The larger threat lies within

While Malaysia has just enacted laws to thwart local terror attacks, the bigger fear has to be the many gun-toting killers running around.

WE live in scary times. Terror has come to our shores, there has already been an attack on a nightspot and people have been injured.

Many have been arrested and the Government believes we need very tough laws – some say draconian – to deal with the people who would endanger our lives.

Even a bag left by the roadside is now cordoned off and checked by the bomb squad. In the old days, some passer-by would have nicked it. After all, it was just full of clothes.

And we have a new four-letter word: bomb. Say it and you can halt flights and bring chaos to airports. I cannot begin to imagine watching an in-flight movie and telling the guy in the next seat: “This movie bombed at the box office.” Things are getting that scary. But while all that fear exists, what is really scary is what is happening in our streets – gun-toting hitmen who have no qualms about killing others in broad daylight, at traffic light junctions full of vehicles and outside restaurants.

There have been more than a dozen shooting cases in Malaysia this year alone.

How is this happening? We have one of the best intelligence-gathering police units in the world. Yet they have no idea what is going on?

They are said to be contract killers. In the case of the shooting of a businesswoman in OUG, the cops say the hitman was upset as he was cheated of his RM10,000 payment. It would be comical if only it wasn’t such a serious matter.

One report tells of men called “Fin” who operate out of every gang.

“They are regarded as suicide commandos in carrying out every instruction or assignment given,” says a former gangster turned nightclub bouncer. And they all carry guns.

Where are the guns coming from? The answer would be obvious.

The bouncer says they come from Thailand, smuggled in through hidden trails, much like those used to smuggle in the Rohingyas at one time. He says the guns cost between RM1,000 and RM20,000.

Another former underworld man says it’s easy to smuggle them out through the normal roads. He claims to have smuggled semi-automatic 9mm guns, air rifles and some other makes.

He just follows a few simple rules. Dismantle the guns, stay cool and be friendly, and travel in cars as a family group.

“At the Customs checkpoint, officers only conduct hand checks and they will only target you if you act suspiciously,” he says.

The enforcement officers at the border know that this is being done, but theirs is a difficult task.

Hundreds of lorries and thousands of cars cross the border every day, and they just do not have the manpower or equipment to check each one.

Then, of course, there are the bad apples.

“Know the right person, who to bribe and their working hours. They will bring the firearms into the country and all you need to do is just pay them,” a local arms dealer told a newspaper.

The enforcement just needs to get tougher. A decision to move Customs officers around frequently is a good one. That should get rid of the bad apples.

The Anti-Smuggling Unit is being upgraded into one Border Security Agency instead of being comprised of three agencies – police, Immigration and Customs.

Officers in this unit will have specialised training in border security, but what they really need is equipment that will help them find the concealed weapons at the border checkpoints.

And while they keep the guns out at the border, the cops in the country need to track down all the guns that are already here. There are just too many.

The law – now made very harsh for those who would wreak terror – is not helping in this matter either.

A smuggler who was caught with two pistols and 72 rounds of live ammunition was sentenced to eight years in jail just a week ago.

Last year, a 20-year-old was jailed 10 years for stealing some rice and two cans of sardines. And remember back in 1998 when Datuk Seri Nallakarupan was staring at the death sentence for having 125 bullets? No guns, just bullets.

There has to be some thick irony there.