Terrorism a problem for all to confront

A few weeks ago, the Australian Prime Minister called the Filipinos "marshmallows" because we withdrew our humanitarian contingent in Iraq in order to get the release of a Filipino overseas worker named Angelo dela Cruz. Now it is Australia that has become the victim of terrorists. Its embassy in Jakarta was bombed. Fortunately, there were no Australian casualties. All killed and most wounded were Indonesians. The important thing is that the victims were all innocent people. That is the problem with terrorism.

What we would like to see is how the Australian Prime Minister will now resolve the problem. The terrorists are demanding that all Australians leave Indonesia. When we were the victims of terrorists in Iraq, he called us "marshmallows". How will he cope with the terrorists in Jakarta? We sincerely hope that no Australian who chooses to stay in Indonesia despite the terrorist’s demand that they get out is assassinated. But you can’t reason with terrorists. They are motivated by hate and not reason.

What we all have to do is cope with terrorists wherever they are. We had to cope with the group in Iraq who held Angelo dela Cruz captive. The traditional problem in dealing with terrorists has always been recognizing them as terrorists or freedom fighters for as the old adage says "one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter". Were the people who held Angelo de la Cruz hostage terrorists or patriots. In fairness to them, they did not demand any ransom. All they wanted was for the Filipino troops to leave their country. If they were really terrorists in the real sense, they could have easily taken another Filipino overseas worker in Iraq captive. We have thousands of them there.

We sincerely hope that Australia will be able to deal with its present terrorist problem.

William V. O’Brien, professor of Government in Georgetown, University expressed it well. He said, "As often happens with controversial terms, terrorism is seldom explicitly defined. Terrorism is war of a kind, and it may be used as subordinate strategy within wars that otherwise follow traditional military patterns. Terrorism’s uniqueness lies in its use of armed force against targets that would be exceptional or aberrational in regular warfare, with results that have little to do with traditional military necessity. Terrorism is usually carried out by small groups, directed against targets chosen for their potential shock effect rather than their military utility. Its purpose is to create an environment of fear, apprehension and loss of confidence in the existing security systems so that they are weakened and likely to collapse."