Assessing Factors of National Security

National security is the necessity to maintain the endurance of the state through the use of political power, the exercise of diplomacy, economic and military. The idea developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II. Originally focusing on military might encompasses a broad range of facets all of which impose on the military or economic security of the nation and the values espoused by the national society. Therefore, in order to possess national security, a nation needs to possess environmental security, economic security and energy security etc.

Security threats involve not only conventional foes such as other nation-states but also non-state actors such as violent non-state actors, narcotic cartels, multinational corporations and non-governmental organisations; some authorities include natural disasters and events causing severe environmental damage in this category.

Measures taken to ensure national security include:

• using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats
• marshalling economic power to facilitate or compel cooperation
• maintaining effective armed forces
• implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures (including anti-terrorism legislation)
• ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure
• using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, and to protect classified information
• using counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats

Slide 4 – Who defines national security?

State/Government/group of elites determines the main objectives of security based on the nation’s sovereignty, integrity of the state and economic prosperity. As the source of political authority, the government defines security, and this definition generally encompasses the broader spectrum of values held dear by the majority.

“Since the future racial peace in this country depends on how well the government handles the sensitive issues, it is suggested that the NSC shall be the body to look into the matter”.

Slide 5 – Scope

Slide 6 – Factors Of National Security

Slide 7 – Economy

Historically, conquest of nations have made conquerors rich through plunder, access to new resources and enlarged trade through controlling of the conquered nations’ economy.

In today’s complex system of international trade, ‘ by multi-national agreements, mutual inter-dependence and availability of natural resources etc., the freedom to follow choice of policies to develop a nation’s economy in the manner desired, forms the essence of economic security. Economic security today forms, arguably, as important a part of national security as military security.

Slide 8 – Military

This is traditionally, the earliest recognised form of national security. Military security implies the capability of a nation to defend itself, and/or deter military aggression. Alternatively, military security implies the capability of a nation to enforce its policy choices by use of military force. The term “military security” is considered synonymous with “security” in much of its usage. One of the definitions of security given in the Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, may be considered a definition of “military security“: A condition that results from the establishment and maintenance of protective measures that ensure a state of inviolability from hostile acts or influences.

Slide 9 – Politic

The political aspect of security has been offered by Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, Jaap de Wilde as an important component of national security. Political security is about the stability of the social order. Closely allied to military security and societal security, other components proposed in a framework for national security in their book “Security: a new framework for analysis”, it specifically addresses threats to sovereignty. System referent objects are defined, such as nation-states, nations, transnational groups of political importance including tribes, minorities, some religious organisations, systems of states such as the European Union and the United Nations, besides others. Diplomacy, negotiation and other interactions form the means of interacion between the objects.

Slide 10 – Others

Malaysian government and the private sectors have identified the key sectors for the security concern. The key sectors are Economic, Politic and Military but transportation, banking and finance, health services, emergency services, energy, agriculture, water and information and communication are the part of the contribution on these (Rehman, 2002). Some of the key factors considered for the national security are given on the screne.

Slide 11 – National Security

So many issues once we are discussing on the National Security…… One of that are Illegal Immigrants.

Slide 12 – Illegal Immigrant

Illegal immigrants describes the people who is entering a country without formal permission. There are many views on illegal immigration, depending on political standpoint.

The factors/causes of the immigration, one of that what am I explain just now ………

Economics and labor markets

The net flow of illegal immigration pattern is almost entirely from countries of lower socioeconomic levels to countries of higher socioeconomic levels, and particularly from developing countries to developed countries.

While there are other causes associated with poorer countries, poverty issue, overpopulation, family reunification, the most common motivation for illegal immigrants is the pursuit of greater economic opportunities and quality of life in the destination state.

Under the basic cost/benefit argument for illegal immigration, potential immigrants believe the probability and benefits of successfully migrating to the destination country are greater than the costs. These costs may include restrictions living as an illegal immigrant in the destination country, leaving family and ways of life behind, and the probability of being caught and resulting sanctions. Proposed economic models, based on a cost/benefit framework, have varying considerations and degrees of complexity.

Slide 13 – Statistic

Slide 14 – Utusan Malaysia

Malaysia to be flooded with foreign citizens staying illegally in the country and may create security problems.

The fact is, many foreigners come to Malaysia to make a living. Some entered the country legally, but many entered the country illegally.

Apart from that, there were also those who entered using tourist visa, but disappeared and could not be traced by our authorities after the visa expired. For example, in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2007, there were 26,252 Indian nationals who entered the country using the Visa on Arrival (VOA) disappeared after their visa expired. They topped the list of foreigners who overstayed, followed by 9,719 Pakistani , Chinese nationals (3,866 people), Bangladeshi (5,663) and Sri Lankan (3,379).

It is also true that almost half or about 24,000 of the 49,000 prison inmates in Malaysia are foreign citizens? Apart from that, is it true that in 2006, there were between 300,000 and 500,000 illegal immigrants in Malaysia and the cost incurred to deport them home was at least RM3.5 million a year?

In short, cross-border crime is the most sophisticated black-market business in the world. Efforts to eliminate it is not easy. Therefore, we have to realize that the impact of the cross-border crime in the context of illegal immigrants is serious. Many international analysts opines that cross-border crime threatens the country’s system and its sovereignty, as well as threaten international security and mankind. This crime also creates conflicts. Apart from that, cross-border crime also promotes corruption so that its operation will not be hampered by any prevention , enforcement and security agencies.

Malaysia signed the convention of 26 September 2002, and endorsed it on 24 September 2004. The signing of this convention proved that Malaysia is serious in dealing with the cross-border crime problems. That is why the law on anti-human trafficking and others were drafted.

However, these laws are confined to only problems on cross-border crime in terms of social aspect, not from the perspective of the country’s security. That is why, I believe the problem of cross-border crime, especially on the entry of illegal immigrants or on foreign citizens who disappeared after their visa expired, should be tackled through the national security perspective. The government should not take lightly the question on cross-border crime in the context of the illegal entry of foreigners into Malaysia.

Hence, it is now time for the government to embark on an integrated and comprehensive action to review laws on immigration and employment of foreign labour to avoid Malaysia’s sovereignty from being threatened due to the uncontrolled entry of foreign citizens.

Slide 15 – Conclusion

In the wide scope review of the national information security policies, given in this presentation, it has been observed that while many of the factors considered by these national security are of common content, differences also exist leading to some gaps in the various national policies. The concluded dominant factors from the various policies help making future policies more comprehensive. Future development of national information security policies, such as the future policy of the Malaysia would benefit from considering the dominant factors given in this presentation.

According to analyser (Hari Singh)……….

National security entails both its substantive and rhetorical dimensions. In its substantive form, the concept suffers from distortion given that it is subject to the psychological processes of human cognition.

As rhetoric, it justifies state actions, including issues that do not reflect, but which are not totally divorced from, reality. These themes, examined in the Malaysian context, highlight the external and internal dimensions of national security, the substantive aspects being more pronounced in the former, and rhetoric being more salient in the latter.

While the security of the political regime is a determinant of both domains, its influence was greater in the internal-rhetorical quadrant of Malaysia’s national security.