'A man before his time.' Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna pays tribute to Lee Kuan Yew on Singapore's 61st b-day

SINGAPORE: Rohan Gunaratna, who is recognised across the globe as an expert on terrorism, paid tribute to Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on the occasion of the city-state’s 61st National Day by sharing some memories of Mr Lee

Dr Gunaratna, a Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, relocated to Singapore from St Andrews University in Scotland in 2002. 

His first meeting with Mr Lee took place shortly before the terrorist attack on Bali, and Dr Gunaratna wrote that the then-Senior Minister, aged 79, had a “razor-sharp” mind and asked him 30 questions, which he needed to answer promptly, in the hour they spent together.

One of the questions Mr Lee asked was why Dr Gunaratna had moved to Singapore, to which the academic answered that he believed Southeast Asia would be the next field of Al Qaeda-led operations. In answer to another question, Dr Gunaratna told Mr Lee he believed terrorists were planning to attack entertainment venues in the region.

Mr Lee, however, did not agree with Dr Gunaratna’s assessment, believing the attacks would take place in the Middle East.

Dr Gunaratna then told him that Al Qaeda’s point man in Southeast Asia had met with the Kuwaiti-Canadian Mohomad Jabarah “who had surveilled Singapore’s diplomatic and other targets,” and added that a strike in the region was being planned.

According to Dr Gunaratna, “Mr Lee’s face turned pale, and ears became red. He got up, and the meeting ended abruptly. Mr Lee was worried because Singapore had disrupted an Al Qaeda-Jemaah Islamiyah plan to hit U.S., British, Australian and Israeli diplomatic missions.”

However, as history has shown, the attack occurred elsewhere.

Later that day, Dr Gunaratna was contacted by Andrew Tan, Mr Lee’s Principal Private Secretary, asking him to send a note on the pending attack.

“Based on a U.S. and Canadian debriefing of a foreign terrorist fighter tasked by the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohamed to surveil targets in Singapore and in the Philippines, I wrote that the threat of an attack in the region was imminent,” he wrote, adding that based on intelligence reports, terrorists wanted to bomb bars, night clubs, and restaurants in Southeast Asia.

Dr Gunaratna also told Mr Lee in his note that there were governments in the region that did not have the political will to carry out preventive measures to disrupt and dismantle the terrorist networks. 

On Oct 12, shortly after Dr Gunaratna wrote this to Mr Lee, Jemaah Islamiyah, an organisation funded by Al Qaeda, bombed two nightclubs in Bali, which resulted in 202 deaths and 500 injuries.

After Dr Gunaratna, who had gone to Bali to assist his colleagues from Indonesia and Australia, returned to Singapore, Mr Lee asked to meet with him again.

This time, he told the academic that his highest priority was to protect Singapore.

“In his face, I could see Mr Lee’s resolve and commitment to fight a fierce, ruthless and merciless threat. 

He was determined and was willing to do what it takes. We discussed his concerns, and he asked me what Singapore should do to secure its national security,” Dr Gunaratna wrote.

After the academic stressed the need for Southeast Asian leaders to work together against terrorism, Mr Lee sprang into action and engaged leaders within and beyond the region.

“A man of principle and integrity, Mr Lee informed the government and the public what we had discussed… Mr Lee’s far-reaching vision created the understanding that the region should work together to defeat a common threat,” he noted.

Dr Gunaratna also called Singapore a mini-superpower in spite of its size, and lauded the country for actively preventing the region from becoming a second front, largely due to the efforts of Mr Lee.

“If not for his iron grip, his diplomacy, and secret diplomacy, the Southeast Asian region would have become a terrorist theatre. He wanted the best and the brightest minds to study national security in Singapore, and he himself read widely and attempted to educate other world leaders. Today, Singapore and its neighbours work together to fight a persistent threat,” he added.

Toward the end of his post, Dr Gunaratna wrote that while  Mr Lee was “a man before his time,” he was fully grounded in reality, as “he saw things as they are and he took necessary action to build a system and educated a citizenry to keep Singapore safe and secure.” /TISG

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