities after they were released and went to Syria to join IS, he said."We conducted rehabilitation programmes for them while they were in detention and they were showing good behaviour just like normal people. But once released they went back to extremism," Clarence said. He disclosed that militant groups like Jemaah Islamiah (JI), Darul Islamiah (DI) and Malaysian Militant Group (KMM) had formed networks with international terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who are active in southern Philippines."They usually send their members for paramilitary training at Afghanistan and southern Philippines as a preparation to launch attacks. The training is still ongoing. "We are concerned as they usually make Sabah their transit point. Based on the information that we gathered, they sometimes take advantage by joining groups like Jemaah Tabligh (preachers) that have annual gatherings in Tawau and other places. "This is worrying as they could use such activities to sneak into the country, but we always monitor this situation."Clarence said while the police are constantly improving security levels in the country, especially in the East Coast of Sabah, the effort of preventing Malaysians from getting involved in extremism should be done by all quarters.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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