My current political interest: Walls

Ho Peng Kee's comments at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) on transnational crime and counter-terrorism triggered this post.

He speaks of the regional efforts to eradicate terror:

"Ultimately, it rests on whole communities to come together in a consolidated effort to challenge and defeat the extremist ideologies and to keep our society together. Each country must take into account its unique local characteristics so as to be able to effectively address the complex mix of factors that gives rise to terrorism...."

I think it's at least in some semblance of a "right direction". We've been told over and over again that terror will strike, not a matter of "if they" but a question of "when they". To break the ideology behind terror groups is critical as it can have at least two important effects: staunch the ongoing "osama-ism" of Islam (or whichever religion, Islam is only just a convenient example) and create an atmosphere of understanding, or at least tolerance.

Ho Peng Kee advocates dialogues. But it's hard to get a conversation going when the intangibles that separates "us" and "them" becomes increasingly tangible.

Walls:
Appearing in troubles zones all over the world.
Coming to a Thai-Malaysian border near you.

The idea for a Thai-Malaysia physical boundary was first broached way back in 1991. [click here for IHT article]

Recently in February, this trend is picking up again. India with her neighbours, West Bank, Pakistan and Afghanistan....it was noticed by London indie journalist Gwynne Dyer. [click here for article published in Feb 07]

His article is obviously picked up by Time magazine as the May 7 issue included an essay by Simon Robinson talking about a world divided. [click here for Time article in May 07]

Both included a very interesting and oft-used phrase:

Good fences make good neighbours.

Increasingly we are being "globalised", "inter-connected" and "inter-dependent". We endeavour to pursue "prosper-thy-neighbour" economics policies (but we do it alone), plan collaborative actions (but in the process we preclude non-collaborating neighbours) and create a conducive atmosphere to share concerns of all people across the social/economic/politic/religious strata (but done in a "we" versus "they" format).

Fuck, I'm boring. What I really want to say is that Simon Robinson's article is very similar to Gwynne Dyer's. Not just the content but some phrases and the examples. But heck, columinists and essayists aren't particularly the creative sort, right? And when dealing with hard facts, it's hard not to use the same examples.