KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is committed to working with its regional partners in snuffing out terrorism including severing financial flows to terror groups.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government would monitor all transactions which could be a possible financing line to terrorists.
He said this included official sources such as the banking system and unofficial means involving donations and contributions from sympathisers.
"The only way to effectively curb terrorism activities is to stop and cut all sort of terrorist-financing which may go through the banking system or other unofficial means.
"Some non-profitable organisations (NPOs) and sympathisers maybe too naive that they can be influenced by terror groups, especially over the internet and social media.
“This has been known to be the case in some of the countries in our region but so far there has been none in Malaysia," he said when opening the third Counter-Terrorism Financing Summit at Bank Negara today.
The summit was organised by Bank Negara in partnership with Australia’s financial intelligence agency Austrac, and Indonesia’s Pusat Pelaporan and Analisis Transaksi Keuangan.
Zahid said combatting terrorism was a global effort and it could not be stopped by destroying only one terror group.
He said terrorists were advanced in reaching out to the wider global audience to achieve their agenda, including raising funds.
"It is definitely disheartening to see, an establishment meant for benevolent acts towards the underprivileged segment of society, being manipulated by terrorists, to fund fear and suffering."
He said that it was important to maximise the use of financial intelligence to detect and deter funding to terrorist organisations through international cooperation.
"It has been a long-held belief of states, and international organisations like the Financial Action Task Force, that a pre-requisite for effectively countering terrorism, is to tackle the financing of all activities carried out for terrorist purposes.
"If you kill one terrorist, another terrorist will be born. But, if you cut off the funds and other economic resources, you can end the entire operation," he said.
Under the leadership of the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia, Zahid said Malaysia had embarked on the ground-breaking Regional Risk Assessment on Terrorism Financing and NPOs.
"This is following the success of last year's first-ever Terrorism Financing Regional Risk Assessment. The continuation of these successful collaborations symbolises the unwavering support and commitment by all regional partners, to identify the sub-sets, or vulnerable characteristics of NPOs, to better mitigate NPOs for terrorism financing, without chocking the funding or disrupting the operation of legitimate NPOs," he said.
The four-day summit involved more than 350 specialists and professionals from 35 countries and international organisations to share their insights on the latest terrorism financing issues, counter-terrorism strategies and how the countries as a region can share and exchange terrorism related developments.
Present at the opening of summit were Australian Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan; and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs of Indonesia, General Wiranto.
Meanwhile, Wiranto said Indonesia was monitoring every organisation that it was impossible for terror symphatisers to fund without being traced.
Keenan said since 2014, the Australian government had spent AUD 1.5 billion (RM4.68 billion) on revamping its intelligence agencies and had ousted over 200 Australians for their involvement in terrorism.