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.
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