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Uproar over anti-terror center in
Malaysia
By Anil Netto
PENANG, Malaysia - Controversy is swirling
around a US-proposed regional counter-terrorism center
in Malaysia, which is due to open next year.
The
proposed center has sparked much criticism, including
that it will allow the United States another foothold in
the region and further compromise the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) ideal of a Zone of
Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN).
This
onslaught of criticism has forced the Malaysian
government on the defensive at a time when Muslim
support is evenly divided between the ruling coalition
led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and the
opposition alliance led by the Parti Islam SeMalaysia
(PAS) and the National Justice Party (Keadilan).
Home Minister Abdullah Badawi clarified that the
center would not involve foreign soldiers as no military
training would be carried out. He said the proposal for
the center was very specific and it would only conduct
programs to upgrade skills in counter-terrorism. "The
center will not be operational in nature. It will
strictly be a training center."
US President
George W Bush announced the setting up of the center
last Sunday at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
leaders' summit in Mexico after getting Malaysia's
consent.
The proposal for the center was first
raised at the ASEAN post-ministerial conference in
Brunei in August, which was attended by US Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who had earlier swung through eight
ASEAN member countries. At the summit, a US-ASEAN
counter-terrorism pact, the Joint Declaration for
Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism, was
concluded to "prevent, disrupt and combat" terrorism.
The pact supposedly only focuses on exchanging
information and intelligence and building ASEAN's
capability to combat terrorism. Powell said the United
States had no intention of setting up military bases in
the region, although he didn't rule out bilateral
military arrangements.
The location of the
counter-terrorism center in Malaysia, however, may
eventually expose the conflict between the Malaysian
government's approach of looking at the root causes of
terrorism and the United States' increasingly
unilateralist approach of aggressively tackling the
symptoms.
This week, Abdullah warned the
international community about the adverse consequences
if they failed to tackle carefully three main areas of
concern: the Iraqi issue, the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, and terrorism. He pointed out that any unfair
targeting or profiling of Muslims would anger them, and
once angered they would "resort to all kinds of action",
including terrorist acts. Such calls are likely to go
unheard by the Bush administration. And so the
uneasiness about the counter-terrorism center in
Malaysia lies in who will actually be calling the shots
when it comes to formulating strategy and dealing with
Muslim grievances on global issues.
Some fear
that the center may unfairly link critics of US foreign
policy on Iraq and Palestine-Israel to militant groups
outside the country. Such concerns are heightened at a
time when the United States is bent on preserving and
extending its global hegemony as the sole superpower.
In particular, critics are asking for specific
details on the scope, management and objectives of the
center. PAS itself is viewing the center as a US attempt
to use Malaysia as a base to train those who oppose the
Muslim community. Islamic groups often see themselves as
targets in this new phase of US foreign policy. The
PAS's news portal, Harakahdaily, carried comments from a
spokesman for its Ulamaks Council, speculating that US
Federal Bureau of Investigation or Central Intelligence
Agency officials may carry out the training at the
center. The spokesman also wanted to know why the center
is to be located in Malaysia and not Indonesia. He
suggested that the Malaysian government could have
political reasons for allowing the center to be based in
the country, in a likely oblique reference to the
erosion of Muslim support for the ruling coalition since
1998.
Amid such concerns is the worry that the
center may be used to counter the emergence of political
Islam. Already, the Malaysian government has used harsh
security laws to detain without trial some 70 alleged
members of the so-called Malaysian Militant Group (KMM),
some of whom are little-known PAS members. Indeed, the
setting up of a regional terrorism center in Malaysia
may also increase the perception - without any hard
evidence - that terrorism is a problem in the country.
Some political observers fear, that with the
setting up of the center, Malaysia may unwittingly get
co-opted in whatever hidden agenda the United States has
in its counter-terrorism efforts. It would also lead to
the opening up of a "second front" against terrorism in
the region at a time when Muslim-based groups within
Malaysia, including Mahathir's ruling coalition, have
strongly denied any operational links with external
militant groups.
The multi-ethnic Chinese-based
opposition Democratic Action Party, for its part, is
calling for the center to be run under United Nations
auspices.
Analysts say the center may also
undermine Malaysia's role as one of the more credible
voices against the excesses of globalization and US
hegemony. Others argue that the center itself could
become a possible target of anti-American militant
groups from outside the country.
But what is of
most concern is that the center will be used to extend
the United State's sphere of influence into the region.
"It is clear that, willy-nilly, ASEAN has been steadily
and surely brought back into the US orbit,'' says
Malaysian political scientist Johan Saravanamuttu.
"Under the Bush administration, the war against
terrorism is not much different from the war against
communism of the past."
Thus, says Johan, it was
no surprise that leaders from Indonesia, the Philippines
and Malaysia went in quick succession to pay homage to
Bush in Washington this year. The Philippines, Malaysia
and Singapore, he pointed out, also seemed to waste
little time in responding to Bush by putting alleged
terrorists and potential terrorists behind bars.
The prevailing worry now is that just as in the
case of communism in the past, the more one demonizes
the enemy and plots its downfall, the more one may
invite unwanted attention that could turn such fears
into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
(©2002 Asia
Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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