Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia Region: Impact Towards Malaysian Security, Socio-political and Economic Welfare

The security dilemma of a countries’ is associated with the increasing of crimes rate and terrorism activities particularly in Southeast Asia. It refers to the lack of military and related enforcement agencies effort in curbing and fighting the issues related to it. This failure may derive from various factors which may include instable politics, economic issues, extremist, rebellion or militant and also lack of security system. Failure to control and prevent this element will provide opportunity for terrorist groups in conducting their activities and spreading their ideology or belief.

Terrorism in Southeast Asia

Terrorism is defined as any terrorist activities which is conducted by an individual or particular group and contradict the international norms of opposing terrorism. Generally international community has opposed the terrorism. To make the terrorism acts seem legitimate, terrorist will use religions or beliefs as elements of initiating any terrorist acts. As example, by utilizing the term such as Jihad and Holy War it is considering incorporating religious element to the terrorist activities.

Marin & Patricia Vazques (2008) found that terrorist group was believed formed by spreading the terrorism ideology to cluster of societies who are extremist, fundamental, conservative as well as poorly educated. These groups of society will be recruited to be part of the terrorist group through spreading the religious teaching at the place where terrorism is enabling accepted. Weak countries tend to be most strategic location of terrorism movement. This is due to fact that these countries are internally weak. These countries might also facing rebellion, clash of ethnic, narrow mindedness, political instability, corruption, extremist, pathetic legal system. These internal problems in certain countries may give an opportunity to the terrorist groups to access the country easily.

According to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD 2017), since 1970, terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia varied to varying degrees. In 2004 there has been an additional count in the frequency of attacks. From the GTD data, there is a dramatic growth in the number of terrorist attacks from 2011 to 2013.

Since September 11 attacks, international security poses a major challenge to United States of America in changing of the focus on its security policy. According Paul J.Smith (2013), the September 11 attacks have made the international media began to highlight that Washington had confirmed Southeast Asia to be the ‘second front’ of terrorism activities. Terrorism became significant issue and security concern in Southeast Asia particularly after the incident of September 11, 2001.

Tun Mahathir Mohamad (2003) was speaking at a time when the September 11 attacks was still debated globally and during that time the impact of the attack was still continuing and strongly affected to the Western world. Tun Mahathir has acknowledged the severe impact is not focusing to the Americans but to the whole world in the aspect of social and economic. Tun Mahathir managed to express sympathy for the civilians of the Pentagon attacks and at the same time he extended sympathy to the main suspects of the incident. Tun Mahathir in the speech expressly predicted that the suspects was innocent until proven guilty, may to certain extent suffered such tragic for the action that they may not have involved at the first place.

For the purpose of this paper, it will be focusing on an analysis of the background of the movement by the two major Southeast Asia terror groups, Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiyah. Based on the GTD data, the Abu Sayyaf Group committed a high record of attacks in 2013. Although by operation Jemaah Islamiyah have considerably decreased, both Abu Sayyaf Group and the Jemaah Islamiyah have established their ability to conduct series of attacks against multiple targets that have had impact on socio-economic of the region.

Abu Sayyaf Group

According O’Brien (2012), the Abu Sayyaf Group has been described as an organized crime syndicate which claimed as seeking wealth by manipulating terrorist tactics and another unlawful activities. From another point of view, explaining that Abu Sayyaf Group was originally sought the liberty of the Moro Muslim, a minority tribe under the Philippines government on which the Group then urged for the establishment of independence Islamic State that uphold the Islamic Sharia law.

The Abu Sayyaf Group has endured years of counter terrorism from the Philippines’ Armed Forces. Technically, they have proven themself to be quite resilient. According Banlaoi (2010), this kind of strength can be attributed to the group’s main recruitment tool to attract wealth and control from the the Muslim communities of the Southeast Asia.

According to the GTD, Abu Sayyaf Group has commited or is suspected against 486 terrorist attacks from the 18th of February in 1994, until December 2016 (GTD 2017). Hostage taking is the main attack in 2013, followed by bombings as well as armed assault.

This pie graph represents 486 attacks of the Abu Sayyaf Group from its formation until 31 December 2016. Based on the GDP data, Abu Sayyaf Group attacks include armed and unarmed assault, hijacking, bombings, assassinations, hostage taking situations including both barricades and kidnappings, together with facility/infrastructure attacks. Major attacks by Abu Sayyaf Group includes bombings which constitute 42% (203), kidnappings which are 34% (165), and armed assault, 22 %(109) of their attacks.

According Banlaoi (2008), to attract Muslim youth to be part of Abu Sayyaf Group, the main incentive is money. Apart from that, Muslim family have also volunteered their sons to join this group. The monthly payment for the participant was approximately RM800 and rice. In 2010 for instance, it was estimated that the group membership was 445, on which member with the age of 30 years old or younger represent 79% of the total membership. Disaffected youngsters are enough to be attracted by the income that group may earned from kidnappings.

Among the group members, there are numbers individuals who are committed to the ideology of jihadist. However, it was always concluded that majority of Abu Sayyaf Group members are not influenced by the ideology of jihadist or the setting up of an Islamic state, but by financial and power instead. The attraction to the material gain is the main indicator that Abu Sayyaf Group members are motivated by greed. As such, the Abu Sayyaf Group has a large recruiting pool as long as economic instability still the internal issues of Philippines.

Bayahihan (2010) stated that from 2011 until 2013, the first stage of the Philippine Government was introduced the Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) to address the security, ideological insurgencies, and terrorist groups such as Abu Sayyaf Group. Since then there has been changes in the types of Abu Sayyaf Group’s attack from bombings to kidnapping as an indicative of the group’s responds to government pressure. Since the implementation of the IPSP, there were larger number of attacks and is the highest number in the history of Abu Sayyaf Group.Jemaah Islamiyah

Jemaah Islamiyah was formed in the early 1990’s and was based in Indonesia. Jones.S (2005) stated that the goal of the establishment of this Islamist group is towards creating a caliphate reaching most of ASEAN countries which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, and the Philippines. 3.16 It was believed that Jemaah Islamiyah’s original fighters were trained in Afghanistan and has relations with al-Qaeda. Since the establishment, Jemaah Islamiyah remained as an underground movement until its first attacks in 1999. Their attacks have targeted Western as well as local such as the Philippines and Indonesia.

Jemaah Islamiyah’s remarkable attacks were the bombing attack in Bali that killed 202 people in 2002. The other major attack was car bombing in 2003 at JW Marriott hotel that killed 12 people, followed by truck bombing in 2004 at the Australian embassy that killed 11 people. They also conducting a suicide bombing that killed 22 people in 2005. Joose A.P & Milward (2014) found that counter terrorism against this group have been conducted by Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia governments which resulted to the elimination of its network in 2009.

Other terror organizations have diverted the attention away from Jemaah Islamiyah started from 2009. Former JI members and leaders have formed other radical splinter groups but was arrested and convicted by Pakistani authorities as well as by security forces from Philippine in 2012. The ideology of Jemaah Islamiyah was based on Islamic ideologist of necessity of pre-emptive violence on which tactically and strategically were considered appropriate. Jemaah Islamiyah aimed to be considered as religious warrior for the interests of Muslims. This organization seeks the affirmation from a broader Islamic community. The group main activities was conducted back in year of 1999 and 2000 which subsequently faced a dramatically reduced

Other Activities in Southeast Asia

Failures in governance, health and environmental issues have been identified as non-traditional or also known as human security challenges which at the same time also influence the increasing, conflict and instability in Southeast Asia. These failures may potentially create security-related impact resulted from the increasing globalization and technological change.

The issue of non-traditional threat in Southeast Asia is considered as severe and sometimes is so related to the well organized groups. Terrorist group such as Abu Sayyaf Group conducting various illegal activities consists primarily of illegal smuggling, money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and sea piracy. All the set-up of these transnational criminal activities becomes broader taking advantage weak governmental institutions and law enforcement agencies as well as corrupt officials and politicians. The criminal activities are seemed to undermine the peace in Southeast Asia region.

Illegal Smuggling

Smuggling activities is occurred especially in Southeast Asia, trade in various product including weapon and small arms logged timber, food, textiles and also and wildlife. Southeast Asia known as an active trade hotspot where the trader will act as supplier as well as consumer in the import-export of products which contribute to the huge volumes of international trade.

Natural products like medical and valuable plants, endangered species of animal, and also fisheries have its own market and were easily been smuggled illegally due lack of implementation of enforcement base on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Smuggling of wildlife and wild is for the purpose for the traditional medicine by used of example tiger bone, bear gall bladder, pangolin scales, rhinoceros horn and Dendrobium orchids. The wild life has also been illegally smuggled and traded to become pets. It includes reptiles and birds in fulfill the demand from collectors of rare species. Wildlife will also be illegally smuggled to be traded as food which it contain source of protein. Food harvested from nature which includes meat, fisheries products or plants have its own market and demand. Furs, skin and wool from mammals and reptiles are traded to make various end product including clothing and various accessories.

South-east Asia’s forests contain diverse resources that are used to generate income especially by illegal smuggler. In many cases the need to conserve forest ecosystems is being overlooked in the rush to supply global markets with timber and other forest products. As such, illegal logging and timber smuggling is a growing problem, due to an inexhaustible demand, particularly for high-value species.

Drugs and illegal weapon smuggling also a serious activities conducted in this region by organized groups where sometimes it is so related to the terrorist group. Indirectly it is ensuring the funding of the organization by doing these activities because of marginal profit is so high.

Money Laundering

Trade-based money laundering in Southeast Asia has been driven by a confluence of factors including economic growth, weak, and the presence of sophisticated transnational criminal networks. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the economies of the ASEAN are expected to grow at a rate of 5.2 percent from 2016 to 2020. The economic growth indirectly will be coupled with enduring signs of bribery and corruption issues, so does the risk for the money laundering.

Money laundering will give potential adverse consequences to the domestic economy such as governments receiving lower tax revenues when companies under-invoice the value of its shipments. Misrepresenting the value or the quantity of imports and exports may allow criminals and corrupt government officials to transfer capital more easily in order to legitimize the source of funds. Money laundering is difficult to detect because of the complexity within the trade finance process itself and the number of entities involved. The unstructured format of the required documentation such as word documents, PDF files and scanned images create additional automation and screening challenges. Money laundering belief to be one of the effective tools for transnational organized crime groups including terrorist group to operate and transferring asset globally.

Drug Trafficking

At the 7th Australasian Drug Strategy Conference , United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Representative, in March 2015, stressed in the rising threat of drug including various form of synthetic like methamphetamine and heroin especially in Southeast Asia region. It is exported globally towards Japan, New Zealand and Australia by drawing a correlation with instability in the Golden Triangle, cross-border trafficking and the resurgence of opium production in recent years between Myanmar, Lao PDR and Thailand.

Research revealed that the majority of meth production in East and Southeast Asia fulfills regional demand, but substantial amounts are also being trafficked to other parts of the world, most notably Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Complex international drug trafficking networks are increasingly active in the region due to this profitable and growing market. This is particularly relevant in the current era of regional integration and reduced border restrictions in Southeast Asia, which have the real potential for increasing cross-border trafficking of drugs and precursors. An effective distribution network enables the drug traffickers to transport the refined heroin and amphetamines from the Golden Triangle into Thailand, which is still one of the major routes of the illicit drug trade. Narcotics are also smuggled from the Golden Triangle into China’s Yunnan Province and then overland to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

Moreover, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila and Phnom Penh have become important hubs in the global drug distribution. All these different destinations are used as transit points to supply domestic and international markets. Funds from the drug trade enable the criminal syndicates to dispose over modern military equipment and to corrupt politicians, judges and police authorities.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a criminal whom linked to organized criminal groups who control the smuggling and trafficking of people. Making high profits motivate people traffickers and smugglers to expand their activities in this region. In April 2015, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a report entitled Migrant Smuggling in Asia: Current Trends and Related Challenges which analyze the smuggling of migrants in 28 states from the Middle East to the Pacific. This report find out that criminal networks are creatively exploiting gaps between demand and regular migration.

Based on the research conducted, smuggling fees are reported as high as $50,000 which will usually be reimbursed after their arrival. This report further warns that the smuggling of migrants poses a significant threat to Asia, generating an annual value of $2 billion for criminal groups and leading to deaths and human rights abuses. The smugglers will normally provide fake passports, transport, transit, accommodation and the crossing of borders. Young women and children will always be main target of the illegal smugglers. They will enter country as undocumented worker who end up work as prostitution and domestic labourers.

Generally the illegal status of this immigrant makes it more challenge to approach the local authorities. The United Nation estimated more than 200,000 women a year are trafficked in Southeast Asia. The illegal trade in women is predominantly hidden within the broader phenomenon of undocumented migration. The Asian financial crisis and economic difficulties faced by regional nations have increased the human trafficking in Southeast Asia. Poverty as well as a lack of education and job opportunities is the root causes of this problem. Despite some attempts to promote inter-state cooperation against human smuggling and trafficking, the issue has continued to cause political problems in the Southeast Asian.

Due to limited bilateral and multilateral collaboration and lack of political unity among the countries, this issue becomes more challenging to be combat. Illegal migration can negatively affect bilateral ties as well as political strain between governments. The severe poverty and economic disparities that persist in Southeast Asia severely undermine regional efforts to address the problems of human smuggling and trafficking.

Sea piracy

Sea piracy is an historical and cultural phenomenon that has continued in this modern age to affect maritime traffic in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Sea piracy has been defined as “an act of boarding any ship with the intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the intent or capability to use force in the furtherance of that act.” Sea piracy is a crime committed inside international waters, which includes the high seas, exclusive economic zones and the contiguous zone, and therefore beyond the territorial jurisdiction of any country. The Third United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) declares: “All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside of the jurisdiction of any State.” The number of reported piracy attacks in the world has been rising quickly over the last few years. There are 103 piracy attacks cases reported in Indonesian waters in 2002. Significantly, it is believed that at least a third of the attacks are never reported.

Ship-owners and captains are afraid of increased insurance premiums and to be regarded in the industry as unreliable freight carriers. The problem of piracy in Southeast Asia is a threat to regional and international economic security. The free and safe navigation of commercial vessels in Southeast Asia is essential for international trade. The risk of piracy in the region has already led to a high economic cost reflected by the loss of merchandise and ships and the increased insurance premiums added to a number of cargoes that pass through the Strait of Malacca. Moreover, it is feared that a piracy attack on an oil super-tanker crossing the Strait could lead to an environmental disaster of massive proportions.

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore are the ASEAN countries mostly affected by piracy. Sea piracy in Southeast Asia is typically perpetrated at night by fishermen, small criminals, ex-members of the armed forces but also by well-organized criminal gangs. They are often better equipped than most naval authorities. They dispose over speedboats and modern weaponry to take control of merchant ships. A majority of piracy incidents occur in ports or when the boat is at anchor. The crew can be violently assaulted by armed groups that target cash, expensive equipment, and parts of the cargo. Attacks also take place when boats are navigating in territorial waters and to a much lesser extent on the high seas.

Crime syndicates are increasingly involved in piracy and generally target relatively small vessels carrying products that can be sold with high profits on the black market. They also use hijacked ships for human smuggling and the transport of illicit drugs and weapons. These groups take advantage of weak governments that lack the financial resources, political will and efficient enforcement agencies to tackle their criminal activities. Rampant corruption among maritime officials and port workers enable the pirates to be well informed about the movement of ships and the composition of their cargoes. Rivalry between the Indonesian police and navy also undermines efforts to prevent piracy attacks. All these factors explain why piracy is currently out of control in the Indonesian waters and in the Strait of Malacca. Nevertheless, the problem is still viewed as secondary in Indonesia despite the fact that it is damaging its weak economy.

Effects of Southeast Asia Terrorism towards Malaysian Social, Political and Economy

Generally, Malaysian political and social stability, peace and economic development were protected and uphold by the citizens. The multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious in Malaysia are the factors that can deter any potential attacks to the country. Malaysia has acknowledged Islamic extremism and militancy as threats to the security since 1970s. Relatively, this type of activists’ movement may cause serious security concern although yet to be significant. Malaysian government always mindful the fact that antagonistic policies against any terrorist groups might resulted in counter back which may endanger the security and unity of the nations.

Zachary Abuza (2016) found that since mid-2014, there have been series of terrorist plots which includes the attempted bombing of a Carlsberg brewery, an attack in the downtown tourist district of Bukit Bintang and the recent arrest of a suicide bomber before being disrupted by the Malaysian security forces. Any terrorism attack in Malaysia will be intentionally designed to cause disunity between the major ethnic i.e. Malays, the Chinese and Indian. The government may believe that further inculcation of Islamic values will inoculate Malaysian from the terrorism ideology, but it is in fact contributed to the societal tensions.

According Tan Yi Liang (2014), the impact of terrorism on Malaysia is growing, from 91st place in 2013 to 48th place out of 162 countries in the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) of 2014. This is based on the data collected by the Institute for Economics and Peace's (IEP). The September 11 terrorist attack on United States of America impacted not only U.S. in terms on loss of lives, properties, and economic disruption but also globally including Malaysia which faced economic recession. The economic sector was also disrupted as the September 11 attack coincided with, and exacerbated a world economic downturn.

It is found that in the perspective of Malaysia tourism industry, Malaysia image as safest and secure destination was affected due to the unfortunate incidents of Lahad Datu intrusion, repeated kidnapping as well as shooting in Sabah which brings challenging to Malaysia. Certain incidents might have short-term impact to the tourism, it is still impacted Malaysia branding process. Having said that, travellers from all over the world still believe that Malaysia is safe to be visited stayed in.

Terrorism impacts the economy through direct economic destruction and it also can increased uncertainty in the markets. Besides, terrorist threat also effecting insurance, trade and tourism industry by bringing fear to the society and avoid Foreign Direct Investment from foreign company to the development of the country. Closing down borders to trade and immigrant workers will reduces the size and diversity of economic transactions and limits productive resources.