style="text-transform: uppercase;">Kota Kinabalu: Former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor (pic) said there was a need to strengthen intelligence and interaction between regional counterparts in order to address cross-border crimes, particularly in the east coast. "I am a fan of the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu who authored a book titled 'The Art of War'.

"Sun Tzu said in any conflict, big or small, a military leader must know not only the strength and weakness of their side, but also of their enemies," said Abdul Rahim who was invited to give a talk on security issues in conjunction with the upcoming National Day at the Intan Sabah campus, here, Wednesday.

"The theory may sound simple but means a lot, because it is equally important to know what your enemies have," he said when asked on measures which can be taken to stop cross-border criminals, especially kidnap-for-ransom crimes in the east coast.

Abdul Rahim, who joined the police force in 1970, said Sabah has more tourist arrivals compared to Sarawak in general, but it is unfortunate that there are kidnappings and violence in the east coast.

"It is a setback for Sabah, thus the need for the dusk-to-dawn curfew order to be imposed," he said.

He recalled his days as the State Police Commissioner in 1985, these criminals were only involved in piracy, stealing fish from fishermen or robbing fishermen in their own waters, but have now advanced to finding money by kidnapping.

"In other words, we need to have the curfew order because it will be worse without the curfew order, because we are exposed, we have a vast border and we cannot be placing a ship along the water borders.

"The other key to the issue is to always be in the know of what will happen next, who are involved, who are the masterminds, we need strong intelligence, but of course this is easier said than done.

"There should also be strong cooperation between us in Malaysia and our counterparts in the Southern Philippines," he said.

On another note, he said threats to the nation's security have changed from the days when he was the Inspector-General of Police.

"In terms of the nation's security in general, Communist issues disappeared after the Hat Yai peace agreement which marked the end of the communist insurgency in the peninsula in 1989.

"When you say threats to the country, until today our country is peaceful in terms of communist threats.

The threats now, are from groups which are not from our country.

"The current threats are from the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, who have a different ideology and whose pioneers are not from Sabah, Sarawak or the peninsula but from somewhere in Syria.

"Even though their ideology may seem simple, they attract the interest of our youths with their propaganda over social media, silently trapping our youths into their ideology without their parents or friends knowing, influencing them into acts of terror," he said. He said lack of religious understanding is also what causes youths to be easily influenced by the IS ideology.

"Police records show that a majority of youths influenced into the ideology are Muslims.

So far there has been no reports of any Christian, Buddhist or Hindu youths being trapped into joining IS.

"Those preferring to be alone, not wanting to discuss or talk with friends and family have the characteristics of joining the IS despite knowing the consequences of doing so, their minds can be easily influenced and controlled into doing this and that.

"Once their mind is set that deep, it is not easy to get out, so when these youths are traced and arrested, they cannot be handed over to their family immediately, they must be separated and given rehabilitation to convince them that IS teachings are not true, that acts of terror are not right.

"In my opinion, rehabilitation should not be that long, when they are rehabilitated and freed, what is important is the roles of their family and the people around them.

"During the communist times, rehabilitating them is easy because it concerned real issues, it concerned people fighting for the rights of the poor and social economy issues, it is easier to break the communist mind set.

"But for IS, what are fighting for?"

When asked for his opinion on the so-called Project IC in Sabah which former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad has been blamed for, he said, it was best to put the matter to rest.

"This matter has been more or less discussed and investigated under the proceedings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, all has been said.

"The results have been published, it would be unsafe for me. Therefore, to say a little bit of extra here and there, I would urge that the matter be laid to rest and if I may add, as a result of the commission's report, the results of the commission are to be utilised, the good points of it at least, then lessons to be learnt, then those lessons have to be learnt," he said.