MALAYSIAN COMMANDO

MALAYSIAN COMMANDO

Introductions

The eight elements of Malaysia's Special Operations Force have been tasked with the important objective of maintaining Malaysia's security, specifically in combating terrorism. A mission especially important in the wake of the s11 September attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and in a climate of global terrorism which would see the later bombing of the tourist centre of Bali and the J.W. Marriot Hotel in Jakarta, bombings and murders in Southern Thailand and the bomb explosions in the railway stations and transit systems of Madrid and London. Malaysia's security agencies eagerly studied the lessons to be learnt from all such incidents so as to prepare to deal with similar terrorism, in the event that the terrorists agenda should see them target the Malaysian homeland. In November 2003 Malaysia passed new counter-terrorism laws that were widely criticised by local human rights groups for being vague and excessively broad. Critics claim that the laws put the basic rights of free expression, association, and assembly at risk. Malaysia persisted in holding around 100 alleged militants without trial, including five Malaysian students detained for alleged terrorist activity while studying in Karachi, Pakistan.^[1] Malaysia maintains a high level of security and to date no similar terrorist atrocities have occurred.

Previously the only incidents with possible links to Islamic terrorism have been the detonation of a small bomb in Kuala Lumpur'sPuduraya bus station and more significantly the 2000 Sauk raid^[2] by Al-Ma'unah militants, an audacious raid to steal weapons from a military base to arm an Islamic insurrection.^[3] This attempted insurrection was swiftly defeated, the result of the close co-operation and relationship of the government, private agencies and society as a whole. A co-operation and relationship born from the initiatives that from 1948 to 1989 defeated the communist insurgents of the Malayan Emergencyand the later Communist Insurgency War. The Malaysian peoples eager not to suffer for a third time in their history a repeat of the previous insurgencies and terrorism.

In assessing the tactics, strength, equipment, personnel and abilities as a whole of these Malaysian special forces, they are the equal in competence with the special forces teams of Indonesia, Britain and the United States. In fact, since being raised Malaysian forces have been involved with such teams on an international level, for example whilst being part of United Nations peace keeping missions.

Joint Anti-Terror Task Forces[edit]

Currently, when undercontrol of Arahan 18 Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN) or Directive No.18 National Security Council, there are several units distinguished as Special Operations Force, namely;

1. Grup Gerak Khas (Army)
2. PASKAL (Navy)
3. PASKAU (Air Force)
4. 69th Commando Battalion PGK (Police)
5. Special Actions Unit PGK (Police)
6. UNGERIN (Police)
7. Trup Tindakan Cepat (Prison Department)
8. Special Task And Rescue (Coast Guard)

Within the joint unit, all seven units can be re-organised as per SAS model such as;

1. Mountain/Land Troop (including/combining all specialised skills/unit acquired by the former Army Grup Gerak Khas, Police VAT 69 Pasukan Gerakan Khas);
2. Amphibious/Maritime Troop (including/combining all PASKAL specialised trade in seaborne operations, swamp, diving plus etc. together with UNGERIN);
3. Air Troop (including/combining all PASKAU specialised trade in hostage rescue at the airport or aircraft, air installation protection and also taking over PARA troops facility and training of the HALO/HAHO from Grup Gerak Khas etc.).
4. Counter Revolutionary Warfare and Counter Terrorist Unit (including/combining skills from Grup Gerak Khas, Pasukan Gerakan Khas, PASKAL, UNGERIN, TTC and PASKAU to form a several units, with 24 hour standby notice by the MKN. The example of this is Blue Troop and Red Troop of the SAS UK that are on 24 hours standby notice.)