Foiled attempt to attack Marina Bay with rocket ‘the nature of things to come’: Shanmugam
Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law K Shanmugam, engaging with the Emergency Response team (ERT) at the Jubilee Bridge on July 22, 2016. Photo: Koh Mui Fong
SINGAPORE — There will be people who will want to harm Singapore, including some who plot their attacks beyond our shores, and such threats are “the nature of things to come”, said Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Saturday (Aug 06).
But the seriousness of these threats is is getting through” to Singaporeans”, said Mr Shanmugam, as he urged Singaporeans to step forward to be trained in responding to threats and incidents, should they happen.
Mr Shanmugam, who is also the Law Minister, was speaking to reporters a day after the Indonesian authorities arrested six terror suspects, who had allegedly plotted to launch rockets to Marina Bay from Batam.
Aged between 19 and 46, the suspects are purportedly part of a terror cell called KGR@Katibah GR, which is said to have links to Bahrun Naim, the alleged mastermind behind the shopping mall bomb attack in central Jakarta earlier this year.
Said Mr Shanmugam, on the sidelines of a visit to Chong Pang: “People who want to do harm to us are very serious, the different types of plans they have thought of, hatched, and all around us, there are places where people can come together and plan to attack us.”
Apart from the threat posed by those based outside of Singapore, the Republic also faces threats from the 200 million people coming through Singapore’s borders, as well as from homegrown radicalised individuals.
Noting that cooperating with regional partners will be an ongoing work-in-progress, Mr Shanmugam said: “The threats, what we saw being foiled in Batam, this is the nature of things to come. This is continuing, it’s not going to go away.”
He added: “We need to get it right every single time, the terrorists only need to get it right once to make a statement.”
Nonetheless, he felt “the message is getting through” to Singaporeans, and more are aware of the risks.
Asked about the Batam plot, Mr Shanmugam said he could not go into the intelligence or operational details, adding that there has been close cooperation on not just this matter, but on other issues as well.
The authorities here said on Friday that they had been aware of the alleged plot and have been coordinating closely with the Indonesian authorities.
Mr Shanmugam said from time to time, there will be intelligence-sharing on plans to attack and infiltrate Singapore.
Broadly, the cooperation between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore has been good, he added, pointing out that he will be flying to Bali on Aug 9 for regional security conference, where leaders will discuss regional cooperation.
Asked about concerns over the adequacy of Indonesian laws and the risk that the suspects might be released in the near term, Mr Shanmugam noted that Indonesian security officials have said that Indonesia needs tougher laws to better deal with such threats.
“There has been talk of Indonesia putting in place additional security measures, I’m sure that is something they will look at,” he said.
