They strike where anti-terror is weak

For a while there, world security analysts felt cosy. A global uprising of Muslims against the West that Osama bin Laden had calculated in the wake of his 9/11 terror attacks did not unfold. Instead Islamic leaders denounced his jihad as a mad reading of the Koran. Muslim governments took the opportunity to crush extremist groups that had held their lands hostage for years. Egypt, Algeria, Turkey, even Pakistan clamped down on preachers of violence. Bin Laden’s dispersed al-Qaeda mujahedin could not regroup.

The calm did not last. Forced to burrow deep underground in their countries of origin after the Taliban’s fall in Afghanistan, the 3,000 or so al-Qaeda members have taken to small, independent actions. Bin Laden, who apparently survived the US bombing of Tora-Bora, still entertains dreams of worldwide jihad. In a taped warning to the US aired recently on Qatar’s al-Jazeera television station, he said "the youth of Islam are preparing to strike fear in your hearts and will target the vital sectors of your economy." His Egyptian top aide Ayman al-Zawahiri echoed him with a remark that al-Qaeda would also hit US allies, notably France and Germany. Soon after a boat filled with explosives rammed a French oil tanker at the Gulf of Oman. Two men drove by a training outpost of US Marines in Kuwait and shot a soldier dead. In Zamboanga a nail bomb stuck to a motorbike razed a bar, killing an American G.I. and wounding another, along with several Filipinos. Analyzing the incidents to mean the al-Qaeda has decentralized, the US doubled security in its embassies and consulates.

And then came Saturday’s bombing of a disco-bar in Bali and the Philippine consulate in Manado, both in Indonesia. The death toll has risen to 190 at the Hindu tourist island in the heart of the most populous Muslim nation. Over 300 were injured. Most of the casualties were Australians and Europeans, plus some Americans. Nobody was hurt in the consulate blast. But Indonesia’s defense minister said the bombings were linked and that al-Qaeda did it. Like the boy in the movie Poltergeist, Matori Abdul Djalil said, "They’re here." Al-Qaeda is still capable of large-scale terror after all.

That al-Qaeda is concentrating its fire on Southeast Asia could be an attempt to ease pressure in the Middle East. The governments of Yemen and Oman, where most of the mujahedin supposedly fled after defeat in Afghanistan, have relented to US pressures for crackdowns. Too, the aim is perhaps to show that Saudi-born bin Laden’s cause is not purely Arab. But there’s also the fact that ASEAN countries have been slow to crush their own extremist groups. Two such groups are the Jemaah Islamiya and Abu Sayyaf Group. The JI was founded by radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir, who is all praises for bin Laden’s terror moves. It aims to carve an Islamic state out of parts of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The ASG aims for a smaller independent Islamic state from Basilan and Sulu islands by driving out Christians through kidnappings and beheadings. But it too has links to al-Qaeda. Its founding and funding was overseen by bin-Laden’s brother-in-law up to the mid-’90s. The JI is believed responsible for the Bali and Manado bombings; the AFP has found links of four Zamboanga bombers to ASG leader Khadaffy Janjalani.

Singapore has arrested 31 JI members for plotting to bomb US facilities in the island-country. In Malasian jails are 63 more for links to local militants. The Philippines has held an Indonesian and a Malaysian for procuring explosives for the JI in General Santos City and Manila. But it has yet to wipe out the ASG despite many military promises. On the run from an AFP offensive in Sulu and Basilan, a huge ASG contingent was spotted this week in Lanao del Sur in the heart of the Mindanao mainland. JI members grew bold enough to strike in Bali because President Megawati Sukarnoputri has consistently defied calls to detain Baasyir on the pretext that "we have no evidence against him." This, even after the arrest last June in Indonesia of al-Qaeda operative Omar al-Faruq, who confessed to the CIA that he and Baasyir had planned to bomb US embassies in the region to mark the first anniversary of 9/11 last September. The Bali blast occured on a later date important to al-Qaeda, the anniversary of the 1998 bombing of a US warship in Oman.

The answer to al-Qaeda focus on ASEAN is closer coordination in the fight against its fronts. President Gloria Arroyo is offering to host a regional conference to strengthen united moves against terror. More intelligence exchanges, sea patrols against arms landings, and flushing out bank deposits could drive away the al-Qaeda and isolate JI and ASG for the final wipeout.

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Covering up his own country’s misdeed is apparently the aim of Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar in asking for an apology. He wants the Philippine government to say it’s sorry for saying that a 13-year-old girl raped by Sabah policemen is a Filipino when her parentage is Malaysian. He makes no mention of the fact that Malaysian authorities had jailed the girl and her mother, then deported them to Mindanao with hundreds of others.

The girl’s parents are separated. The father is a native of Sabah; the mom migrated from Mindanao. Malaysian citizenship adheres to the principle of jus soli or right of the soil. Since the girl was born in Sabah, Malaysia can claim her as its citizen. The Philippines goes by jus sanguinis or right of blood. The girl is considered a dual citizen of both lands because of her parentage, but may elect only one when she reaches the age of 18.

But citizenship has no bearing on the case. Unless, of course, Malaysia is planning to drop the rape charges and, along with it, make the world forget its cruelty to foreign residents in Sabah.

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