Singapore creates new agency to fight terrorism

Singapore creates new agency to fight terrorism

Jacqueline Wong Reuters/Singapore

Singapore, a major Asian base for Western businesses and a staunch U.S. ally, is forming a central agency to coordinate its fight against terrorism, the government said on Tuesday.

The island will create a National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) to oversee defense and internal security agencies, and to set national counter-terrorism policy.

"Singapore is a prime target for terrorists and we have to live with the real prospect of a terrorist attack," Tony Tan, Coordinating Minister for Security and Defense, told parliament.

The new agency, operating out of the prime minister's office, will oversee national security and head a committee that groups the two main security ministries -- Home Affairs and Defense -- and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tan said.

"We need to deal with security threats today on a 'whole of government' basis instead of dividing the tasks into watertight compartments to be dealt with by separate ministries," he said.

Singapore already boasts Southeast Asia's most advance security apparatus, but sees itself as a prime target after foiling plans by Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) to attack Western targets in 2001. JI is a Southeast Asian militant group that is thought to have close links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Tan, who is also one of two deputy prime ministers, said the current system of separating the responsibilities of different agencies left gaps that could be exploited by terrorists.

"In this new security environment, the danger to us comes from an enemy without shape or country, and with the capacity to continually threaten Singapore and Singaporean interests," he said.

Thirty-seven suspected militants have been detained in Singapore since authorities foiled the JI plot in 2001 to attack Western targets, including a train station used by off-duty U.S. Navy personnel.

The new central planning agency would reinforce tighter security at airports, ports, critical installations and key public areas -- parts of the wealthy city-state considered vulnerable after the U.S. suicide-airliner attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

But analysts said it was different from the mammoth U.S. Department of Homeland Security formed.

"It is a modification to the existing structure -- it still doesn't follow the Homeland Security model," said Andrew Tan, a security expert at the Singapore-based Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies.

"It is basically a coordinating unit that will bring all the strands together," he said. "I don't believe it is a super agency that has thousands of people working in it."