Axis against evil

The Asean leaders acknowledged the reality of terrorism8217;s spread across the globe when they vowed on Sunday to take joint action agains...

The Asean leaders acknowledged the reality of terrorism8217;s spread across the globe when they vowed on Sunday to take joint action against the 8216;evil of terrorism8217;. This is indeed quite some distance from their views only a few years ago, when they hesitantly moved to focus on transnational crime even at non-governmental think tank levels. Indians and Australians, in fact, had found it difficult to convince their counterparts in the Council for Security and Cooperation in Asia-Pacific that transnational terrorism with all its accompanying elements like narcotics trafficking, diffusion of lethal small arms and light weapons, piracy on the high seas, money laundering, and so on, were the major issues undermining peace and stability in the region. The attacks on the United States on September 11 last year galvanised global thinking toward greater consciousness about the scourge of terrorism. But what logic and forecasts of trends could not achieve, the rapid rise of terrorism in Asia has done.

Terrorist attacks in New Delhi, Bali, Zamboanga the Philippines, Moscow, Amman, Yemen and Tunisia, among others, have highlighted the reality that terrorism has been rippling outward rather rapidly from its epicentre of Afghanistan-Pakistan to destinations as far apart as North Africa and Southeast Asia. That it now also undercuts economic development and well-being has been highlighted by the ASEAN leaders when they asked the West countries to be more careful in indiscriminately issuing travel advisories. Whatever else was the objective, the bombings in Bali were clearly aimed at tourism and its socio-economic implications. Foreign investments into ASEAN countries had already been declining after the economic crisis of the mid-1990s. Any future slowdown of ASEAN economies would have a ripple effect on the region. The terrorist threat surfaces at a major shopping centre in New Delhi on Sunday indicates that economic terrorism is fast becoming another dimension of the global phenomenon that we are witnessing.

But ASEAN leaders are also worried about the increasing risks of polarising Muslims in what are essentially multiethnic and multicultural societies. US unilateralism, especially its threats of war against Iraq, has further eroded confidence in a co-operative approach. The controversy about the US-sponsored regional centre in Malaysia for counter-terrorism training has already started to add to perceptions about the West8217;s anti-Muslim policies. The fact that it was President George Bush, rather than an Asian leader, who announced the setting up of the proposed centre seems to have disturbed many people in the region because of what such a centre might ultimately lead to. Some already believe that this could be the thin edge of the US military wedge in the region. Such trends undermine the commitment and efforts to eradicate terrorism since it feeds the sense of relative discrimination among communities. Even now it is not too late to restructure such a centre as a UN institution or even a purely ASEAN-run affair.