MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

The arrest of a terrorist mastermind

AMROZI IS SENTENCED TO DEATH, his brother soon would be. As many more in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in the months and years ahead for sundry acts of terror. Now the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombing and other sundry acts of terror and an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden no less is in US hands. It is touted as yet another feather in the US worldwide campaign against terror. How was he caught? No one knows. Where was he caught? The Thais and Malaysians claim credit. Should he not be extradited to Indonesia? Not on your life. The US demands the right of first interrogation - and trial at its option - in its war on terror. Should not Indonesia be upset at it? Why should it? The global policeman accepts no national boundaries - indeed it has on more occasions than one can count gone into countries to seize whomsoever they want, in once instant the president of that country, who now languishes in a Florida jail.

Who caught Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin aka Hambali? The Thais and Malaysians claim credit. The suddenly-invisible Malaysian Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, is proud of his role in it. But the man was caught in Ayuthya, the ancient capital of Thailand in a joint US-Thai operation, so says the Washington Post. He was flown to Indonesia, Bangkok said. He was not, said Jakarta. Washington said a special flight picked him and his wife for an undeclared destination. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed insists, in Swaziland, it was Malaysian intelligence that ensured his capture. If Malaysia had that intelligence, why was he not brought to Kuala Lumpur, where we are now the intellegence agencies would like to have a word with him. [Meanwhile, it is important for Tan Sri Norian to come forward in public or at a media conference to dispel swirling rumours that he is on enforced leave and may not be IGP, despite the extension granted him and the good work he has done to prop up the regime, for much longer.]

The deputy prime minister and home minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said the arrest was a big victory as "the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader was well-known to have played a big role in terrorist activities ... this is a big victory as he is a well-known terrorist." There is in this official reaction an embarrassment. He had after all been welcomed with open arms, along with others who are now targets in this ubiquitous war on Islamic terror, as part of Malaysia's commitment to Islam and to give the opposition PAS a black eye, and had permanent residence in Malaysia, the first step to citizenship. If you are not a Muslim and not involved in acts of terror, and indeed are law-abiding and with not intent but to carry on with their lives, it would take years to get a permanent residence. Pak Lah now says that was revoked as soon as his involvement in terrorist activities became known.

How are you known for terrorist activities? Easy. You need no proof. Only a belief that a man is a terrorist. You build a fanciful background, none of which is based on proof but on intelligence suspicion, have it aired on CNN, the BBC and other networks. Bring in an instant "expert" on terrorism, like Dr Rohan Gunaratne, and hey presto you have a hard boiled terrorist. Add every suspicion you can find about him and soon he would be Dr Strangelove in drag. When a terrorist attack takes place, all would on cue rush to damn him. Where is the evidence? You would recall when Amrozi was arrested, there was horror in Australia when photographs of him talking amiably to his interrogators appeared. All sorts of insinuations appeared, even that Indonesia could not be trusted to deal with Indonesians arrested for killing Westerners. If he is a terrorist, then by all means judge him as one on the facts available, not on the mass hysteria in the media convicting even before the interrogations begin.

Hambali is guilty as charged. Who says that. The world's leading anti-terrorist, President George W Bush aka Dubya. "He is a known killer," he said in a speech in California. "Hambali was one of the world's most lethal terrorists who is suspected of planning major terrorist operations ... (and) is no longer a problem to those of us who love freedom." The suspicion is now a fact. Add that to other suspicions - top suspect in last week's bombing of the JW Marriot hotel in Jakarta, that he is the most wanted terror suspect in Asia, that he is believed to have played a role in every major terrorist attack in the region the past decade. If you want to demonise a man, and you have the means to do it, you can. The US is in that position. All this information is from the same group that gave President Bush the information that Iraq attempted to purchase the yellowcake Niger had aplenty for his nuclear programme. That report you understand was also based on suspicions, belief, suppositions, and other beliefs as unjustifiable or tendentious but common in intelligence assessments. There is not a chap in Asia who watches CNN or BBC who is glad this terror mastermind is caught and deserves a fate worse than death.

This does not mean that Hambali is innocent. He may or may not be. But when a man is demonised and arrested in a climate of national hysteria it shows not a commitment to law and order, but to the law of the jungle, frontier justice of the type when Blacks were strung from the treetops for no crime but that he was black. When those frontier rules are introduced into the international arena, and nations and individuals are attacked on a whim, all it shows is not a commitment to wipe out terror but a deliberate dismantling of the legal niceties when a man suspected of terror is caught. It does not matter now that he is innocent. If he is caught, he must be guilty. It is as if the Internal Security Act is now applied globally and as capriciously. Everything is done in secret. And that is proof the man arrested is guilty. There is no hard evidence yet.

It is fear that forces governments to cut the niceties and operate in secret. The destruction of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon brought home to Washington that fortress America is in trouble. Its policies overseas must now cause havoc in the United States. It decided on Islam as the enemy, and built up a case without understanding the problem, with revenge as the raison d'etre. It reacted as a cornered animal, threatening havoc and destruction to all who dared stand up to it. The electricity black out could well be nothing more than a mechanical problem, but the fright in US officialdom was clear enough: very quickly and without any evidence whatsoever, it insisted it is not a terrorist attack.

How does it know? It cannot even agree on what caused it, whether it was a fire at a power station or an electrical or electronic problem at another. Yet it is certain it is not a terrorist attack. In the fear following the blackout, the US could not even hint at that. Hambali notwithstanding, all the war on terror brought the United States is this gnawing fear that the country is not safe any more. It is suspicious of every foreigner, more so if he has a beard or is Muslim. It builds fortresses around itself to keep them out. In so doing, it works towards not a democratic nation whose ideals galvanised the colonial world to spur those nations to independence but of another tin pot dictatorship with seemingly democratic trappings. As, for instance, ... well, never mind!

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my