Terrorism: Malaysia to continue monitoring despite improving GTI

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia does not want to be complacent and will continue to step up monitoring of terrorist activities even though it is improving in the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

In a press conference after chairing the High Level Committee on Terrorism Control (JPTKK) meeting here today, he said Malaysia was ranked 75th in the GTI in 2022 compared to 68th in 2021, and that achievement gave a good indication of the country.

"However, prevention and enforcement measures at all levels will be enhanced. This shows that we should not be complacent... enforcement will be carried out by the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), the Malaysian Armed Forces and the National Security Council (MKN)," he said.

GTI is an automatic ranking of countries in the world based on terrorist activities. A higher ranking indicates that the country is improving.

Ahmad Zahid said that important preventive measures must be taken to avoid the occurrence of violence due to differences in political beliefs, religious fanaticism and racism.

"Psychological and domestic problems are also among the things that cause violence.

"The findings of the study also found that religious violence is not perpetrated by people who understand religion but by individuals who have no religious background but want a shortcut to heaven," he said.

In this regard, Ahmad Zahid said the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) has been asked to draw up a terrorism prevention education curriculum at pre-school, primary and secondary school levels as well as higher education.

He said PDRM, MKN and the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have been instructed to carry out continuous monitoring of terrorist activities on all social media platforms.

He also informed that several committees were formed to identify strategies to deal with terrorism in this country, including the National Terrorism Control Committee.

-- BERNAMA