"The rising threat of Islamic-oriented global and regional terrorism has posed the greatest challenge to Singapore's foreign policy since the end of the Cold War" Do you agree?

University Degree Subjects allied to Medicine

“The rising threat of Islamic-oriented global and regional terrorism has posed the greatest challenge to Singapore’s foreign policy since the end of the Cold War” Do you agree?

It is exhaustive to reiterate the vulnerable religious circumstances of Singapore’s immediate external environment. Singapore has been called a ‘red dot’, a ‘Third China’, with the addition of many other innuendos. The end of the Cold War heralded the elimination of the threat of communism globally, giving rise to other threats once perceived as meagre. Radical interpretations of Islam resulting in religious-oriented terrorism poses a gargantuan challenge to Singapore’s conduct of foreign policy. In this paper I will examine how terrorism poses a threat to Singapore’s foreign policy in addition to two other threats; disease and religious fundamentalism.

Radical interpretations of Islam are not a new development. In the 1870s, religious Muslims who returned from the haj inspired by the austere Wahabbi fundamentalism they encountered in Mecca embarked on the Padri wars in West Sumatra.

At the beginning of the 20th century, pamphleteers and editors in Singapore, then the hub of the regional Malay-language media, spread competing Islamic doctrines around the region. They set the stage for a political contest between the Kaum Muda (the reformists) and the Kaum Tua (the traditional establishment).

In the 1950s, the new Indonesian republic faced a major challenge from the Darul Islam revolt, which was supported by Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir, the leaders of today's Jemaiah Islamiyah (JI). Colonial regimes in the region, as well as post-colonial leaderships, agonised over the role of Islam and recognised the challenge posed by Islamic radicals bent on overturning the existing state order.

Today, the JI redefined jihad to justify revolutionary violence against internal and external enemies of Islam. Like Osama bin Laden, its leaders justified violence against Muslim rulers on the grounds that they suppressed Islamic law and were therefore apostates to be punished with death.

Al-Qaeda's greatest advantage is the logistical and operational flexibility it enjoys. Having no state to defend, it can maintain a flat, transnational, and clandestine organisational scheme with minimal dedicated physical infrastructure. Al-Qaeda is present in up to 60 countries, and intelligence agencies estimate that at least 20,000 jihadists were trained in its Afghan camps since 1996.

Al-Qaeda, which absorbed Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1998, can function on its own or through associated terrorist groups such as the Jemaiah Islamiyah. The group's cells operate semi-autonomously, maintaining links through field commanders to bin Laden and his shura (council), who can activate networks and give operational orders. Al-Qaeda members seem well versed in operational security measures, and have limited their use of electronically traceable telecommunications equipment – such as mobile phones, satellite phones and the internet – to hinder detection by technical means. Post-11 September investigations have demonstrated a high aptitude for improvisation and for eluding official scrutiny. An example is Moutel El-Moutassedeq, an Al-Qaeda member in Germany, who was specifically tasked with assisting – though not directly participating in – the 11 September attacks. El-Moutassedeq signed legal documents in the names of active terrorists in the Hamburg cell run by suspected 11 September ringleader Mohamed Atta. Consequently, these terrorists appeared to be in Germany, when in fact they were in the US.

US-led military action in Afghanistan and the continuing allied military presence in that country – both in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks – have released the Taliban's grip on power. They have also deprived al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, his inner circle and hundreds of rank-and-file Al-Qaeda members of a friendly host, a recruiting 'magnet' and a relatively comfortable physical base of operations. The military campaign killed some leaders, such as military planners and key members, forced others further underground and hobbled Al-Qaeda operationally. The global intelligence and law-enforcement mobilisation, meanwhile, has made communications, travel and financing more ...

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Malaysia and Singapore are two of the most stable countries in the region. However, their neighbors, Indonesia and the Philippines, have been plagued by ethnic and religious violence. Islamic groups in the Philippines have long been thought to receive training and financing from Al-Qaeda. The US military presence in Saudi Arabia and American support for Israel in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict are cited, in post-11 September Al-Qaeda videotapes aired on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news network, as justifications for Al-Qaeda terrorist operations. Also referred to is the alleged historical humiliation of Islam at the hands of the Judeo-Christian West. Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith has said that there can be no truce until the group has killed 4 million Americans, whereupon others could convert to Islam. Thus, the US remains al-Qaeda's prime target, and measures to draw down American military deployments in the Middle East/Gulf region and constructive US intervention in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict would not defuse Al-Qaeda's overriding intention to weaken the US as a superpower.

Unlike 'old' ethno-nationalist or ideological terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda cannot be tamed or controlled through political compromise or conflict resolution. Operational counter-terrorist measures are required – primarily in intelligence and law-enforcement, and occasionally in the military sphere. There is a premium on inter-governmental cooperation insofar as Al-Qaeda operates in multiple 'fields of jihad'. In South-east Asia, the Philippines hosts Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic terrorist group with demonstrated Al-Qaeda connections while Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, is subject to intensifying radical Islamic influences. Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean Muslims were involved in an Al-Qaeda plot, thwarted in January 2002, to attack US, UK, Israeli and Australian assets in Singapore.

American companies are one of the Southeast Asian city-state's largest employers. At the same time, Singapore has close strategic ties to Washington, and recently opened a deep-water navy base that was built specifically to accommodate giant U.S. aircraft carriers. Security around embassies and other sensitive areas in Singapore has been beefed up. Soon after the arrests, police set up a roadblock outside the Israeli Embassy. American interests, including Singapore's American Club were being guarded by armed Gurkhas, the elite Nepalese fighters who help maintain security across the region.

According to Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, there are several levels of security concerns pertaining to regional terrorism with respect to Indonesia. The first level involves direct co-operation on the people who are wanted by the Singaporean authorities, like Mas Selamat Kastari, who has since been captured. The second level involves the people who were directly involved in the Bali bombings and the JW Marriott Hotel, who like the former, has also been captured and tried. The third and most sticky issue revolves around the planners and the infrastructure, the people who are not directly involved: the ‘queen bees’ of the terrorist organisations. He personally terms them as the ‘nurseries’ from which the potential terrorists emerge. With democracy, checks and balances appear in the system that Indonesia has sought to implement; as signified by the ejection of the Indonesian equivalence of Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA). The current year 2004, being an election year, coupled with a population comprising of 95% Muslims, only serves to complicate the identification and the execution of anti-terrorist measures in Indonesia.

It is true that the counter-terrorism effort has impelled an already highly decentralised and elusive transnational terrorist network to become even more underground and protean, and therefore still harder to identify and neutralise. Al-Qaeda and its international and regional counterparts remains a potent transnational terrorist organisation that may take a generation to dismantle.

Disease

Disease epidemics like the SARS virus and the Bird Flu can also pose challenges to Singapore’s foreign policy. Health is an essential element of human development. Rather than a social cost health should be considered an enabler of economic development. It makes a critical contribution to social and political stability.

It is accepted that a healthy population is as much a prerequisite for economic growth as a result of it. The World Health Organisation’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health provides a very comprehensive analysis of the links between health and economic development. Its conclusion is that disease is a drain on development and that investments in health are a concrete input into economic growth.

In its simplest terms, children with better health will get a better education and make a stronger contribution to economic and social development. It is also accepted that developed countries have a vital self-interest in promoting health in other, less developed, countries as a means of securing global stability and security.

Security is but one, albeit important, aspect of increasing interdependence of health systems. The phenomenal growth of international travel and trade has vastly increased the speed with which pathogens can cross continents, invade new territories, and develop resistance to medicines.

Over a three month period, SARS wreaked havoc across the region. While the number of deaths was not as high as it might have been, it has had a profound economic, social and psychological impact. The total cost to countries in our region is estimated at some $85 billion. The economic impact will be most felt by more vulnerable segments of society; reducing the resources available for poverty reduction and to build the capacity of health systems.

A particularly disturbing aspect was the level of fear and mistrust generated, both in government and in the ability of health systems to respond. In threatening not only the health of individuals, but the economic and health infrastructure of the region’s affected countries, the SARS epidemic illustrates the critical importance of health and health systems to maintaining the economic and social stability of our region.

SARS demanded quick response times, and mobilisation of skilled health professionals and flexibility. It required a high degree of co-operation and co-ordination both at the country and global levels. SARS highlights that the separation between domestic and international health problems is no longer an option. Nor is it an option - if we are to realise the benefits that health has to contribute to global economic development. This is particularly so as globalisation is making borders an anachronism.

Religion fundamentalism

Religion was identified as especially problematic in the latter half of the 1980s for three reasons. First, Singapore's Malay population was argued to have conflicting loyalties to the state and to Islam. Secondly, the growing influence of evangelical Christianity among the Chinese was viewed as potentially destabilising if it provoked proselytising activity among other ethnic groups. Thirdly, the emergence of a socially activist form of Catholicism and its alleged links with a 'Marxist Conspiracy' contributed to the construction of a ‘moral panic’ (as quoted by Michael Hill) which involved the deployment of the security services and eventually led to the introduction of legislation constraining religious organisations.

Lee Hsien Loong, a Senior Minister in the government, who replied during a constituency tour to the question why there were no Malay pilots in the Singapore Armed Forces in the following way:

"If there is a conflict, if the SAF is called upon to defend the homeland, we don't want to put any of our soldiers in a difficult position where his emotions for the nation may come in conflict with his emotions for his religion, because these are two very strong fundamentals, and if they are not compatible, then they will be two very strong destructive forces in opposite directions".

Singapore’s neighbours constantly harp upon such issues, as illustrated by the considerable adverse comment in Malaysia, with one political representative in Malaysia accusing the PAP leadership of chauvinism. Racial issues can truly undermine a state’s vulnerability if not treated with care. The Israeli-Palestine conflict truly remonstrates this principle.

Not withstanding, it should be noted that Islam has been fully incorporated into the state. Under the Administration of Muslim Law Act – in force since 1968 – there is a supreme Islamic Council, the Majlis Ugama Islam, and Singapura (MUIS) which advises the President of Singapore in matters relating to the Muslim religion in the country. Its President is appointed by the President of Singapore, it contains the Mufti of Singapore (also appointed by the President of Singapore in consultation with the MUIS), five members appointed by the President of Singapore on the recommendation of the government, and at least seven other members appointed by the President of Singapore from a list of nominees. Hence consultation between the government and Muslim authorities is facilitated at the highest level, and is also encouraged at the grassroots level through the agency of community leaders. Such consultation was embarked upon in the aftermath of the Israeli President's visit, with a forum of Muslim and Malay organisations in January 1987 calling for greater government sensitivity towards Malay Singaporeans, coupled with more open and mature discussion.

Conclusion

Terrorism poses the biggest threat to the world in this day and time, comparable to the once eminent threat of communism. Other potential hazards like population growth, pollution, migration, economic exploitation, resource depletion, human rights, and democratism are also omni-present in the turbulent world of politics.

Bibliography

Barry Desker, Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Straits Times Commentary

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Chair, to Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO; Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health , World Health Organisation, 20 December 2001.

Michael Hill, Professor of Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 1998. Conversion and subversion: Religion and the management of moral panics in Singapore

Straits Times, 18 March 1987.

Sunday Times, I March 1987.

Straits Times, 2 Feb 2004.

(as on 15 march 2004)

Barry Desker, Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Straits Times Commentary

(as on 15 march 2004)

Straits Times, FEB 2, 2004.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Chair, to Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO; Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health , World Health Organisation, 20 December 2001.

Michael Hill, Professor of Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.1998 Conversion and subversion: Religion and the management of moral panics in Singapore

Straits Times, 18 March 1987.

Sunday Times, I March 1987.