‘Beefing up security at our airports a priority’

Ensuring airport security is always a challenge but the authorities must find effective ways in beefing up the efforts to prevent fear among the public, experts say.

They said this is especially important in light of the recent shooting incident at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 on Sunday where a man was critically injured.

Terrorism expert and lawyer Datuk Seri Dr Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunos said that beefing up security in an airport has always been challenging for those managing a large area with near-constant high traffic of people.

“The security in the airport premises, especially that of those outside the flight areas – meaning those past the immigration counters – is always a challenge.

“This is because an airport is a public place where there is always high traffic of people.

“For these places, other than the well-placed closed-circuit television cameras and security technology, they are subjected to normal measures such as that which would be accorded to large public areas,” said Jahaberdeen when contacted.

After evading the authorities for more than 24 hours, the suspect in the KLIA shooting was apprehended by Kelantan police on Monday at 3pm.

Given the rise in mental health issues in society, coupled with the ongoing geopolitical crises around the globe, aviation expert Captain Ab Manan Mansor said the relevant authorities must be more discerning in identifying potentially dangerous individuals.

He said with KLIA being the third busiest airport in South-east Asia, Malaysia needs to maintain its good image and start looking for effective solutions.

“There should be body scanners for people entering and exiting the airports, just like how there are body scanners when we want to enter and exit Parliament, for example.

“But don’t make it too difficult to the point where people have to take off their belts and such because we need to make sure KLIA’S good image remains intact,” he said.

At the same time, Capt Ab Manan said the government should devote more attention to public mental health issues, especially with the current rise in the cost of living.

“It’s time we improved our mental state ... It is a tough time, what with the inflation and cost of living going up,” he added.

On Monday, Selangor’s chief of police Comm Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said several improvements have been suggested to increase security measures at KLIA, adding that the police will re-examine measures to prevent such incidents from recurring.

Comm Hussein said among the more immediate responses to the incident will be the use of police officers patrolling on motorised personal scooters at airports.