Monday, March 9, 2015

Problem Solution Essay Draft 1

Terrorism remains a global issue that nations are facing today. Islamic State extremist groups have taken advantage of the anonymity of the online platform to execute their operations, such as propagation of their ideology, terrorist recruitments, fund raising and training-i.e. how to build a bomb. It is challenging to trace and crack down on all these terrorist activities with the rapid sharing of terrorist related materials that are easily accessible on social media websites.

A research that has been conducted by Gabriel W., Professor of Communication at Haifa University, have shown an exponential increase in the number of terrorist related websites from 12 in 1998 to nearly 10,000 today. In addition, online forums and chatrooms have allowed these terrorist group to dissimilate terrorist related information such as agenda and operation of the terrorist groups and answer queries that sympathizers of terrorist group had virally.

Referring to, ‘ Budget 2013: Self-radicalised individual re-detained’, an online news article by Bryna Singh, The Straits Times, it is challenging to de-radicalise someone once he has been drawn to terrorist ideology. Abdul Basheer, a law graduate turned self-radicalised terrorist, had been deeply drawn into terrorist ideology that despite being detained for three years, he returned to his old ways soon after his release. Not long after his release in February 2010, he was caught again later last year for wanting to undertake militant jihad operation abroad. This case study had shown the strong influence brought by the alteration of Islamic teaching by the Islamic State extremist groups. Based on Statistics Singapore, Census of Population 2010, Malay formed 13.3% of the total ethnic groups in Singapore. It is important that these Islamic practitioners receive proper preaching and not the altered version by Islamic State extremist groups online.

In order to counteract the influence of terrorist ideology brought by social media, the Singapore government had employed various strategies which range from heighten surveillance online and island-wide, mass scale simulation exercises to regional dialogue and exercises. These strategies are illustrated in the following sections.

As part of an initiative to counter against terrorism, the Internal Security Department Counter-Terrorism Centre (ISD CTC) was established in April 98. The ISD CTC is mainly involved in the monitoring and investigation of terrorist activities or incident. A 24 hours incident response centre was even set up to provide immediate response to security incidents. Intelligence gathered from cases of security incidents will be collected and stored by the ISD CTC for further evaluation and analysis of traces of terrorist activities.

As a means to identify and assess new emerging threat to national security, the Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS) was developed and launched by the National Security Coordination Secretariat in 2004. Analytical tools such as SKAN and Vanguard are part of the software that RAHS had developed, enabling the modelling and monitoring of emerging strategic solutions.

To increase surveillance of suspicious terrorist activities or objects, the Police MRT Unit was established on August 2005 to increase patrol on Mass Rapid Transport network to protect the public transportation installations. Personnel from the Special Operations Command (SOC) and the Gukha Contingent (GC) have also been deployed to complement police officers on patrol. In addition, the Police Coast Guard (PCG) had stepped up its effort to inspect ferries and other vessels in Singapore territorial waters.

To deter against potential terrorist attack, specialised military, law enforcement and civil defence units are established. These units include, Singapore Special Operations Force, Special Operations Command and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive Defence Group. Rigorous trainings and exercises was carried to prepare these special operation units for emergency civil attack. One of the mass scale impromptu simulation exercise, Exercise Northstar V, have been carried out to evaluate the readiness and coordination between the relevant units in civil emergency. This exercise also helps to raise the psychological readiness of publics in situation of terrorist attacks. A total of 22 agencies and 2000 emergency personnel and an additional of 3400 commuters are involved in this exercise.

Regular dialogues and information sharing between regional leaders and police officers enable the development of strategic counter-terrorists’ measures, monitoring and crack down of potential suspicious terrorist activities.

Up to date, Singapore have not encountered major terrorist attack apart from the Singapore embassies attack plot initialled by the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in 2001. This might had lower the public awareness of the potential terrorist threats in Singapore. It is thus important to have regular roadshows and educational talks in schools and cooperates about the risk of terrorists and ways publics can aid in the uncovering of potential terrorists activities. Furthermore, the public can help notify the authorities of terrorist contents on social media once spotted.

In conclusion, it may be impossible to stop the propagation of terrorist related materials on social media due to their abundancy. Nevertheless, coupled with counter terrorism measures such as stringent surveillance virally and island wide, simulation exercises and regional and community cohesiveness, we can limit the operation of terrorist activities and casualties brought by terrorist attacks.

References




Posted by at 1 comment:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)