S'pore must deal firmly with all who participate in terror activities: DPM Wong
By Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 09 June 2007 2231 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Singapore will deal firmly with those who participate in terror activities whether or not Singapore - or Singaporeans - are their targets.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng came out strongly on this when he spoke to the media at a community event on Saturday night.

It was his first comments on the issue since Friday's announcement of more terror arrests.

The latest arrests are not about the Muslim community – they are about individuals who have gone on the wrong path.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng stressed this when he said the 28-year-old former lawyer detained - Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader - is not the first self-radicalised individual to be investigated by the Internal Security Department.

Others have been detected and counselled at earlier stages of self-radicalisation.

Going forward, Mr Wong says Muslim organisations and leaders will intensify efforts to reach out to the community.

"They will continue to reach out to the more vulnerable groups like the young who may not go to a religious teacher or who may go to the wrong teacher, or they simply go to the internet to learn about terrorism," he says.

But Mr Wong is just as concerned about another issue.

And that is the view that it is unnecessary to detain those who have not killed in terror attacks here - even if they had plans to do so overseas.

"If an individual can go overseas and conduct violence and terrorist activities, he can one day also come back and do the same to Singapore and work against Singaporeans. We've seen this in many countries.

"There are many veterans who have fought in the Afghan war and they went back to their country and became the leaders that provided the network to do terrorist activities in their own country…Saudi Arabia is an example.

"If having acquired the experience and the knowledge on how to conduct terrorism and they have a good network of former terrorists to work with them, they can become a serious threat to Singapore.

"That is why we take it very seriously that even though Abdul Basheer did not plan to conduct terrorist activities in Singapore, we have to deal with him."

Mr Wong also reminded Singaporeans not to take security for granted as terrorism is a national issue that everyone must work together to address.

He also hopes the ISA detentions will not cause people to have mutual suspicions of each other. - CNA/yy