Preparations to Terrorist Chemical Weapons Threats: From Malaysian Perspective

摘要

Malaysia is a multiracial country with background of different races, religions and cultures. Even though, Malaysia has yet to face any major terrorist attacks, the risk is always there, and we should prepare for the uncertainties. In the historical perspective, chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have never been used or released in a larger scale since World War I by any parties even if they are capable of doing so. At present, the major threats are seen originating from the militant, radical or terrorist groups with intentions to use CWAs to create unrest and instability. The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack in the morning of March 20, 1995 is a classic example how the CWAs were used onto general public by a radical group to create panic and chaos. Based on that incident, this paper will try to gain understanding of the events and learn valuable lessons from the Tokyo Sarin attack and will try to simulate if similar situation occurs anywhere in Malaysia. Therefore, this paper highlighted various points of view related to the cooperation between national agency, Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) and even the source of CWAs ingredients available in Malaysia. The study had reviewed various important documents and interviewed leaders of various agencies to study the overall pattern of chemical weapon threats and the preparation to defense which is based on qualitative research. This paper able to give some insights on how to handle such attacks and the steps that could be taken if CWAs are being released by some groups of people in an area.