No place for terrorism here — Najib

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has adopted a very tough stand on extremism and terrorism and has refused to make any concessions or tolerance on the matter, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak said.

He said some of the measures taken included legislating of specific new laws to deal specifically with the issues of extremism and terrorism, boosting security forces enabling them to arrest extremist elements and bring them to justice before they even commit acts of terrorism.

“Because I think that waiting for the commission of terrorist act will lead to the killing and wounding of many people,” he said in an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya News Channel in conjunction with the Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Abdulaziz al Saud’s recent historical visit to Malaysia.

In the interview which was conducted by Al Arabiya general manager Turki Aldakhil, Najib was asked on how Malaysia has been able to distance itself from terrorist attacks.

“This is how we succeeded in avoiding terrorist acts, except for a single incident but it was not meaningful.

“Malaysia has not seen any major terrorist acts, because we simply adopted a proactive policy,” he said in referring to the grenade accident which was thrown in the vicinity of a nightclub in June last year.

Najib said the incident did not result in any deaths, but minor injuries and the Malaysian authorities had arrested about 270 people who embraced the ideology of ISIS and these people are no longer a threat.

The Prime Minister said in contributing to fighting terrorism, Malaysia was also cooperating closely with other countries in fighting terrorism.

“There are, for example, a good inter-agency cooperation for the exchange of intelligence information and timely intervention as we are a party to the peace process in the southern Philippines, where Malaysia is leading this process.

“We are also cooperating with the people and government of Thailand to bring peace in southern Thailand. This is in the regional context,” he said.

Outside the region, he said Malaysia also cooperated with other countries since some Malaysians were found in Syria and Iraq fighting with the ISIS.

“No country can singlehandedly address global terrorism because it will require the cooperation of all nations,” he said. - Bernama