KUALA LUMPUR – The Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism (SEARCTT) managed to organise 116 programmes that benefited 4,886 participants between 2018 and 2023, said Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin (Kimanis-BN).
“SEARCTT was founded as a training and research centre in the terrorism prevention field.
“Its effectiveness can be seen in the training and rebuilding with research activity, public awareness, and radicalisation prevention through digital counter-messaging online,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
In response to a question from Howard Lee (Ipoh Timur-PH) about the overall effectiveness of SEARCTT, Mohamad said that its participants include local and international university students, youth, government servants, public citizens, academics, and civil society organisations.
“SEARCTT provides a variety of activities for participants to increase their knowledge of terrorism prevention, involving the collaboration of local and international private anti-terrorism agencies.
“Among the activities, SEARCTT organises cross-field workshops in futsal, basketball, esports, and art to raise awareness and build anti-terrorism skills.
“SEARCTT’s training module also includes workshops in chemistry, radiology, biology, nuclear and terrorism explosion, medical emergency, and consequences management.”
“SEARCTT also organises national forums annually on an independent month for students from public and private universities, as well as civil society,” he added, adding that he agreed with Nurul Amin Hamid’s (Padang Terap-PN) recommendation that the Foreign Affairs Ministry hire more officers and researchers. – October 18, 2023