|
Singapore is one of the four countries directly
affected by September 11. The others being Indonesia, Malaysia
and the Philippines.
In the third episode in the series on the men
in the battlefront in the war against terrorism in South East
Asia, Shankar Aiyar talked to Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Defence, Dr Tony Tan.
 Deputy
Prime Minister, Tony Tan, welcome to In Conversation. It's
been one year since September 11 and Asia has woken up to
the problem of terrorism, exactly in what way is Singapore
vulnerable to terrorism today?
  Let
me discuss the issue of terrorism within the context of the
security threats, which face Singapore today. In my view,
the most important, the most fundamental threat, security
threat, which Singapore faces is still the conventional military
threat to our sovereignty, to our territorial integrity and
our national interest.
That must come first. In the aftermath of September
11, it may be that some of these other threats which might
not have been given the attention, which it deserves. But
a country can only be secure if it can protect its national
interest. And without security there is no prosperity, there
is no economic progress. The national interest of a country
can take many forms of its any attack on our sovereignty and
territorial integrity must be resistant.
What we are facing now is terrorism on a global
strategic scheme. Terrorism, which is internationally directed
which is fostered, encouraged by a group with international
links. For example, the plot by the Jemaah
Islamiyah extremist ordered to explode 7 bombs, each with
3 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in Singapore, which fortunately
we were able to disrupt. 
|
WEB EXCLUSIVE:
Then
of course, there are other security threats, a few years
ago; we had disturbances, turbulence down in the south
in Indonesia. There was the danger of the influx of
illegal immigrants.
Fortunately I have just been down to Indonesia
about two weeks ago, I was very impressed by the progress
made by the Megawati government, since she was appointed
in August last year. The economy has stabilised. The
rate of the rupiah hasn't gone back to the wild swings
that it had under the two previous leaders.
Progress has been made maybe not as fast
some people would have liked but definitely moving in
the right direction. Therefore we do not face the issue
of a large influx of illegal immigrants, but you know
things can change. Who can say one year ago, that Indonesia
would be in a position that it is today?
On top of all these we have September
11. This brings a new threat of catastrophe - terrorism
in Singapore, the region and the whole world have to
deal with. It's a new form of terrorism. Like all countries,
Singapore is not unaccustomed to facing terrorist threats.
In 1974, in 1970s we had the hijack of Laju and in the
1990s we had the hijack of SIA plane by four Pakistanis
coming from KL to Singapore.
|
The foiled plan of the Jemaah Islamiyah involving
13 members, was not the first terrorist threat in Singapore.
In 1974, members of the Japanese Red Army hijacked the ferry,
Laju, belonging to oil giant Shell, to demand the release
from jail of their comrades elsewhere. A decade later, two
bombs exploded at a building in Orchard Road which was then
housing the Israeli Embassy .
In 1991, a Singapore Airlines plane was
hijacked by four Pakistanis trying to force Pakistan to release
their jailed comrades. Then, in the aftermath of the September
11 attack, secret surveillance video footage pinpointing bombing
targets in Singapore were found. It led to the arrest of 13
men in Singapore who were members of the Jemaah Islamiyah
with links to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the
world-wide al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden.
What
is it that you have gained in terms of information, intelligence
from them, from the people that you have arrested, of the
Jemaah Islamiyah?
I
think what we have gained. I think is better appreciation
of this dimension of this terrorist threat. It is entirely
new. It is something that is strategic. It is long term. Like
all countries now, we are in a war against terrorism.
Could
you pin that down to Islamic extremism in this region? Could
you spell out what is it that is new about this terrorism?
Ah,
the Al Qaeda has a strategic agenda. Their goal is actually
to rally the extremist Islamic radical forces throughout the
world. In order to advance their own agenda, which is to get
the Americans out of Kuwait, out of places like Pakistan so
that the radical Islamic regimes can be installed there.
Towards this end, they have carried out
these horrendous attacks in New York and in Washington on
September 11 last year. And they have inspired various groups
including the ones in Singapore to mount attacks against Americans
and American interest and against countries, which support
America in a war against terrorism.
And Singapore has made no, we have not
disguised the fact or try to camouflage the fact that we support
a war against terrorism. We see the attacks on September 11
last year, not as an attack against United States, but as
attacks against all civilised humanity in a type of open social,
trading order of which Singapore is a part. And if this type
of global terrorism is not curbed then the type of society
in which we live in today cannot exist.
|
WEB EXCLUSIVE:
It
begs the question, how come the Singaporeans who were
arrested here are those Singaporeans who are well to
do, educated. And not just in the case of Singaporeans,
also the hijackers who flew the planes into the WTC
and into the Pentagon, educated people trained and yet
believing in an extreme ideology of certain sort. How
do you explain that and what is the understanding that
Singapore government has on this issue?
This
is a complex question. I think what Mr Osama bin Laden
has done successfully is to bring his message of restoring,
bringing back the glory of the 12th Century Islamic
world onto this new order and the way to do it is to
destroy what he sees as a western, led by the United
States.
And he has been able to camouflage
his message in the form of extremist strategy. And it's
a powerful message. If you look at the perpetrators
of the September 11 attack, these were not people who
cloister themselves in religious schools for many years.
The leader, Mr Atta, is a very well-
educated architect with three degrees, I believe. He
studied in Germany, lived there for many years. He is
not unfamiliar with the western world. In fact he is
part of the western world. For him to carry this message
in his heart for so many years, to go through all the
meticulous preparation and then be prepared to give
up his life and that of his colleagues in order to carry
out these attacks means that it is a deep seated message
which obviously has a response in some of the more extremist
Muslim elements.
The
funny thing is the popular notion in the minds of people
is that it's the madrasahs that are encouraging Islamic
extremism of thoughts and therefore this needs to be
reformed, controlled or whatever. But what you do find
is people who are educated, quite apart from the madrasahs
like you just mentioned, Mohd Atta, are people involved
in this. So there seems to be a range of people involved
in these sort of activities.
As
I said this is why the war will take a long time. It's
not a type of war which you have been used to in the
past where you have a defined enemy. And if you have
defeated that enemy then you have won a war. What you
are facing now is actually a movement, which has many
facets.
One of the facets is the madrasahs
where religious scholars teach children some from as
young as six years old in the beliefs of what they believe
in their own version of Islam. And
the others are as in the case for example of Jemaah
Islamiyah extremist, the leader Mr Ibrahim, was teaching
religious classes to his fellow conspirators, all of
them were adults. And the message gets carried out in
many ways.
The Pakistani government now is
moving very decisively in curbing madrasahs within Pakistan
because they have seen how this can be a breeding ground
for the type of extremist thinking which can express
itself later in maybe 20, 30 years in a type of behaviour
which you have seen in the attacks of September 11.
To tackle this you have got to tackle this issue of
catastrophe terrorism on a broad scale.
One, of course, is the security
angle where we have taken steps as we have done in Singapore
in order to counter the security threats. But the other
aspect, which you have to tackle, is stop the flow of
funds for example, financial funds to these extremist
groups. I think here the ASEAN have signed a memorandum
of understanding at their last foreign ministers meeting
in Brunei, to stop the flow of funds to terrorist groups.
|
Segments 1 | 2
| 3
|
