Zahid said in most cases, the detainees were the breadwinners, and their detention would affect their families’ livelihoods.
“The government has ensured that assistance is extended to the families involved to ease their burden.
“This has proven to be one of the vital factors that has contributed to the success of the deradicalisation initiatives,” he said.
Zahid, who is also home minister, said that in the post-release programme, assistance and support was provided to ensure that the released detainees could continue living without succumbing to extremism.
He said the success rate of the deradicalisation programme was at around 97.5%.
“Engagement is a crucial element of the government’s policy, and the programmes are designed to win the hearts and minds of the target groups with the aim to neutralise or to win them over,” he said.
Deradicalisation involves techniques adopted to undermine and reverse the completed radicalisation process to reduce the potential risk to society from terrorism.
In sharing the country’s experience, Zahid said the “soft” approach of deradicalisation was based on the adaptation of methods used during the insurgency.
Citing Malaysia’s approach on this matter, he said the success of the war against the insurgency had been recognised as due to deradicalisation programmes and counter-radicalisation strategies undertaken by the government.
The Memali incident (1985), the Al-Maunah fiasco (2000), the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (2001) and the intrusion by Sulu militants at Lahad Datu (2013) were among the major threats the country faced from radical and religious extremists as well as terrorists allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda.
Zahid said Malaysia was willing to share its integrated module in the rehabilitation of terrorists with other countries. He also said the programme had been translated into three languages – English, Arabic and French.
“Malaysia maintains the view that the mere use of the penalty and criminalisation approach will not solve the problem of extremism, and the blending of the soft approach and conventional methods offers a better alternative,” he said.
Zahid also said that Malaysia had initiated the Regional Digital Counter Messaging Communication Centre, aimed at synchronising efforts to counter radical social media messages and present the true image of Islam.
“Malaysia believes that an important strategy to counter violent Islamic extremism is to remove distortions and lies about religion, retelling the narrative of Islam to convey the clear message,” he said.
He said the advancement of information communication technology had created a borderless world that benefited the international community.
However, the same technology had also been abused by criminals and terrorists for propagating their ideologies, recruiting vulnerable young people for wrongful purposes, and executing terror attacks.
Zahid said they used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, WhatsApp and Telegram as an avenue to indoctrinate and spread the message of hatred.
“Malaysia continues to monitor terrorist narratives through all channels and media aimed at denying extremist proponents from the means and opportunities to pursue their activities and promote misconstrued ideologies,” he said.