Transcript of Media Doorstop on the Detention of a Self-Radicalised 17-Year-Old Youth With Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question: Minister, please tell us about the latest case under the ISA.

Minister: ISD has detained a 17-year-old under the Internal Security Act.  He was self-radicalised online, became a supporter of ISIS, and it happened very quickly, within a few months.

He pledged allegiance to ISIS in May of this year. He was planning to travel to Syria to fight with ISIS. But then, he faced difficulties in getting there. So, he then changed – he decided to conduct the attack in Singapore.

He basically wanted to obey ISIS’s call to kill non-Muslims wherever they are.

This boy had made extensive plans and preparations, and he was determined to carry out his attack in Singapore.

Question: How far had the youth gone in his preparations, when he was arrested?

Minister: He was arrested in August this year. That was less than a month before he had planned to attack. He had planned to attack during the school holidays in September. He was arrested a month earlier, in August.

If he had not been arrested by ISD, he would have carried out his plans.

He planned to use either a kitchen knife or a pair of scissors in his home. That was going to be his attack weapon.

He was quite serious, because he actually practised stabbing motions with the scissors – he checked out which place would cause death – basically the neck area – so he practised hitting at the neck.

This location, where I am talking to you from – Tampines West – this is where he intended to attack. He wanted a crowded area at the HDB heartlands, near the Tampines West Community Centre. It is within walking distance from his house.

In June 2024, he conducted a walkthrough of the route that he wanted take from his house to conduct the attack. You can see from here – literally thousands of people go through here every day. School holidays, it would be even more crowded. You see how crowded it is, people are walking by.

This boy was inspired by ISIS’s propaganda which glorified suicide knife attacks. He knew that he would be intercepted by the agencies, the Police. He had made up his mind to die in the course of the attack. He wanted to become a martyr.

I would say this was a very close shave. It is very fortunate that ISD arrested him in time.

If you go back to 2020, including this case, ISD has detected and detained five young boys, self-radicalised, before they could carry out their attacks in Singapore.

We see this happening around the world – I have spoken previously about cases of armed violence by self-radicalised young people that have happened elsewhere.

This year, a 14-year-old was arrested for stabbing another student in the neck at the University of Sydney. Three months before that, a 16-year-old stabbed a bishop at a church because he was not happy with the bishop’s remarks about other religions. That incident triggered a riot outside the church.

Question: What role can the public play in dealing with this threat?

Minister: The key is early reporting. It allows ISD and the agencies to act fast, given how quickly radicalisation can occur.

In this case, the young boy’s parents noticed that he was watching videos by foreign preachers. They advised him not to watch those videos. When he did not listen, an option would have been to alert the authorities.

It really would be good if family members and friends reported to the authorities quickly, if they suspect that someone they know is being radicalised. This helps us to stop them from killing themselves, because they will die in the process. It allows us to try and rehabilitate them. Young boys – people at this stage – we are able to rehabilitate them. They can then go back to their lives and lead their lives.

And often, when reporting is made, the person will not even be detained. Quite often. If the person is very young, in the early stage of radicalisation, ISD can arrange for other interventions such as religious counselling without arresting or detaining them. But of course, in this case, due to the extent of radicalisation and the closeness to carrying out of his plans, he was detained.

Question:  It was mentioned that the youth had been radicalised by materials that surfaced on social media after the attack by HAMAS on 7 Oct last year – any comments on this?

Minister: Extremist narratives – they're everywhere, relating to developments overseas.

Slightly more than a year has passed since the 7 Oct HAMAS attack, and there are no signs of the tragic war in Gaza stopping anytime soon.

The 17-year-old’s case shows how terrorist groups, including those like ISIS, which are not directly involved with the Israel-HAMAS conflict, can and will take advantage of the conflict to recruit and radicalise others.

It is important that we try and make sure our people remain vigilant against imbibing radical materials, or becoming radicalised themselves.

We cannot allow extremist narratives to take root in our society and threaten our security and social harmony, and so far, I would say we’ve done reasonably well in that regard.

Question: Did the parents or family know about this case, and if they did not report it, how can MHA encourage whistleblowing in such cases?

Minister: We have constantly put out points. What would parents want? Parents will want their children to be safe. No parent really wants his child to go and do something then die in the process – do something bad, kill others, then he himself, or she herself, is killed. I would say no, at least most parents wouldn't want that.

And that's been our experience. Often, the people we have picked up are people who have been reported to us by parents, other family members, teachers.

So the community is a very important line of defense. Here, the parents noticed, and they advised him, they thought that that would be enough.

If we can pick up such people very early, as I said earlier, they may not even need to be detained, because we may assess that they haven't gone far enough, they can be rehabilitated without detention and we give religious counselling.

But if they've gone further down the road and are a risk to themselves and to society, then we have to detain them, it’s an assessment, professional assessment that ISD has got to make.

We have to detain them and in detention, they will again receive religious counseling and a variety of help. We’ve had young people who have continued their education and passed their exams while under detention.

So we try and rehabilitate, get them on to their life, and the aim must be – and aim is – to have them released at some point, sooner the better, go back into society, get a job, have a family, fulfil their potential, do whatever they want to do.

Question: What were the authorities’ considerations in issuing a Detention Order this time around? How severe were the plans?

Minister: This boy, we picked him up, as I’ve said, in August. He was planning to carry out the attacks within a few weeks, less than a month, in September during the school holidays.

And you see the place. You see how many people there are. You see how many people are senior citizens, how many young children.

You take a knife, as you have seen in other places. You have already practised killing, you know, hitting the neck. It is very easy to attack people here. People are defenceless. They are not coming here expecting to be attacked.

People go around in Singapore feeling safe, so you could easily have gone on a rampage and killed a lot of people around here.

I mean, just scan around you, look at the kind of people who are around. Kids are playing, senior citizens are resting. They are easy targets for such an attacker, and because of his radicalisation and closeness to the fruition of his plans, we decided it was safer to detain him.

Question: Given the situation in the Middle East right now, are the authorities and the people doing enough to stop self-radicalisation and possible attacks, and is there a need for the country to raise the alert level?

Minister: When you talk about radicalisation, there are two parts to it. One, the amount of material that is out there, the things that are happening around the world. We have absolutely no control over that.

The second part is, how do our people react to that. And if you see our people are reacting, on the whole, the vast majority, all races are reacting, in a way, as Singaporeans first – with a clear national identity, a sense of purpose, and understanding what is right and what is wrong.

But you cannot prevent a small group – thankfully, it's a small group – from being radicalised. Our task is to keep that group as small as possible, try and pick it up as quickly as possible, ask the families to help, ask the community to help.

But we also maintain our vigilance. So ISD is a very important part. They are the central part in terms of the Government being able to deal with it if a radicalisation takes place.

But prior to radicalisation, a lot of steps – racial, religious harmony – that we work very hard to foster. The economic situation, make sure that everybody, regardless of race, language or religion, gets their opportunities and help everyone.

You know, society has to work. If the society is not successful and people feel that they are marginalised, then you give greater room for radicalisation.

Thankfully, on all those scores, we don't talk much about that, but on all those scores, we do reasonably well, reasonably better than many other places. And so, most people have jobs, most people have a roof over their heads. Most people find life fulfilling and are able to do the things they want to do.

That doesn’t mean everyone is happy or everyone is completely satisfied with where they are, but they are not as desperate as other places. And once people gets desperate and there is also a sense of marginalisation, even if they are not desperate, even if they are not economically disadvantaged, you will have more people becoming radicalised.

So those are things that we can do and make sure that we treat everyone equally, everybody understands that there are rules which apply equally and all races and religions are protected.

That’s a start point.

Nevertheless, radicalisation will happen because of people’s reactions to international events, and when that happens, we have to move in with the variety of defences that I spoke about.

Question: His actions were discovered in August, but how did you guys discover his actions?

Minister: I never talk about ISD’s operational methods, and you are not quite accurate to say that he was discovered in August.

I won’t go into it, but I’ve said before – Singapore is safe but don’t take it for granted. Just imagine if he had gone on a rampage here. I'm sure people see – it’s a normal typical heartlands neighbourhood. What could have been the consequences? It could have been any of you, it could have been any of them. It could be your daughter, your son, your child, your parents. If you’re very young or very old, you’re particularly vulnerable.

It could have been anyone, right? And just imagine the shock if that had happened.

So don’t take this lightly, don’t take our safety for granted. It’s serious.

But thankfully, it’s a very small number, and ISD has got to get it right every single time.

When somebody gets up from the wrong side of the bed, he has been imbibing materials and then he feels angry, gets a kitchen knife, goes down, kills. How do you prevent it?

So we have to be realistic. The threats are real.

So far, we have been watching out, but it’s not pure luck. It’s a lot of hard work on the part of ISD. But as I’ve said, they have to get it right every single time. It’s not easy.

Question: Minister, you’ve mentioned a bit about the parents’ roles in this situation. But it appears that in previous cases, none of the parents seem to have reported it.

Minister: No, that’s not accurate. There are cases where parents have reported and families have reported. Teachers have identified and reported. There have been cases where families reported, and there were cases where no one has reported and ISD has picked up.

Question: Would you say there are enough platforms in Singapore for youths who feel strongly about the Gaza conflict?

Minister: Yes. First of all, there’s nothing to prevent people from talking amongst each other or coming together to discuss the conflict. It doesn’t have to be provided for by the Government. But the Government itself provides various platforms. I’ve attended various dialogues.

Secondly, we organise so many events and it doesn’t again have to be organised by the Government. It can be organised by anyone. It can be self-organised to provide constructive effort to assist in Gaza. In fact, our military assets delivered the relief supplies to Gaza.

So there are many things that you can do if you want to make a difference.

Question: Is this the first time an arrest has happened so close to the plan? Does this increase pressure on the ISD to pick up on such cases?

Minister: ISD is always under pressure. As I said, they have got to get it right every single time. And I’ve said it’s not easy.

And you know, our tagline is “not if, but when” because we assume at some point something will happen.

So please, everyone has got to take their security seriously and don’t assume that it will never happen.

But having said that, is this the closest – I don’t remember the precise times when all the previous arrests took place, but I would say this is one of the ones where it was quite close – fairly close.

In the past, many of the cases that I recall offhand, the plans were still some way away. But we take a zero-tolerance approach.

Even if you are planning to go to Syria or somewhere else to take up arms, we detain you or we pick you up and you might get a Restriction Order or Detention Order.