By NNN-Bernama,
Putrajaya : Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said Friday it was improper to label Malaysia as an “exporter” of militants because terrorism was a regional or global problem unrestricted by national boundaries.
He said it was futile for countries to point fingers at one another in the matter.
“Even in the case of the Sept 11 (2001) attacks (on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre) in the United States, the terrorists came from outside that country. This only goes to show that we are faced with a global issue, not something confined to any one country,” he said.
Najib responded thus when asked to comment on the killing of Malaysian Noordin Mohd Top, Southeast Asia’s most wanted militant, in a police raid in Solo, central Java, Thursday.
Noordin, who had been a member of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was the mastermind behind a series of bomb explosions in Bali and Jakarta which had claimed hundreds of lives. Najib said problems associated with terrorism required the cooperation of the affected countries and even covered cooperation at the global level.
“Noordin was actually influenced by Abu Bakar Bashir, an Indonesian national. So, to say that we (Malaysia) export militants is not right because he (Noordin) was influenced by Abu Bakar Bashir of Indonesia who had opened a religious school in Ulu Tiram, Johor. That was how it all started.
“As we all know, terrorism is a regional and global problem. It knows no national boundaries. As such, there must be cooperation between our countries and, in fact, at the global level, if we want to stem this threat,” he said.