JOHOR BARU: The government must develop a smart border screening system to enhance security ahead of the expected surge in cross-border movement when the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link starts operations early next year.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Faculty of Science lecturer Prof Dr Suhairul Hashim said conventional inspection measures were no longer sufficient, given the hundreds of thousands of commuters and vehicles crossing the Malaysia-Singapore border daily.
“At airports, passengers move through controlled lanes and luggage is scanned according to flight schedules.
“However, at land gateways, inspections must be completed quickly to avoid congestion, making it impossible to inspect every vehicle or bag.
“This is the biggest challenge facing enforcement at land borders,” he told Bernama.
He said this challenge would intensify once the RTS Link begins operations, with the line designed to carry up to 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
While increased mobility would boost the economy, he warned that smuggling syndicates would exploit the heavy traffic.
“The higher the cross-border movement, the greater the difficulty in distinguishing legal trade from criminal activity,” he said.
“If inspections remain conventional, congestion will worsen, raising the risk of threats evading detection. Inspection capacity must grow in tandem with transport capacity,” he said.
Prof Suhairul said the solution lay not in blanket checks but in smart screening systems incorporating artificial intelligence, real-time data analysis, automatic number plate recognition, facial recognition, dual-energy CT scanning and behavioural analysis.
The 2020 Top Research Scientist Malaysia award recipient said such technology would allow high‑risk individuals or vehicles to be flagged for detailed checks, while most travellers move smoothly through border gates.
His comments follow the Aug 1 arrest of a 22-year-old Malaysian at Singapore’s Woodlands Checkpoint for allegedly attempting to smuggle over 8.6kg of cannabis and 1.5kg of methamphetamine.
Addressing perceptions that Malaysia’s inspection system is weaker than Singapore’s, Prof Suhairul said seizures do not necessarily reflect superior technology.
He said effectiveness was dependent on inspection strategies, risk analysis, intelligence gathering, operational layout and enforcement priorities.
“A seizure may occur because the authorities had specific intelligence, not because the machine in one country is more sophisticated,” he said.
He said Singapore also placed greater emphasis on detecting cigarettes, vapes and drugs, which carry severe penalties, resulting in more intensive inspections.
