The Straits Times
By Francis Chan
..
The hijack of Flight SQ117 exactly 20 years ago seems almost quaint and amateurish now in the light of the acts of terror the world has endured in recent years.
But lessons from the incident in 1991, which was the most recent time a full-scale terrorist attack overtly played out here, continue to shape the Government’s approach in fighting terror and extremism.
Such incidents, while harrowing, also offer the authorities valuable opportunities to sharpen their crisis management and counter-terrorism capabilities.
Today, terrorism remains a clear and present danger, which, according to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last week, could engulf Singapore like a tsunami and test the resilience of its social fabric if a major attack were to occur here.
The risks are higher than ever, said Senior Minister S. Jayakumar, who was Home Affairs and Law Minister during the SQ117 crisis, and until November last year also Coordinating Minister for National Security.
“In those bygone times, we worried mainly about aircraft hijacks and hostage-taking. Nowadays, the threat is suicide attacks that aim to kill innocent civilians,” he told The Straits Times during an interview earlier this month.
“Today, we do not have the luxury of discovering an incident and having the benefit of several hours to manage it, hopefully to end it with all the hostages alive. We have to detect a covert, deadly plot and pre-empt it before it can materialise. It is a much tougher challenge.”
The learning curve on crisis management started in earnest after the 1974 Laju ferry hijack, 17 years before SQ117.
Four terrorists attacked the Shell oil refinery on Pulau Bukom with submachine guns and explosives to disrupt the oil supply from Singapore to South Vietnam.
After their attempt to damage the refinery failed, the terrorists tried to escape by hijacking a ferry, the Laju, and holding its crew of five hostage.
President S. R. Nathan, who was then director of the Ministry of Defence”s Security and Intelligence Division, brought the crisis to a close without any loss of life after nine days. But that involved allowing the four terrorists to leave Singapore for Kuwait in exchange for the hostages.
The Laju crisis proved a wakeup call, said Ms Susan Sim, a former intelligence analyst and diplomat.
“Before that, we”ve had bombs go off but with bombs, you investigate and you mop up,” she said, referring to bombings that occurred here between the 1950s and the 1970s, partly due to the communist insurgency then.
“But how do you deal with a protracted hostage situation with all of Singapore and the world watching”
“So having the right people managing the crisis is important, but Laju also showed us that you also need a well-integrated, robust crisis management system that not only has drawer plans for all sorts of scenarios, but is also well oiled by years of joint exercises,” said Ms Sim, now vice-president (Asia) with New York-based strategic consultancy The Soufan Group.
The Laju impetus, according to Associate Professor Bilveer Singh of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), led to the formation of the Executive Group, a little-known unit within the Civil Service, set up in 1978 to deal with national crises and emergencies.
“So by SQ117, we had a structure that included, for instance, counter-terrorism commandos trained to storm planes to neutralise hijackers and rescue hostages, but more importantly a multi-agency Executive Group to oversee those crises.”
The Executive Group has since been renamed the Homefront Crisis Executive Group (HCEG) to reflect today”s “whole-of-government” crisis management framework.
The HCEG, together with the Homefront Crisis Ministerial Committee, form the two divisions of the Homefront Crisis Management System, which was set up after the Sars outbreak in 2003 to deal with crises such as terrorist attacks and epidemics.
The Strategic Framework for National Security was introduced a year later as a long-term policy response to terrorism and other threats to national security.
A linchpin of the strategy was to improve cooperation and co-ordination between various security agencies, including sharing information and resources.
“Terrorism is not the only kind of crisis we must be prepared for,” said Professor Jayakumar. “The Sars crisis in 2003, which impacted every sector of our society and economy, changed Singapore”s crisis management paradigm.”
The increasing sophistication of crisis management reflects the increased sophistication of the dangers we face, he said.
Prof Jayakumar noted that threats from terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiah are increasingly more diverse, sophisticated and unpredictable.
Those threats, said Ms Sim, are compounded by the fact that the modus operandi of terrorists is limited only by their imagination.
“We had small units of heavily armed fighters arriving by sea and swarming on several targets in Mumbai in 2008, a bomb hidden in the underwear of an aeroplane passenger in 2009, a vehicle bomb parked in Times Square in New York in 2010, and the list goes on,” she said.
“That is why in Singapore, our political leaders never seem to let up on the topic of how vulnerable we could be to a terrorist attack if we don”t all pull together and stay vigilant.”
Prof Singh, who is also acting head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security at RSIS, believes it would not take a large-scale assault to hurt Singapore.
“You don”t really need hardcore suicide bombers to hurt us. All you need is a small dirty bomb to go off in a densely populated area and the results could be catastrophic,” he added.
Prof Jayakumar believes no government can alone do the job of combating terrorism or tackling pandemics and natural disasters.
“We need a “whole-of-society” or WOS approach. The private sector has to be involved. We also have to involve all sectors of the community,” he said.
To that end, the Community Engagement Programme (CEP) was introduced in 2006 to foster trust and vigilance among religious groups, educational institutions, the media, businesses and unions and grassroots organisations.
Last week, PM Lee said the rise of self-radicalised terrorists remains a worrying trend, which is why the CEP remains a “key constructive effort” in building trust among races.
He added that the effort is paying off: “I”m convinced that over the past decade, we have strengthened our social cohesion and common identity.”
Still, more work needs to be done, said Prof Jayakumar. “Our people need to be vigilant and prepared, and build resilience so even if the worst happens, we will be able to bounce back quickly and not let it tear apart all we have accomplished over the past 45 years.”
Ms Sim agreed: “The Taleban tells coalition troops in Afghanistan that “the West might have all the fancy watches, but we have the time”, meaning they can wait for the right moment when we drop our guard.”