The 19-year-old student detained last month for planning to join
terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) intended to
kill President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
if he could not leave Singapore for Syria, Mr Lee disclosed on
Friday.
His comments, in a speech at the opening of the annual Shangri-La
Dialogue security summit, come two days after the Ministry of Home
Affairs announced it had detained M Arifil Azim Putra Norja'i, and
arrested another 17-year-old student who had been radicalised for
further investigations.
The ministry had said Arifil gave considerable thought to how he
would attack key facilities and assassinate government leaders, but
did not go into details.
On Friday, Mr Lee said of his case: "This is why Singapore takes
terrorism, and in particular ISIS, very, very seriously. The threat
is no longer over there, it is over here."
Mr Lee also announced that Singapore's deployment of a KC-135
tanker refueling aircraft to the Middle East started on Friday. The
tanker is part of Singapore's participation in the international
coalition against ISIS.
In his speech, Mr Lee said terrorism was not an entirely new
phenomenon, and various politically-motivated terror groups have
largely faded away.
But the problem of jihadi terrorism will be around for a long time,
and many societies were now finding home-grown terrorists and
self-radicalised individuals who can mount attacks with minimal
resources.
ISIS has managed to exploit the Internet and social media to
attract over 20,000 foreign fighters from all over the world, who
will pose a threat when they return.
ISIS supporters have carried out lone-wolf attacks in a number of
countries, and two weeks ago, ISIS leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi
repeated a call for Muslims to migrate to the Islamic state or wage
war in their home countries, Mr Lee added.
ISIS has also said it intends to establish a wilayat, or province
under the caliphate, in South-east Asia, which has become a key
recruitment centre for the group. Over 500 Indonesians and dozens
of Malaysians have joined ISIS, and its Malay Archipelago combat
unit, Katibah Nusantara, has been active on social media.
Radical groups in the region have also pledged their allegiance,
including Jemaah Islamiah spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, whose
followers in Singapore planned to set off truck bombs after the
Sept 11, 2001 attacks on America.
Several hundred terrorists in jail in Indonesia are also due to be
released in the next two years, Mr Lee said.
"The idea that ISIS can turn South-east Asia into a province of a
worldwide Islamic caliphate controlled by ISIS, that is a
grandiose, pie-in-the-sky dream," Mr Lee added.
"But it is not so far-fetched that ISIS could establish a base
somewhere in the region, in a geographical area under its physical
control like in Syria and Iraq, somewhere far from the centres of
power of state governments, somewhere where the governments' writs
does not run.
"And there are quite a few such places in South-east Asia. If ISIS
did that, it would pose a very serious threat to the whole of
South-east Asia."
-- ST