KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 (Bernama) — Malaysia has called for terrorism to be addressed in a more comprehensive manner, including identifying its root cause, and not through the use of force alone.
The country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Datuk Hussein Haniff, said that to do so, it was important to emphasise education so as to overcome ignorance, backwardness and illiteracy, and to provide the opportunity to escape poverty and also reduce the tendency of people turning to extremist ideologies.
He said terrorism should not be associated with any race, culture or religion as this would only heighten the possibility of a world being polarised and thus propagate further unrest and violence.
“In this regard, Malaysia calls for greater co-operation to promote moderation and understanding among cultures, religions and civilisations in ensuring peaceful co-existence,” he said.
Hussein said this in his address at the Sixth Committee of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly on “Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism” in New York on Tuesday. The text of his speech was released in Kuala Lumpur, Wednesday.
The diplomat said Malaysia believed that the sharing of ideas and expertise in de-radicalisation and counter radicalisation programmes were essential in addressing the root causes of terrorism.
He said enhanced capacity-building was required for member states to keep pace with the latest tactics of terrorist operations.
“This is particularly so in addressing the growing trend in the use of the Internet to communicate and disseminate terrorist propaganda materials.
“My delegation supports continuous sharing of experiences and best practices between member states and welcomes training and enhanced capacity-building programmes in countering cyber terrorism,” he said.
Notwithstanding that, Hussein said, Malaysia reiterated its commitment to prevent terrorist groups from using the country as their base for personnel recruitment and fund-raising.
“Consecutive arrests of terrorist suspects within the past few months by the Royal Malaysian Police is testimony of our seriousness to combat terrorism in Malaysia,” he said.
He said Malaysia called upon all member states to redouble their efforts in addressing the issue of terrorism.
“My delegation wishes to reassure Malaysia’s strong commitment towards the fight against terrorism.
“Malaysia will not rest on its laurels until the heinous crime of terrorism is completely eradicated,” Hussein said.
–BERNAMA
