Page 34 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

2 Al Qaeda and the struggle for

moderate Islam in Malaysia

Benjamin Cole

Introduction
Malaysia today remains largely free of terrorism and other forms of political
violence. It has experienced sporadic terrorist violence in the past, but none posed
a significant threat to the stability of the government or society. It has also expe-
rienced periodic bouts of inter-communal violence between Malays and Chinese
in 1969, and Malays and Indians in 2001, but these have remained isolated inci-
dents. Nevertheless, Malaysia is geo-strategically sandwiched between sub-state
conflicts in southern Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, and there exists a
latent threat of these conflicts spilling over into Malaysia itself.
The principal militant group operating in Malaysia is the Kumpulan Militan
Malaysia (KMM). This group has been blamed for a number of violent acts includ-
ing an arms robbery at a police station, the murder of a state assembly member, and
the bombing of a number of churches and temples. It was also allegedly planning to
target a US warship prior to 9/11. The KMM was founded in 1995, and has signifi-
cant cross membership with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the regional arm of al Qaeda,
ensuring close links between the two groups. In 2002 it was estimated that some
45 of its estimated 68 members had been trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
Between December 2001 and January 2002, 47 KMM suspects were detained by the
government under the Internal Security Act (ISA) (Gunaratna 2003: 197).
Malaysia has also been identified as a focal point for al Qaeda activity across
Southeast Asia. JI uses Malaysia as its operational base, or regional shura, which
handles training and operational planning, and has also coordinated its support and
operational activities with the KMM (Gunaratna 2003: 192–193). In 2002, when
the Police arrested a militant cell, one of those arrested had played host to two of
the 9/11 hijackers on different occasions, as well as to the suspected mastermind
of the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, in 2000 (Gunaratna 2003: 196). The
KMM and JI share the objective of establishing a pan-Islamic state in Southeast
Asia incorporating Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and parts of southern Thailand
and the Philippines. As a result, the US has placed both the KMM and JI on its list
of foreign terrorist organizations, drawing them into the ‘war on terror’.
The nature of the Malaysian media has a profound effect on the nature of the
information flows between these militants, the government, and society. Malaysia
has a well developed national media network (CIA 2005) but also has some of the