KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is drafting legislation to act as a bulwark against foreign intelligence operatives using this country as a staging ground for their clandestine activities.
This comes after a series of high-profile covert operations mounted by foreign intelligence services, including the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un, and more recently, the abduction of a Palestinian in Kuala Lumpur.
In October, the New Straits Times revealed that a group of locals, allegedly recruited by Israel's spy agency Mossad, carried out a "snatch-and-grab" of the Palestinian man said to be a high-value target sought by Tel Aviv.
The National Intelligence Agencies Meeting was called to discuss the case and other issues surrounding it. The National Security Council (NSC) was also briefed on the incident.
NSC director-general Datuk Rodzi Md Saad told the New Straits Times that the proposed law would also serve as a guideline for civil servants when dealing with foreign officials and sensitive national issues and secrets.
"There must be a clear set of guidelines when our civil servants engage with foreign representatives.
"There is no prejudice whatsoever towards foreigners in this country. This is about making sure that we have the tools we need to safeguard the interests of this country," he said, adding that various segments of society would be engaged in the drafting of the law.
Legal experts are studying Australia's Anti-Espionage and Foreign Interference Act, as well as Singapore's Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.
Malaysia will not adopt these laws in their entirety, but tweak them to suit the country's needs.
Also being looked into by the team drawing up the legislation are protocols and the scope of responsibilities that those who would be governed by the proposed law would have to observe.
A special multi-agency taskforce involving the country's intelligence agencies is also being formalised to counter the covert activities of foreign intelligence operatives in Malaysia.
Also involved are the Home, Defence, Foreign, International Trade and Industry ministries, as well as the Attorney-General's Chambers.
Putrajaya is giving it six months for the first draft of the legislation to be readied, after which engagements would follow.
Rodzi, in a recent chat with this writer, said that among the initial steps that would be taken to ensure that Malaysia was not vulnerable to espionage and foreign interference, was to improve the preemptive assessment and intelligence-gathering capabilities of the country's frontline agencies like the police and Immigration Department.
Inter-agency intelligence sharing would also be further improved and refined.
Rodzi said as an immediate first step, the taskforce would examine existing laws, particularly the Security Offences (Special Measures), Immigration, and the Official Secrets acts.
Also being mulled over is for Malaysia to have a comprehensive, unified approach in anti-espionage and counter-intelligence measures by getting the legal team to look at and address potential gaps in the Penal Code, the Civil Service Regulations, and the Inspector-General Standing Orders.
It is understood the Malaysian intelligence community must put on record any engagements with foreign representatives or guests in the country.
This requirement may be made a blanket standard operating procedure in the civil service, where they must fill out forms before holding such meetings.
This, and an expanded coverage of the country's counter-espionage and counter-intelligence initiatives, are part of the measures to ensure that the risk of the nation's secrets and highly-sensitive information being compromised is minimised.
Malaysia has been a hotbed of counter-intelligence and covert operations since the late 1960s.
Foreign intelligence services such as North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and Russia's KGB (Komitet Gosubarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) have been known to operate here, but have not gone unnoticed by Malaysian intelligence services. Normally, they would be expelled from the country.
In 2017, Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 was the scene of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. North Korean agents reportedly engaged two foreign women to kill Jong-nam using the banned nerve agent, VX.
In 2018, as Malaysia was gearing up for the 14th General Election, the country was rocked by the gangland-style assassination of Dr Fadi Albatsh, who was affiliated with the Palestinian organisation Hamas.
The NST's report in October that Mossad may have been involved in the botched abduction in Kuala Lumpur of another Palestinian gives this proposed legislation an added urgency.