Now that we have discerned parts of the facts on the Syrian conflict, what is far more important is to understand how these facts affect our own country. On paper, the conflict in Syria does not seems to be connected to anything with Malaysia. But upon further study, understanding the Syrian conflict is critical in managing the threat risk within our country.
Malaysia - Syria Connection
On paper, the only connection between Malaysia and Syria is that of common international body memberships, particularly via United Nations and their pecuniary bodies, and that of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Diplomatically, Malaysia (then known as Malaya) established diplomatic relationship with Syria in 1958, soon after Malaya's independence.
Malaysia too is one of the few countries worldwide which decided to open its door to 3,000 Syrian refugees. Unfortunately, when these refugees arrived at Malaysia, many of them found themselves to be left to fend for themselves on the streets.
Malaysian Militancy - Link to Syria
Malaysians unfortunately had been linked with terrorism activities in a few countries. 2 Malaysians were arrested in Afghanistan during the US war against Afghanistan, while there were persisting rumours of Malaysians being involved in terrorist training grounds in Yemen, Pakistan, Indonesia and Philippines. In fact, one Yazid Sufaat, former Captain with Royal Medical Corp was once identified as al Qaeda's top biological weapons specialists before he was arrested under then all-powerful Internal Security Act.
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| Yazid Sufaat, former Al Qaeda bio-weapon specialist. |
Syrian Civil War had erupted in 2011. By 2012, there were several eye-witness accounts of Malaysians involving in militant groups in Syria.
The earliest evidence the revelation of a Catholic nun who was serving in Syria. The nun, invited to Kuala Lumpur to attend the Perdana Peace Forum, claimed that she had been approached by several Malaysian youths armed with assault rifles while she was in Syria.
This was followed with a was the arrest of 2 Malaysian youths in Ankara, allegedly on the way to Syria to join one of the militant groups there. The fate of the youths were not reported in the media, but it was serious enough to prompt Malaysian Ambassador to look into their arrest.
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| Halimah Hussein - still missing |
The next piece of the puzzle was the arrest of Yazid Sufaat and 2 of his assistants, 1 a canteen worker and another, Halimah Hussein, an ustazah for organising usrah recruiting youths to go to fight in Syrian civil war. The arrest which was made under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, marked the first time the act was used. Unfortunately, the ustazah went on the run almost immediately after being released on bail. She had not been heard since.
Several Malaysian militants were found to have surfaced later in Syria. Of these, the most infamous is Mohd Wanndy Mohd Jedi.
He is currently said to be the top militant from South-east Asia fighting under Daish's flag and is on top of Khatibah al-Nusantara, a group consisted of militants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Cambodia. He gained infamy for openly issuing death threats against Malaysian government officials and is believed to be the person behind the Movida club attack last year.
Lessons for Malaysians
There are many lesson for Malaysians to learn from Syrian Civil War. It is the matter whether we are willing to admit that we face similar predicaments with Syrians in our own country and that we must be willing to face these issues rather than allowing them to fester on.
Involvement of Foreigners in Malaysian Politics
First thing first, foreign threat is real. It is not a political boogeyman pulled out of the magician's hat every time we near to an election.
With Malaysia controlling one side of Straits of Malacca, any country that can influence Malaysia in our foreign policy will control at least a third of global trade. Hence, we are seeing leaders from many of the world's power coming to our shore. Some of these foreigners, I believe, have interest more than guiding and having political relationship with local political parties, be they pro-government parties or opposition.
So far during the last 10 years, I have managed to confirm involvement from at least 2 foreign countries trying to influence 2 election results in Malaysia. For 1 of the incidents, I have personally talked to a participant of the event organised by a certain unnamed organisation.
However, how far reach is these organisations being involved in Malaysian politics is yet to be seen. If their participation add colours to Malaysian political scene, it might be acceptable, as long as the participation does not entail the political parties to return favour in the future.
On the same note, I am quite uneasy with the actions of several parties who willingly called for foreign intervention in Malaysian affairs. On one side, the intervention of foreign parties are seen as an act of treason, while the other side will claim that the involvement of foreigners in our election process are just part of global transparency to ensure that our election process is clean. These disparate view of the same action may lead to untoward escalation between both parties which may prove too hot to be handled. Worse still, some of the political grounds movement led by some of these parties have known relationship with bodies associated with a certain foreign intelligence agency.
There is also the fact that some of the countries which Malaysian ruling party have party-to-party relationship which is detrimental to our national security. However, I have resigned to the fact that some of these relationships were built with the intention of maintaining global peace, no matter how much I may personally disagree with.
Existence of Internal Security Threat
On the local front, as mentioned earlier there are overt threat from Daish supporters within Malaysian borders.
The existence of these fringe cells, as small as they may be, have their effects amplified as they frequently play on religious sentiments.
Not only religious sentiments are played by these known terrorist groups. Politicians and their likes too have their shares in politicising many issues within the country.
Point in case, is the Low Yatt incident. A small mugging issue which had been overplayed into being seen as race versus race issue. Such incidents, if not carefully handled may lead to similar outbreak to that of Tahrir Square and Deraa arrest.
Conclusion
The Syrian civil war started out as a secular civil war but was soon engulfed with sectarian touch. Foreign elements provided support, sometimes to both sides.
In Malaysia, our once united society has chosen to see each and every one of us based on politics, skin and religion. Even our education system is unfortunately divided across the same political, religion, and racial lines.
The effect of dividing the society into dichotomy of politics, race and religion is called Balkanisation, opted from the word Balkan which refers to the Balkan region where Bosnia Herzegovina is located. When each society begin to see themselves as a separate group of people based on race, religion and politics, mistrust grow and turns into hatred. And when the hatred starts, bridges will be burnt and peace will be lost.
If we are not careful, we may end up in similar quagmire.
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| YDP Agong Sultan Muhammad V |
It is time, if we choose to call ourselves as Malaysians, to be reunited under 1 Jalur Gemilang banner, 1 King (His Majesty Yang Dipertuan Agong), 1 Constitution, and see ourselves as 1 people. My fellow Malaysians, it is no longer the time for politics but a time to rebuild our country.
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| For King and Country |
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