Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak today said the ministry is prepared to help the government look into legal adjustments that can contain modern terrorism more effectively.

Responding to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's statement yesterday that existing security laws may be amended to tackle modern-day terrorism, Najib said this will require feedback from all relevant agencies.

Quoted in a Bernama report, the minister said all-round co-operation is necessary because "terrorists are using more sophisticated methods and have connections with terrorists in other countries and are international in nature".

Terrorists now have at their disposal modern tools such as cell phones and the Internet to facilitate communication in the course of planning and carrying out their destructive acts, he said.

"As such, all efforts must be intensified so that we can face the terrorist threats more effectively," Najib stressed after attending a function in Pekan, Pahang.

One such effort, he revealed, is the 21GGK Regiment based at the Terendak Camp, Melaka, set up several years ago.

Though yet to be tested, the specially-trained team is a back-up to the existing police anti-terrorist unit, he said. "It was almost deployed to Sauk [during the arms heist there]," Bernama quoted him.

He added that the intelligence unit has been ordered to focus on external threats, for example by monitoring the borders to check inflows of foreigners or smuggling of arms.

Taking advantage

However, opposition leaders yesterday accused the government of trying to ape the United States by considering the possibility of tightening existing laws.

"We hope the government would not learn from the United States on how to make our security laws even more repressive than they already are," PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali told malaysiakini .

Following the Sept 11 terror attacks, the US government recently passed the Patriot Act which among others allows wiretaps without prior clearance from judges, trials to be conducted in closed courts and a detention period without recourse to judicial review and habeas corpus.

DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock argued that "the government must be taking advantage of the Sept 11 attacks to further tighten its control".