THE frequency is frightening. On March 27, the police arrested an Israeli man who was found with six guns and about 200 bullets at a hotel in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.
The firearms were alleged to have been sold to the Israeli — identified as Shalom Avitan — by a Malaysian couple who allegedly smuggled them across the Thailand-Malaysia border.
Its porosity is a paradise for smugglers. More of this later. For now, the plot thickens. As the police widened their search, more were arrested in connection with the firearms. When we last counted, a dirty dozen were detained.
Avitan may be a hitman for Mossad, the notorious Israeli spy unit, as he is suspected to be, or a criminal gang member as Tel Aviv wants us to believe. But he sure doesn't know how to lie. Avitan told the police that he was here to kill a rival gang member.
What, with six guns and 200 bullets? Is he that bad a shot? The police have quite rightly put the nation on full alert.
Just as Malaysians were placing the incident in the memory bank, another firearm fright engulfed the country. This time the gun went bang bang at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 1.
As the police were quick to explain to the media, the plot was not as sinister as the March 27 firearm incident. On Sunday, the day in question, Hafizul Harawi, a Malaysian, shot and critically wounded his wife's bodyguard.
The bullet was meant for his wife, who is his business partner. The wife is said to be seeking a divorce from him. There is a lesson here for all husbands. Bullets don't facilitate an amicable settlement.
They earn you a spell in the prison cell or the hangman's noose. Sinister though the Sunday incident wasn't, the firearm fright remains. Avitan's guns and bullets and those of Hafizul were smuggled into Malaysia from a "neighbouring country".
Hafizul is believed to be headed north, probably trying to cross the border through which his gun and bullets perhaps did earlier.
That brings us to porous borders. Consider the Malaysia-Thailand border. It is a stretch in every meaning of the word.
What else can a land and maritime border of 640km be? Included on this murky frontier is the 95km-stretch of Sungai Golok, a hotbed of smugglers of every item imaginable.
The border is a web of rat lanes. It is not easy to keep a 24/7 watch over that distance. A less than robust border policing may have been okay when smuggling was a mere economic concern, but when firearms proliferate, they become a major security issue.
Greater thought needs to go into how the borders are policed. Granted those who manage the borders have neither the money nor the manpower to police them robustly.
When security is threatened, priorities must change. Putrajaya, where national priorities originate, must help. It must make policing of borders more muscular through increased funding.
With the right resources, technology can tread where humans can't. Policing, too, can be shared with neighbouring countries.
Asean is there, and why not make use of it. After all, the bloc believes vigilant border control is necessary to manage transnational threats. Malaysia must make Asean put that belief into action.