Research Division of the Prime Minister's Department

Last updated

The Research Division of the Prime Minister's Department (Malay : Bahagian Penyelidikan Jabatan Perdana Menteri) is an agency within the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department. [1] According to a leaked US diplomatic cable dating back to 2006, the Research Division is actually the public name for the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation (MEIO), the country's main foreign intelligence agency. [2]

Contents

History

Origins and operations

The Research Division was established during the 1960s as part of Malaysia's national security covert intelligence agency. [3] Muhammad Hatta, the Secretary of the Malaysian National Security Council, was known to have served as MEIO's Director General from 2002 to 2005.[ citation needed ] It was also known to have helped the Malaysian Special Branch in combating the Malayan Communist Party. [4] According to leaked cables, the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation also covertly supported the secessionist groups in Mindanao. More recently, MEIO reportedly helped to combat the Islamic State. [3] [5]

Post–2018 Malaysian general election

According to reports by several Malaysian news media including The Star , The Sun , and the news blog Malaysia Today in May 2018, the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation had 300 personnel, operated as a spy agency, and reported directly to former Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The organization was allegedly used to monitor government critics at home and abroad. Following the 2018 Malaysian general election, members of the Royal Malaysia Police's Commercial Crime Division searched the home of a female individual, who was reported to be the head of the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation, for documents that Najib had given her two days before the 2018 election. The Police also searched two buildings belonging to the agency. [6] [7] [8]

In late July 2018, a letter from MEIO's Director-General Hasanah Abu Hamid dating back to 4 May 2018 was leaked to the media. The letter was reportedly addressed to Gina Haspel, the designated Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and appealed for the Trump Administration to support Najib's administration even in the event that Barisan Nasional won by a simple majority or just one seat. She also described the Pakatan Harapan leader Mahathir Mohamed as an anti-Semite. [9] In response, the Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng called for an investigation into allegations that the Research Division had written to the CIA, describing the letter as an attempt to solicit foreign intervention. [10]

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Najib denied having any knowledge of the Research Division's letter, claiming that it was a government secret not meant for public eyes. [11] During a press conference on 31 July, Hasanah's lawyer Datuk Shaharudin Ali confirmed that the letter was genuine and asserted that the letter between MEIO and the CIA was part of the work of intelligence gathering and national security. [12] The former Director Hasanah lodged a police report on the grounds that the letter should not have been leaked for national security reasons. [13] [14] On 6 August 2018, Ab Jalil Backer, the leader of a group called Angkatan Karyawan Nasionalis, claimed that the CIA had leaked MEIO's letter and also alleged that the US spy agency had been colluding with Pakatan Harapan. [15]

A news report in May 2018 stated that the MEIO may be abolished under the new Mahathir government. [16]

On 22 August 2018, the news website Malaysiakini reported that the Malaysian Government appointed Ahmad Shublee Othman as the next Director of MEIO. [17]

In late August 2018, former MEIO director-general Hasanah was remanded in police custody over the alleged misappropriation of election funds during the 2018 general election. [18] In mid April 2021, High Court Justice Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh granted Hasanah a "discharge not amounting to an acquittal" (DNAA) in a trial involving the misuse of RM50.4 million (US$12.1 million) from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereignty fund. [19] [20]

In June 2022, Hasanah applied to have her DNAA converted to a full acquittal. On 10 August 2022, Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain granted Hasanah a full acquittal. [21]

Structure

The Research Division or Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation is part of Malaysia's national security covert intelligence agency. It is believed to have more than 1,000 agents, officers, and operatives around the world. MEIO works with several other Malaysian government departments and agencies including the Special Branch, military intelligence, and the National Security Council. MEIO has covert intelligence sources around the world and shares its information with the Prime Minister, the Malaysian Cabinet, Special Branch, and other agencies.

The Division's Director-General was Datuk Hasanah Abdul Hamid until the 2018 Malaysian general election. [3] [5]

Functions

The Research Division of the Prime Minister's Department is tasked with helping to improve the safety and prosperity of the country, empowering national sovereignty, and maintaining and enhancing the country's image and reputation in the international arena. [22]

Further reading

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Prime Minister's Department - Government Directory". Prime Minister's Department. Archived from the original on 2013-02-24. Retrieved 2013-08-19.
  2. ↑ "All in Good Faith? Proximity, Politicization and the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation" (PDF). Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "Secretive agency has over 1,000 personnel worldwide". The Star . 1 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  4. ↑ Michael Vatikiotis (5 March 2013). "Malaysia the Moderate Peacemaker". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Malaysian spy agency has over 1,000 staff worldwide". The Straits Times . 2 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  6. ↑ "Covert agency linked to former PM raided". The Star . 22 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "Top officer's house raided for Najib documents: Report". The Sun . 22 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "Top Officer's House Raided For Najib Documents: Report". Malaysia Today. 21 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Hamdan, Nurbaiti (27 July 2018). "Former MEIO DG to lodge police report over alleged CIA letter". The Star . Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  10. ↑ Adnan, Ahmad Suhael (26 July 2018). "Guan Eng: In-depth investigation into alleged letter to CIA necessary". New Straits Times . Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  11. ↑ Mohsen, Amar Shah; Achariam, Timothy (26 July 2018). "Najib denies any knowledge of alleged letter to CIA". The Sun . Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  12. ↑ Reduan, Hidir (31 July 2018). "Leaked CIA letter real, 'sending it not treason'". New Straits Times . Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  13. ↑ "EX-MEIO DG to lodge police report over letter to CIA". The Edge. Bernama. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  14. ↑ "Former Malaysia intelligence chief lodges police report over leaked letter to CIA". Channel News Asia. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  15. ↑ Ibrahim, Ida Nadirah (6 August 2018). "Activist claims CIA itself behind leaked MEIO letter". Malay Mail . Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "New Malaysian Cabinet to slash costs". Straits Times . 24 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  17. ↑ Mohd, Hariz (22 August 2018). "MEIO gets a new director-general". Malaysiakini . Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  18. ↑ Kaos Jr, Joseph (29 August 2018). "Ex-spy agency DG Hasanah remanded five days over misuse of GE14 funds". The Star . Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  19. ↑ Achariam, Timothy (12 April 2021). "High Court grants discharge not amounting to acquittal to ex-spy chief in RM50m CBT case". The Edge . Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  20. ↑ Karim, Khairah (12 April 2021). "Ex-spy chief granted DNAA after prosecution decides to withdraw CBT charge". New Straits Times . Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  21. ↑ Hamdan, Nurbaiti (10 August 2022). "Ex-spy chief gets a full acquittal". The Star . Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  22. ↑ 2023 Federal Spending Budget (PDF) (Report). Ministry of Finance . Retrieved 22 April 2023.

Related Research Articles

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security agency responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and terrorism. ASIO is part of the Australian Intelligence Community and is comparable to the American FBI and the British MI5.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Secret Intelligence Service</span> Australian foreign intelligence agency

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the foreign intelligence agency of Australia, tasked with the covert collection of information overseas through personal contacts and other means of human intelligence. It is part of the Australian Intelligence Community and is also responsible for counter-intelligence and liaising with the intelligence agencies of other countries. ASIS was formed in 1952 but its existence remained secret within much of the government until 1972. ASIS is comparable to the American CIA and the British MI6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of National Assessments</span> Australian former intelligence agency

The Office of National Assessments (ONA) was an Australian statutory intelligence agency established by the Office of National Assessments Act 1977 as an independent statutory body directly accountable to the Prime Minister of Australia as a portfolio agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. ONA provided all-source assessments on international political, strategic and economic developments to the Prime Minister and the National Security Committee of Cabinet. ONA also played a coordination role in the Australian Intelligence Community through evaluating foreign intelligence products, convening the National Intelligence Coordination Committee, and developing relationships with intelligence agencies around world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Najib Razak</span> Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018

Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak is a Malaysian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018. In 2020, he was convicted of corruption in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, one of the largest money-laundering and embezzlement scandals in history. He is the son of former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. Najib Razak was the chairman of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition from April 2009 to May 2018 and the president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) from November 2008 to May 2018, which had maintained control of Malaysia's government with a parliamentary majority for more than sixty years until the coalition's defeat in the 2018 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government Communications Security Bureau</span> New Zealand signals intelligence agency

The Government Communications Security Bureau is the public-service department of New Zealand charged with promoting New Zealand's national security by collecting and analysing information of an intelligence nature. The GCSB is considered to be New Zealand's most powerful intelligence agency, and has been alleged to have conducted more espionage and data collection than the country's primary intelligence agency, the less funded NZSIS. This has at times proven controversial, although the GCSB does not have the baggage of criticism attached to it for a perceived failure to be effective like the NZSIS does. The GCSB is considered an equivalent of GCHQ in the United Kingdom or the NSA in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research and Analysis Wing</span> Indias external intelligence agency

The Research and Analysis Wing is the foreign intelligence agency of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, and advancing India's foreign strategic interests. It is also involved in the security of India's nuclear programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office</span> Japanese intelligence agency under the Cabinet Secretariat

The Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, also known as Naichō (内調), is a Japanese intelligence agency under the Cabinet Secretariat responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information for the cabinet. As a principal member of the Japanese intelligence community, the CIRO reports directly to the Prime Minister. Its operations are mandated through the Cabinet Law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter-Services Intelligence</span> Military intelligence service of Pakistan

The Inter-Services Intelligence is the largest and best-known component of the Pakistani intelligence community. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant to Pakistan's national security. The ISI reports to its director-general and is primarily focused on providing intelligence to the Pakistani government.

The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is the national intelligence agency of Zimbabwe. It was conceived as the external intelligence-gathering arm of the British South Africa Police Special Branch in the early 1960s, under the Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister, Winston Field.

The Bureau for State Security was the main South African state intelligence agency from 1969 to 1980. A high-budget and secretive institution, it reported directly to the Prime Minister on its broad national security mandate. Under this mandate, it was at the centre of the Apartheid state's domestic intelligence and foreign intelligence activities, including counterinsurgency efforts both inside South Africa and in neighbouring countries. Like other appendages of the Apartheid security forces, it has been implicated in human rights violations, political repression, and extra-judicial killings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. N. Kao</span> Indian spymaster

Rameshwar Nath Kao was an Indian spymaster and the first chief of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from its founding in 1968 to 1977. Kao was one of India's foremost intelligence officers, and helped build R&AW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security and Intelligence Division</span> Intelligence agency of Singapore

The Security and Intelligence Division (SID) is the foreign intelligence service of Singapore under the purview of the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), tasked to gather, process, and analyse information from around the world that concerns the national security and national interests of Singapore.

Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa, a Mongolian national, was a murder victim who was either murdered by PETN and RDX explosives or was somehow killed first and her remains destroyed with explosives on 18 October 2006 in a deserted area in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Her murder case is significant in contemporary Malaysian politics due to the alleged involvement of persons close to the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

There are many claims that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has repeatedly intervened in the internal affairs of Iran, from the Mossadegh coup of 1953 to the present time. The CIA is said to have collaborated with the last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Its personnel may have been involved in the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s. More recently in 2007-8 CIA operatives were claimed to be supporting the Sunni terrorist group Jundallah against Iran, but these claims were refuted by a later investigation.

There is a long history of close cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom intelligence services; see Clandestine HUMINT and Covert Action for World War II and subsequent relationships. There are permanent liaison officers of each country in major intelligence agencies of the other, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Secret Intelligence Service ("MI6"), FBI and the Security Service (MI5), and National Security Agency (NSA) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). From 1943 to 2017, the Open Source Enterprise, a division of the CIA, was run out of Caversham Park in Reading, Berkshire. American officials worked closely with their British counterparts to monitor foreign TV and radio broadcasts, as well as online information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anwar Ibrahim</span> Prime Minister of Malaysia since 2022

Anwar bin Ibrahim is a Malaysian politician who has served as the tenth Prime Minister of Malaysia since November 2022. He served as the 12th and 16th Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2015 and again from 2020 to 2022. He has been the chairman of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition since 2020, second President of the People's Justice Party (PKR) since 2018 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tambun since November 2022. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister and in many other Cabinet positions in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from 1982 to his removal in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mossad</span> National intelligence agency of Israel

The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, popularly known as Mossad, is the national intelligence agency of the State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman and Shin Bet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Sabah Security Command</span>

The Eastern Sabah Security Command(ESSCOM) is a Malaysian security area that covers 1,400 km of the east coast of Sabah from Kudat to Tawau. It was established by Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib bin Abdul Razak and announced on 7 March 2013 by Musa Aman, the Sabah State Chief Minister. Its purpose is to strengthen maritime security in the eastern part of Sabah following the persistent attacks by pirates and militants in the southern Philippines especially after the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, while at the same time ensuring that trade and business activity are not affected. The ESSCOM headquarters and main bases is at Lahad Datu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal</span> International corruption scandal that began in Malaysia

The 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, often referred to as the 1MDB scandal or just 1MDB, is a corruption, bribery and money laundering conspiracy in which the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was systematically embezzled, with assets diverted globally by the perpetrators of the scheme. Although it began in Malaysia, the scandal's global scope implicated institutions and individuals in politics, banking, and entertainment, and led to criminal investigations in a number of nations. The 1MDB scandal has been described as "one of the world's greatest financial scandals" and declared by the United States Department of Justice as the "largest kleptocracy case to date" in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal</span>

The 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal is an ongoing political scandal in Malaysia, in which then-Prime Minister Najib Razak was accused of channeling over RM 2.67 billion into his personal bank accounts from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a government-run strategic development company. Following repeated calls for resignation by the public, Najib lost power in the 2018 Malaysian general election, and is currently on trial along with several key figures involved.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.