Malaysia's quandry of fighting global terrorism

Abstract

Malaysia's history of terrorism can be traced back to the Cold War. At that time, Malaysia was able to overcome the terrorist attacks led by Communist Party of Malaya through the implementation of political and military strategies. But the appearance of extremist groups like AI-Mau'nah, Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) and Jemaah lslamiah (JI), devoted to imposition of a Daulah lslamiyah and Shari'ah are a significant sample of the arousal of a new stream of terrorism in Malaysia. Among these factions, JI became one of the foremost examples of the spread of Islamic terrorism because of it's link with the Al-Qaeda's • network. The 9/11 event was, therefore, became a turning point in Malaysia's approach to terrorism because as moderate Islamic joined the US intent tp address Al-Qaeda's illicit activities in Southeast Asian countries . So at this particular point, the American concern on the like hood of Southeast Asia becoming the new home base for the global terrorism touched on Malaysia's counterterrorist policies. Hence, the confluence in American and Malaysian strategies to counter terrorism became noticeable through the joint operations and intelligence sharing agreements. In this context, Malaysia has to construct, for the first time, a counter terrorist policy in accordance with the international environment, but it cannot rest only on the US priorities and values so as to plan a strategy to fight terrorism.