Category: Politics & government

Who says there’s no adventure in today’s life

I am one of those persons who are in love with history, especially about war. Nevertheless, falling in love with history of wars doesn’t make me to be a nasty person who demands war each and every time chance crosses my path (like Bush). In fact, learning the dates and the factors that started wars makes me falling more and more in love of peace and hence, in the end, resulting me more or less believing in the Green doctrine.

Certainly, the tall tells in ancient battles inspire most of us to a new height. The Peloponessian War, the Napoleon War, the Second World War and lot of others gave birth to many changes. The Peloponessian War were important to the ancient Greek, The Napoleon War redrew the European border drastically and the WWII foreseen the end of Imperialism. War is important but going through it is not very pleasing.

As you guys have predicted, this argument brings us to the present time.

The current war against terrorism seems to have taken a new twist. It started the 11th day of September 2001. It was a day that shocked not just America, but also the very foundation of the world as we now see. Immediately after that fateful day, America declared a war against Afghanistan and quickly overran the Afghan authority without much problem. Later, President George W. Bush declared the members of a so-called Axis of Evil. Now, the war maniac is threatening to topple Saddam Hussein.

The war against terrorism has brought us a new concept of fighting a war. A conventional war will involved at least two entities, two countries with defined borders, much like the Vietnam War or the Korean War. That kind of war has significantly decreased due to United Nations’ Charter that prevents any country from invading another country. Unfortunately, the war of terrorism is a subtler war. It is impossible to declare a war against an enemy that does not have a defined border. Moreover, the enemy is ever hiding in the modern world.

The problem of trying to identify and eliminate terrorism has brought some countries, the US in particular, seeking a revision of the United Nations’ Charter. The main change that they are demanding is the permission to commit pre-emptive strike. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that pre-emptive strike goes directly against the very values that the United Nations is built upon. The world doesn’t need Winston Churchill to rally itself against this suggestion save the US.

The latest advocate of pre-emptive doctrine is the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. His words agitated Australia’s neighbors and strong words had already been exchanged between Australia and four of ASEAN main members. As usual, the only one that kept his mouth quiet was Singapore.

Although I believe the four ASEAN leaders have overreacted over their Australian counterpart comment, nevertheless the development is interesting. Leaders of the four countries made strong statements but Dr. Mahathir had gone one step further by saying it will be an act of war if Australia’s force set its foot on Malaysian’s soil.

Imagine a war where Australia is up against combine might of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The war will surely hurt the world economy by bringing the most dynamic economies to a standstill. In addition, the Japanese economy will be dragged down even deeper because Japan in one way or another relies on ASEAN’s economy performance. A downward trend on the Japanese shore in turn will bring the already in recession American economy to a worse condition.

If the war came to a reality of which I doubt will, certainly there will some other war here and there and finally bringing a collapse to the United Nations. Iraq on the other hand might exercise its might and Al-Qaida without doubt will be seeking revenge. Russia will step up its authority in Chechnya, war will be omnipresent in Afghanistan, trouble might arise in the Korean Peninsula, Pakistan and India will surely be against each other, and Israel goes without saying. In other word, the Third World War.

Unbelievable but hey, I was arrested by the state police for throwing a snowball.

Out of rare events, this entry will criticize the Government of Malaysia.

I am one of the persons who believe that the current Government of Malaysia is doing the right thing for the country. Barisan Nasional or the National Front if you may has been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence back in 1957. In fact, it has monopolized the country’s politics even during the pre-independence period.

After all those years, they have brought a lot of improvement the country. They drove the country from a backwater third world nation to a technological savvy one. No doubt, the local populace needs to be thankful.

However, currently the top leaders in Malaysia are engaging immature political maneuvers. I could not believe what kind of craps they are doing at the moment (but this of course, minus Dr. Mahathir himself. I still fail to see why people hate him so much after all he had done for us).

My first complaint is concerning the national service issue. I would say that enlisting in the army is one of the best ways to enforce nationalism. However, forcing the civilian to join the reserve corps is certainly not the best way to inspire the spirit of nationalism. If the youth are going to suffer from this suggestion, Malaysia could say goodbye to the word patriotism.

Patriotism is not something that could easily be planted into one’s soul. If one tries to force a CD into a floppy drive, one will never be able to read the content of the CD. Worse, if applied sufficient force, one could break the CD into two. The same goes with loyalty.

“All along when S’pore was doing this, M’sia have insisted that they will not do N/Services. Why now? Are they losing ground on the political grassroots? Why the N/service when the school should do this. You guys were from there and don’t tell me you’re not loyal to your country!”

The above are Mr. Veera’s words and they echo my own view.