As officials in Singapore step up their warnings that the island city-state is a top terrorist target, the global business and finance hub has unveiled a raft of new measures to combat threats at home.
The arrests earlier this month in Indonesia of a group suspected of plotting a rocket attack on Singapore’s Marina Bay thrust a spotlight onto the Southeast Asian city-state known for its stability and security. Indonesian police have said the would-be terror cell arrested on the Indonesian island Batam was connected with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian national who joined ISIS and is believed to be behind the 2016 Jakarta attacks.
While this alleged attack was foiled, the government has been warning citizens for months that terrorism is the “most significant” security threat for the republic today. And on the island, authorities have detained dozens of people recently for links to terrorism, sending shockwaves through the city-state of 5.6 million people.
“Despite being a small, highly secure country, there are still people inside who are planning attacks or planning to establish themselves as friendly elements of ISIS,” Thomas Sanderson, director of the CSIS Transnational Threats Project, said. “And, more importantly, the fact you’ve had shy of 1,000 Southeast Asians in the Malaysian, Indonesian, and Philippines realm who have gone to join ISIS on the battlefield — there is no doubt about it that some of them will return and some of them will attack.”
A growing threat
During his address on Singapore’s National Day this month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong raised the specter of terrorism looming over the country.
“We have a harmonious multi-racial society, but extremist terrorism can tear our society apart,” he said. “In recent months, terrorists inspired by ISIS perpetrated attacks in the U.S., Europe, Turkey, Bangladesh, and closer to home, in Malaysia and Indonesia. There will be more. We know Singapore is also being targeted. We have detained self-radicalized Singaporeans and foreign workers.”
“If a terrorist attack were to occur here, will we stand together, or will we fall apart?” he asked.
While the thwarted rocket attack grabbed the headlines, it was just the latest in a string of terrorism-related arrests connected to the small city-state. In January, Singapore’s Internal Security Department announced it had arrested 27 Bangladeshi men for allegedly planning extremist activities abroad in late 2015, and in May said it had detained eight other Bangladeshi men working in Singapore suspected of plotting terrorist attacks back in their home country in support of ISIS.
And ISIS propaganda has led to a growing concern of radicalization amongst citizens of Singapore’s multi-ethnic state. Since January, eight Singaporeans have been detained and five have been issued with a restriction order preventing them changing jobs or residence, as well as from traveling outside of Singapore without approval from authorities.
A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spokesperson told The Cipher Brief, “We know that it is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ an attack happens here.”
The government has broad powers to arrest and detain individuals indefinitely without trial, and last week authorities issued two-year detention orders for two Singaporeans said to be intending to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS. Two other individuals — including the wife of one of the detained men — received restriction orders for terrorism-related activities and will undergo religious counseling.
Beyond the threat of homegrown extremists, Singapore must also contend with the alarming prospect of potentially hundreds of Southeast Asians who joined ISIS coming back to the region.
“The threat of well-trained individuals is driving Singapore’s response — that return of well-trained, lethal, radicalized, effective fighters,” Sanderson, who has previously been a part of joint projects funded by both the Singaporean government and U.S. government agencies, said.
These returning terrorists present a very formidable lethal element to Singapore and fellow Southeast Asian countries’ security forces. Singapore is particularly well-prepared, Sanderson said, but there is no question an attacker who has combat experience with ISIS would pose a dangerous risk to Singapore’s police and military.
“They would be bringing back urban warfare experiences and it would be a real mess and a real challenge for local police to counter them if they’re well-armed,” he added. “Singapore is quite security focused and capable, and there are people who’ve actually been trained in some degree of combat locally, but that’s nothing compared to fighters coming back from Libya, Syria, or Iraq.”
Singapore’s counterterrorism strategy
Experts say Singapore’s counterterrorism strategy relies heavily on security and intelligence cooperation, especially with the United States and Western nations, as well as those in the immediate neighborhood like Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The small city-state is on the “cutting edge” of fighting terrorism, according to Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.
Officials have built their strategy on four main pillars, according to the MHA — prevention, protection and preparedness, security response, and community response. That multi-pronged approach focuses on international and intelligence cooperation, community engagement, rehabilitation, and a robust system to respond to or manage an attack, Gunaratna noted.
“Singapore is a very good example of security intelligence cooperation and the use of intelligence to protect itself and to prevent attacks,” Gunaratna said. “Its main focus is prevention, through intelligence and community engagement.”
Singapore’s Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) stands out in the effort to counter violent extremism, Sanderson said, taking a “thoughtful, deliberative, and focused approach” to the issue through counseling and community outreach. Launched in 2003 with a focus on detained members of Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, the program has lately put an emphasis on tackling ISIS’ extremist ideology.
“Aside from law enforcement action and international collaboration with international counterparts, investment must also be made in ‘soft’ measures, like countering radical ideology and preventing extremism from taking root,” a MHA spokesperson said, pointing to the RRG’s dedicated website challenging ISIS’ teachings.
Singapore’s main terrorism risks stem from homegrown radicalization, the large number of fighters from neighboring Southeast Asian countries who have reportedly travelled to join ISIS, and individuals held on terrorism offenses who will eventually be released. Since 2002, 83 people have been detained for activities linked to terrorism, and 62 have been released, according to the MHA.
Singapore’s counterterrorism strategy aims to take those released individuals into account, Gunaratna said.
“Unlike the United States, Singapore does not lock up the terrorist and throw away the key,” he said. “If you do not rehabilitate the terrorist, three things will happen — one, that person will become a security threat, number two, they will spread the ideology and infect others, and number three, many people will hail that person as a hero. They will become part of the terrorist iconography.”
What’s new for 2016
This year, Singapore has unveiled a range of measures and programs to try to boost its security and ready Singaporeans for a potential attack. The government has intensified surveillance of critical infrastructure and soft targets with closed-circuit television at home, for instance, and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) unveiled its new anti-terrorism first responder unit, the Emergency Response Team, in June.
A national program called SGSecure has been rolled out to prepare and train the public for attacks through community events, workshops, and drills. The initiative is a “cornerstone” of Singapore’s counterterrorism strategy, according to a MHA spokesperson, and has so far involved the SPF leading a campaign to guide people on how to respond during an attack — dubbed the “Run, Hide, Tell” advisory — and the Singapore Civil Defence Force teaching first aid skills, for instance.
“While the Singapore government will do all it can to avert and respond to a terrorist incident, we recognize that the government’s efforts alone are not enough. We need the community to be ready and prepared,” the spokesperson said.
A MHA spokesperson said the Singapore Police Force will take command of all counter-terrorism incidents within the city-state. Depending on the nature and scale of the attack, Singapore may also “call upon other government agencies, including the Singapore Armed Forces, to support its operations.”
Increasing information sharing with regional partners has also been key to Singapore’s counterterrorism strategy, according to the government, and several new efforts this year speak to that focus.
“The Singapore government works closely together with foreign security agencies to share intelligence on terrorism activities. In the example of the group that planned to launch a rocket attack on Singapore from Batam, our security agencies have been coordinating closely with the Indonesian authorities to monitor the activities of the group,” a MHA spokesperson said.
And at the International Meeting on Counter-Terrorism in Bali this month, ministers from Singapore and Malaysia agreed to further boost their cooperation and exchange biometric information, including fingerprints, of known fighters and those who have been convicted of terrorism offences, as well as best practices in deradicalization and countering violent extremism.
The U.S.-Singapore relationship in particular is very strong, Sanderson said, and the United States considers the city-state a “very solid partner that knows how to handle information and is very reliable when it comes to sensitive topics.”
The countries have a strong bilateral defense partnership, with Singapore training and stationing about 1,000 people each year in the United States, for instance, and the U.S. deploys aircraft and ships to Singapore for regional maritime patrol activities. Singapore is also a member of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.
Earlier this month, the two nations inked a new agreement to expand cooperation on cybersecurity issues, laying the foundation to share best practices and conduct joint exercises in the cyber realm. In September, it is expected a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between the countries’ respective national law enforcement training centers to collaborate and share expertise in training and capacity building. “U.S.-Singapore cooperation is outstanding,” Sanderson said.
“This is one of the most competent partners we have,” he said. “Their capabilities are limited due to their size, and they don’t have a lot of people around the world to feed them information, but what they do have, they use effectively and efficiently.”
Mackenzie Weinger is a national security reporter at The Cipher Brief.
