SOSMA - National Security is not Politics

The recent arrest of 12 individuals linked to the believed to be long defunct terror organisation Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) under the Security Offences (Special Measure) Act, better known as SosMA, had reignited arguments that the law is unconstitutional and inhumane.  With 2 of their assemblymen being part of the 12 arrested, Democratic Action Party (DAP) were quick to highlight the arrests as inhumane and illogical, as they claimed that the movement is long defunct, and they were quick to trying to push to abolish the act.

Unfortunately, politics and security does not go in hand.  And we have tonnes of past lessons to learn from.

The Girl from Ipoh

Before LTTE, before Daish, and in fact even before we had al Qaida, we were faced with threats from communism.  

In the 50's, the communist were having an upper hand as they had perfected their skills in guerrilla warfare.  And part of their success were owed to one very innocent looking young woman from Ipoh.  Her name was Lee Ten Tai, or better known as Lee Meng.

Innocent looking Lee Meng in samfu.

At 26 years old, she was already a hardened guerrilla as she had joined the organisation in 1942 at the age of 16.  As she was found to be very good in organising information, Chin Peng had assigned her to be responsible for communication for the whole of Communist Party of Malaya.  She was also responsible for the group's special unit known as Special Mobile Squad.  One of their more infamous attack was the attempted assassination of Tun Tan Cheng Lock using a hand grenade.

Tun Tan Cheng Lock, a target of Lee Meng's Special Mobile Squad grenade attack.

Yet, no one suspected that she was a communist leader.  That was until Detective Inspector Irene Lee of Special Branch came into the picture.  Intrepid, cunning and resourceful, Lee Meng had finally met her match.  Disguising herself as a member of Min Yuen, she was able to crack Lee Meng's network.  And she herself had gotten the opportunity to arrest Lee Meng.

Lee Meng in communist uniform in Kepayang, Ipoh.

Unfortunately, Lee Meng's case was politicised early on.  Back in 1952, some British Special Branch officers were still too rigid in their approach and Lee Meng was seen as a victim of these British officers' pride.  Added in with misinformation spread by Min Yuen members, local politicians came to her rally, including Tun Tan Cheng Lock which she had tried to kill before.  

Her case gained an international dimension when even Hungarian communist government had offered to have her exchanged for a British businessman arrested for spying in Budapest.  Despite all these pressure to have the case dropped, there were mounting evidence and she was sentenced to death.  

However, she had the final laugh as then Sultan of Perak had decided to pardon her.  She was then banished back to China, where she finally revealed that she was indeed a communist.  Later, she married with a key pulitburo member, Chen Tian @ Chen Tien.  

Note:

Despite claims that Chin Peng was responsible for the Haadyai treaty, the man that had started the peace treaty was actually Chen Tian.  Suffering from terminal lung cancer, he had requested to finally have peace with Malaysian government.  Details of Chen Tian's involvement was revealed in a book by Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin.  Unfortunately, I'm not able to share more information on this as I have since lost this precious book.

Jemaah Islamiyah - Kumpulan Militan Malaysia

Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 80's which ultimately led to the clay-legged golem's demise had led to the creation of thousands-strong military trained mujahiddin, caught up in the fervour to defend their faith and their brethren.  Add in the mixture of the Balkan war and Russian annexation of Chechnya, the world in the late 90's was a cauldron of firebrand.

Amongst those caught up in that call were 2 lecturers, Dr. Azahari Hussin and Noordin Mat Top.  Falling under the influence of firebrand Indonesian cleric, Abu Bakar Basyir, they formed the Malaysian chapter of Jemaah Islamiyah, which was relabelled as Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM). 

Dr. Azahari Hussin

Noordin Mat Top

Both men had even traveled to Afghanistan via Pakistan circa 1999 to obtain military and explosive-making training.

While their Indonesian counterparts were more overt in nature, their presence in Malaysia was rather reclusive that Malaysian police initially did not detect their presence.  In fact, some of their earlier actions were attributed to normal criminal acts, as the group's main activity then was to commit armed robberies against banks and financial institutions to finance their activities locally and overseas.  Furthermore, the police was then focused on possibility of remnants of al Mau'nah group which was responsible for arms heist, Bukit Jenalik tragedy and the bombing of Carlsberg factory in Klang Valley.

Their existence came to light for the first time when they botched a robbery in 2001. An alert security guard shot and killed two of their numbers and wounded another two.  This was later followed by the murder of Dr Joe Fernandez, then state assemblyman of DUN Lunas, Kedah.

Dr. Joe Fernandez

This led to an intense investigation that uncovered the identities of Dr. Azahari and Noordin Mat Top with another 70 other members of the group.  A dragnet was launched to arrest these men, but many evaded arrest as there was public mistrust towards the government, assuming that these individuals were wanted for political persecution. 

Both Dr. Azahari and Noordin managed to escape to Indonesia.  The severity of the actions of well-meaning public that had helped them to escape was only realised when both men were involved in Bali Christmas bombing.  Altogether, they were involved in at least 4 other bombings claiming hundreds of lives.  Both men went down in hail of gunfire.

This history repeated itself again with Dr.  Mahmud Ahmad, a Universiti Malaya lecturer.  This time, Dr. Mahmud Ahmad was affiliated with Daish.  He was last seen alive in Marawi when the city was caught up in the very first attempt by Daish to obtain a territory in Southeast Asia.  To-date, he is believed to be killed in combat operations by Philippines Armed Forces.

Dr. Mahmud Ahmad - believed to be killed in Marawi.

LTTE - Defunct Threat?

One of the main contention about these arrests is that LTTE has long been eliminated by Sri Lankan military.  Hence, they claimed that the accusation is false in nature.  

I'd love to agree that the arrests were false, but unfortunately, the recent arrest is not an isolated case in Malaysia.  

Vellupillai Prabhakaran

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Soon after LTTE had been defeated in 2009, Selvarasa Pathmanathan who was Vellupillay Prabhakaran's deputy and key person in procuring weapons was arrested at Tune Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.  Prabhakaran's mum was also deported back to Kuala Lumpur after she had tried to enter India from Malaysia in 2010. 

Five years after Prabhakaran was killed, four Sri Lankan were arrested in Kuala Lumpur for attempting to revive LTTE in 2014.  One of the four suspects had been discovered to have gone to Chennai and Bangalore to identify potential targets belonging to Sri Lankan interests.

In the same year, two other LTTE leaders were arrested in Kuala Lumpur.  Nathagopan and a man known as Irumporai were both arrested and deported to Sri Lanka in the same year. 

How Dangerous is LTTE?

Before Daish / IS or even al Qaeda had even entered our imagination, we had LTTE.

LTTE was one of the most dangerous and most capable militant groups to have ever operated.  In the period between 80's to 90's, they were the only militant group that were able to hold territories.  So far, they are the only militant group that had ever had their own air wing and navy wing.  

Using light paraglider, their air wing was able to conduct an aerial attack on Sri Lankan capital Colombo, paralyzing the capital for days in 2008.  Colombo International Airport had suffered massive damage in the attack.

Their naval units, known as Sea Tigers had frequently clashed with Sri Lankan Navy and managed to sink several Sri Lankan Navy ships.

Their infantry unit had also been found rather innovative with battlefield tactics.  Instead of mining pathways where soldiers are expected to approach, they mined potential covers.  Many unfortunate troops met their untimely death when trying to take cover from Tamil Tiger attacks.

LTTE even had modified bulldozers as armoured vehicle.  Equipped with machine-guns, at least 1 unit was used during the First Jaffna war against Sri Lankan army.

But what had made them one of the most dangerous militant group globally was their Black Tiger unit.  Infamous for their willingness to commit suicide attack, even former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi met his end to this unit.  And contrary to popular belief, it was LTTE's Black Tiger that had pioneered suicide attack using suicide vests.

SosMA - A Tool for Persecution

There are huge misperceptions on what is SosMA.  This largely stemmed from the fact that component parties of the current government had actively campaigned against the act by creating negative perceptions of it. 

Fallacy 1 - SosMA is Used to Prosecute Suspects

One key fallacy about SosMA is that the law is used to unfairly prosecute people arrested under this act.  SosMA does not have provision to prosecute individuals.  Rather, it facilitates the arrest and detention of suspects involved in activities that are detrimental to our national security.  Prosecution of the suspects still need to be conducted under the relevant Penal Code provisions.

Fallacy 2 - People Arrested under SosMA can be detained indefinitely 

Individuals arrested under SosMA do not get detained indefinitely.  Unlike ISA which allow 2 years detention, a person can only be arrested for 28 days.  After 28 days, the suspects will need to be produced to court for charging and deliberation.  This was why all 77 suspects arrested by our security forces in operational area of Op Daulat had to be brought to court to be formally charged. 

Fallacy 3 - SosMA is used for Political Persecution

This fallacy is a legacy from ISA era where many then opposition leaders were arrested under ISA.  While some arrests were valid, there were several arrests which were claimed to be political in nature. 

However, as mentioned in Fallacy 2, there are controls in place to prevent this.

During the previous administration, two men, Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Matthias Chang, both ardent Pakatan Harapan supporters were arrested under SosMA.  However, both were released by High Court as the court deemed the arrests as not in spirit of the act.

If the Court is able to independently decide against the Government's case, this means the contention that this act can be misused is far from the truth.

Allegations of Torture

Granted, the detainees had made claims that they were tortured by police personnel during their incarceration.  If there are sufficiently enough evidence to corroborate that a suspect is indeed involved in activities that would be a threat to national security, the prosecution would definitely have these produced in court and would carry more weight than a confession that could be extracted under duress.

Double Standard
It must be brought to attention that the manner the recent arrests involving suspected LTTE is very worrying.  Obvious double standards can be seen may further inflame Muslims as Muslims arrested with Daish propaganda material do not get similar defence from politicians.  In fact, some of these politicians had even tried to politicise SB - CTD effort to bring back Malaysians linked with Daish from Syria for intelligence debriefing and deradicalisation.

Sound Law

So in essence, the law is sound despite its nature being seen as draconian.  Yet the irony is that it will no longer be seen as draconian the moment a bomb explodes in the middle of a bustling market, with collateral damages in our own backyard.

Do we want that to happen?  I remember clearly, when SB CTD revealed there were scores of Malaysians arrested for trying to join Daish or other branches of militants after ISA had been abolished.  Many of these liberals begun to jump, clamouring for a preventive law to be put in place to protect innocent lives.  And yet, today, here we are, again.

Sources:

1. War of the Running Dogs: 1948 - 1960, Noel Barber.