Singapore High Commissioner Ong Keng Yong will be called in today to clarify allegations that the island republic is aiding the United States in spying on Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Describing Singapore as a \u201cgood friend and neighbour\u201d, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman denounced the latest revelations by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden implicating the island republic, saying that if they are proven to be true, it is a \u201cserious matter that the government of Malaysia strongly rejects and abhors\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt cannot be over-emphasised that spying against a good friend and neighbour is unacceptable and goes against the true spirit of and commitment to good neighbourly relations,\u201d Anifah said in a statement sent late last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalaysia and Singapore currently enjoy mutually beneficial and strong ties as reflected by the excellent relations between the two prime ministers and the expanding areas of cooperation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Top secret documents leaked by Snowden showed that Singapore, which was once a part of Malaysia before breaking off in 1965, is a key partner of the \u201c5-Eyes\u201d intelligence group led by the US, which was revealed to have tapped telephones and monitored communications networks in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
In a report by Australian media group Fairfax Media yesterday quoting Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, it was revealed that Singapore, which is one of the US\u2019 closest allies, is a key \u201cthird party\u201d providing the ring – comprising the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – access to Malaysia\u2019s communications channel.<\/p>\n
In August, Fairfax had reported that the Singaporean intelligence is a partner of Australia\u2019s electronic espionage agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, to tap the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable that runs from Japan, via Singapore, Djibouti, Suez and the Straits of Gibraltar to Northern Germany.<\/p>\n
This access was allegedly facilitated by Singaporean telecommunication operator Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), which is owned by Singapore government\u2019s investment arm Temasek Holdings.<\/p>\n
According to Fairfax, Malaysia and Indonesia had been key targets for both Australian and Singaporean intelligence even since the 1970s, since most of Indonesia\u2019s telecommunications and Internet traffic goes through the island city-state.<\/p>\n
Anifah said yesterday Putrajaya is \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about news reports of mass surveillance undertaken by the US, Australia, and now Singapore, on Malaysia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Malaysian authorities have taken appropriate actions with regard to earlier allegations of spying by the United States and Australia. The Malaysian authorities are now investigating thoroughly the latest media report about the involvement of other countries, in particular Singapore, in the spying activities against Malaysia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald reported last month that Australia\u2019s intelligence agency was using its diplomatic missions in several Asian countries, including Malaysia, to intercept phone calls and internet data.<\/p>\n
The report cited information disclosed by Snowden, saying that signals intelligence collection occurs at Australia\u2019s High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, as well as at its embassies in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor.<\/p>\n
Snowden had revealed earlier a top secret map showing 90 US electronic surveillance facilities worldwide, including in its embassies in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.<\/p>\n
No such facilities, however, are located in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, according to the map dated August 13, 2010. – themalaymailonline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Singapore High Commissioner Ong Keng Yong will be called in today to clarify allegations that the island republic is aiding the United States in spying on Malaysia. Describing Singapore as a \u201cgood friend and neighbour\u201d, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman denounced the latest revelations by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden implicating the island republic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":17149,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":640,"height":425,"file":"2013\/11\/ong_keng_yong_2-300x199.jpg","filesize":36523,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":17148,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/ong_keng_yong_2-300x199.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}