JP/6/STATE17

JP/6/STATE17

Truly senseless blasts can't possibly help radicals

The Statesman
Asia News Network
Calcutta

Acts of violence are often referred to as senseless, and for
the most part that is what they are. Last weekend's bomb attacks
at Kuta beach on the largely Hindu island of Bali are senseless
specifically because their consequences can and will only help
those that radical Islamic groups count as their enemies.

Immediately, they will help Australian Prime Minister John
Howard consolidate his support to the Western alliance against
terror. An Australia that strives to be multi-cultural had been
struggling with its conscience these past 13 months over Howard's
unstinted support to U.S. President George Bush.

Many Australians were ambivalent about their country's
position in the war against terror, believing they were better
off keeping as far away from the war as their location allowed
them to be.

Indeed, there were in past months several and determined
protests against Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's action
against the boat people -- many of them Muslim -- who sought
sanctuary in Australia and were turned away.

The weekend's events can only serve to dilute such protests.
While reports suggest that a few Australians reacted angrily to
the attack in Bali and accused Howard of having blood on his
hands, most Australians now seem to believe terror has visited
their doorstep, and that they must now join the war against it
without reservation.

In Indonesia, President Megawati Soekarnoputri had in the
previous months walked the tightrope between Western pressures
and domestic compulsions, ignoring demands for a crackdown on
Islamic fundamentalism.

Now, and if she wants any outside help for her severely
bruised economy, Megawati will have to act against fringe groups,
and be seen to act. One report from Southeast Asia suggests that
the traditionally placid Hindus of Bali are so incensed by the
weekend's events that they may engineer a backlash against
Muslims on the island.

This cannot be good news for a country that is already
smarting at the loss of East Timor. Neighbor Singapore has
received Western appreciation for its crackdown on terror. In the
aftermath of Bali the "we told you so" refrain has already been
heard in statements made by government leaders to the sizable
Muslim community on the island.

Muslim-dominated Malaysia will similarly have to act against
radical Islamic groups, or face the threat of Western
disapproval. Indonesia and Malaysia were once seen in the West as
presenting the softer face of Islam; they will now have to work
doubly hard on that image.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the House of
Commons that the events in Bali underscore the need to move the
war against terror into a higher gear and appears to have the
total support of the Conservatives. The message from the West,
post-Bali, is that all agents of terror have to be dealt with
severely. Blair, for instance, was at pains to emphasize that the
events in Bali and the need to tackle Saddam Hussein could not be
treated as separate issues, but were in fact part of the same
war. Liberals who may a week ago have labeled such reasoning
specious will now find it difficult to articulate their
objections.

It is the lunatic fringe that is blamed for acts of violence
such as those Bali witnessed. When you add up the consequences of
this single act, the conclusion is inescapable -- it would have
required a truly insane Muslim to plan such an attack.