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Dr Tony Tan has said that he plans to give priority to implementing
a national terrorism strategy during his tenure as Singapore’s
Deputy Prime Minister
Dr Tan, who is also Coordinating Minister for Security and
Defence, plans to get the new National Security Coordination
Secretariat up and running before he retires from the Cabinet
around the middle of next year.
For more on the threat of terrorism to Singapore, Yvonne
Gomez spoke to Dr Rohan Gunaratna from the Institute of Defence
and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
RG: Singapore certainly faces the threat of terrorism, but
this threat has been managed very well by the Singaporean
leaders and the Singaporean people. In Singapore, the JI (Jemaah
Islamiyah) as an organization, has been neutralized, but in
the region, JI is still very active. So it is important to
protect Singapore from the external threat of JI penetration
and JI attacks.
Picking up in that point, how will the new National Security
Coordination Secretariat help to protect Singapore against
acts of terror?
RG: It is important for there to be greater coordination
between internal and external security. I am confident that
the new organization that has been created, will play an important
role in bridging that gap.
Dr Tony Tan also spoke of safeguarding Singapore’s essential
infrastructure, like its power and water supply. He said that
the list of things to do is never-ending. Can you give me
an idea of what some of the things to consider are?
RG: The terrorists, world-wide, are very keen to target public
infrastructure. Therefore, the comments by Dr Tony Tan must
be taken to heart. And I think that some effort must be made,
especially to protect public infrastructure.
How exactly would terrorists target power and water supply.
I mean, how would acts of terror take place against power
and water supply in Singapore?
RG: Singapore is a classic case. If you recall, one of the
plots JI had was, to disrupt the water supply between Malaysia
and Singapore. So certainly, because we know the terrorists’
intention has been to do that, we must take extraordinary
care. In other countries, we’ve seen terrorist plans
to disrupt, for instance, the electricity grid in Australia.
Early this year, they made a number of arrests of a group
called Lashkar-e-Toiba, planning with a French Al-Qaeda member
who was planning to attack the electricity grid in Australia.
So certainly it is important to protect this infrastructure.
He also spoke about cyberterrorism. What are your thoughts
on this?
RG: We’ve not seen cyberterrorism as a significant threat.
We’ve sent hat terrorist groups are using the Internet
very effectively to recruit, politicize and radicalize potential
supporters. But certainly, at a future date, this is an area
where we will see greater activity on the part of terrorist
organizations, in order to disrupt computer-controlled and
Internet-controlled security and functioning of infrastructure.
Earlier we spoke about the National Security Coordination
Secretariat. What recommendations do you have for the coordination
of the different security agencies here?
RG: Unless Singapore invests in a sustained way, to bring
all branches of government together and have a unified approach
against terrorism, the threat of terrorism will remain significant.
You can reduce the threat by developing programmes and projects
that would ensure that various government organizations work
together, and you have a common approach to security. By creating
this institution in the Prime Minister’s Office, what
we’ve seen is that - the home ministry, defence ministry,
the information ministry and the education ministry –
all these organizations will be able to develop a common approach
towards the problem of terrorism. Today, terrorism is a significant
threat. It is not only a law and order problem, or a public
nuisance. Therefore, it is important to coordinate the efforts
of all branches of government. I believe that the current
thrust will enable the government to do that effectively.
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