SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A 14-year-old radicalised boy who was planning to attack Secondary 2 students and teachers at his school during the June holidays was stopped in May when someone at the school alerted the authorities.
Speaking to the media at a doorstop at New Phoenix Park on July 27, Senior Minister K. Shanmugam and Education Minister Desmond Lee said it was fortunate that someone at the school had picked up on the telltale signs.
Lee said it showed that educators, counsellors, peer support leaders, students and others in the school community, having undergone training and participation in drills, were alert to signs that a friend, student, classmate or loved one, is falling sway to extremist ideologies.
Shanmugam, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, said: “It takes less and less time for people to become radicalised and decide to become violent.
“That is why it is extremely important to report early.
“You’re actually helping that kid or helping that person because the Internal Security Department (ISD) and the Ministry of Home Affairs can prevent them from harming themselves and harming others.”
On July 27, ISD said three Singaporean teenagers aged 14, 15 and 19, who were self-radicalised by violent extremist ideologies and planned to carry out separate attacks here, were detained under the Internal Security Act.
Lee said: “We are very deeply concerned for the three young people who have been radicalised in these recent cases. While ISD will focus on their rehabilitation, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will support their education while they are in detention.”
Noting that prevention, education and emergency response are all important pillars to tackle the challenge of youth online radicalisation, Lee said: “Ultimately, we need everybody to play their part in order to keep our school environment safe, and indeed to keep Singapore safe.”
ISD said the 14-year-old boy was an ISIS supporter, but also subscribed to aspects of far-right extremist ideologies.
The youth, who also idolised mass shooters, was preparing to conduct a mass-casualty stabbing attack at his secondary school during the school holidays in June 2026.
ISD said he had considered using firearms and a homemade bomb, and chose to use a knife after repeated online viewings of ISIS execution and stabbing tutorial videos.
Shanmugam said the youth came close to carrying out his plans.
“People are getting radicalised much faster, and it’s really not possible to always pick it up at the beginning, which is why I emphasise the importance of family and friends,” said Shanmugam.
“The moment you see something not quite right, please report,” he added.
“Don’t just leave it to ISD and the police. We try our best and so far, we have been successful in intervening every single time, but don’t take that for granted. This was close.”
Asked if there are plans to step up security measures at school, Shanmugam said that schools are open spaces that should not be turned into garrisons.
He added: “Then it won’t feel like a school... If you want the majority of people to feel comfortable and confident, you have to have a balance between security and free movement.
“People want to live without having to go through a whole series of restrictions. You can’t turn Singapore into a garrison. You can’t turn schools into a garrison. You can’t turn public buildings into garrisons.”
Lee agreed, adding: “It’s very natural when something like this happens that people’s instinct is ‘let’s tighten up, put up perimeter fences, conduct 100 per cent checks, check every bag, have metal detectors’ and so on.”
He said there are already multiple layers of vigilance, training and contingency planning, and physical measures like CCTVs, and security staff in schools and institutes of higher learning (IHLs) who are trained to look out for matters of concern or people of concern.
Lee added: “Schools are places where people learn; they spark the joy of learning. They are places where people must feel comfortable learning, and certainly not every institute of higher learning is a gated, closed community.
“There are open campuses where we have people coming in and out... So we want to make sure that we strike the right balance and put in place the right measures.”
The MOE in a release said that since 2007, it has partnered the ISD to conduct counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation workshops and activities for student leaders, educators and other school staff across primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and IHLs.
The drills and exercises include potential threats from outside and within the school.
Shanmugam said there has been a lot of work put in to build bonds between the communities, “to make sure our Malay-Muslim Singaporeans feel the same as everybody else”, and for Singaporeans of all races and religions to recognise that “we are one, and we are together in this”.
He added: “We are a very small place, and in this small place, we either survive together in a small boat as one Singapore, or we are all in trouble.
“So let’s make sure we don’t let a few radicalised individuals poison the whole atmosphere.” -- The Straits Times/ANN
