Malaysia’s deradicalisation programme the best in the world, says Zahid

The deradicalisation programme for convicts involved in extremist, radical and Islamic State (Isis) movements has received encouraging results which are recognised internationally. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the programme, implemented under the Malaysian Prisons Department's Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) on 130 convicts from the group, had achieved a high rehabilitation rate of 97%. He said the convicts were separated during detention to prevent them from influencing other convicts when undergoing the programme and the 97% rehabilitated ones did not return to their activities. "This is because the department did not conduct the rehabilitation alone but sought the cooperation of many quarters including Jakim (Malaysia Islamic Affairs Department), psychology experts, NGOs and others. "As a result, it makes Malaysia as an example of the most successful country in the deradicalisation programme, the best example in the world," he said in his speech at the 226th Prisons Day celebration at Padang Merdeka today. "We are not praising ourselves – this is a recognition by the United Nations, Interpol and others, which is why Malaysia hosted the International Deradicalisation Conference last month," he said. Zahid said the department's correctional programmes were successful when the number of convicts returning to crime was negligible. He said prisons should not separate convicts from the rest of society because they had to get on with their lives after completing their sentences and prisons should help them in their return to society. There were convicts trained to produce products to be marketed, some of whom were paid a sum of money which was kept to be given back to them after leaving prison, he said. He said the department's products made by convicts, such as songket cloth, batik, cakes and bread, had been marketed last year, fetching RM32 million, the best thus far. The successes also prompted Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem to request that all correctional programmes for convicts be expanded to prisons in Sarawak. Zahid said he would make a request to the Malaysian Armed Forces chief under NBOS on the possibility of stationing the department's correctional centres at army camps in Sarawak. – Bernama, February 20, 2016.]]>