NBOS provides opportunities to face Daesh threats — Hisham

PUTRAJAYA: The implementation of the National Blue Ocean Strategy ( NBOS) has enabled integrated cooperation between the Defence Ministry, other ministries and government agencies in defending Malaysia against threats like Daesh militants.

Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the ministry had been a front runner in implementing NBOS initiatives with the National Visionary Youth Programme and Community Rehabilitation Centre’s, among the initiatives introduced to prevent groups like Daesh from taking root in Malaysia.

“Another initiative is the Second Wave of Blue Ocean Policing: Uniformed Policing 2, which is an expansion of the existing collaboration between the Royal Malaysian Police and the Malaysia Armed Forces aimed to rapidly decrease threats.

“One of the main activities of these initiatives is the sharing of resources and responsibility between the police’s General Operation Personnel ( GOP) and the army to tighten security in our city centres, especially in areas identified as hotspots,” he said.

Hishammuddin was sharing his views as one of the speakers at a plenary session entittled ‘Creating Blue Oceans in National Develoment’, held in conjunction with the International Conference On Blue Ocean Strategy ( ICBOS) here yesterday.

The session was moderated by Science Adviser to Prime Minister Professor Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid.

said Daesh had conducted horrific acts of violence and carnage and shattered the already fragile relations between the faith civilisations of this world and the different denominations of Islam. He said the attacks from Paris to Bangkok, New York to Berlin, were an act of Daesh exploiting various fault lines that existed and these actions were not only a stain on the hour of the global ummah, but also a threat to its peace and progress.

“One thing that I find very interesting is that groups like Daesh tend to thrive in countries where the basis of nationhood is very weak.

“A greater sense of nationhood would turn the task of defending against threats like Daesh all the easier,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan urged other countries to take a plunge to embrace the Blue Ocean Strategy.

He said since the implementation of NBOS in 2009, Malaysia’s gross national income had increased by nearly 50 per cent and 1.8 million jobs had been created while inflaton was kept low and the foreign direct investment grew more than 22 per cent annum. — Bernama