September 11 sees Civil Liberties curtailed in Asia

(Singapore/ September 6,2002 by Agence France Press) The prospect of a rise of militant Islam “is of grave concern” in Asia, where governments are using US terrorism concerns to curtail civil liberties, according to a new book evaluating the impact of September 11.

“It may be too early to draw conclusions about the real impact of September 11 on Asia, but rather there is an awareness of a discernible chain of reactions or aftershocks,” the editors say in their introduction.

September 11 and Political Freedom: Asian Perspectives is a collection of essays by academics on the “aftershocks” in the region since hijacked aircraft ploughed into US symbols of capitalist and military might a year ago.

Various chapters examine the inter-woven links between globalisation, poverty and terrorism, criticise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) shortcomings, and analyse Asian political reactions.

The book refers to increases “in rights abuses” such as discrimination, detention without trial, increased surveillance and invasion of privacy.

“The authors are articulating the rhetoric coming out of the region,” said Southeast Asian political science researcher James Gomez, who co-edited the book with Uwe Johannen and Alan Smith of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Critics of the poverty theory have pointed to the millionaire status of Osama bin Laden, seen as the mastermind and financier of the September 11 attacks.

“But where the rise of militant Islam is concerned, for this area poverty is a real issue,” Gomez told AFP Friday ahead of the book launch in Singapore.

In the collection of 11 essays there is emphasis that Southeast Asia has been singled out as a region conducive for Islamic militant networks to resettle in the wake of the US-led war on terrorism.

“The ‘under siege’ atmosphere was used to justify several arrests and raids on so-called Islamic militants in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

“Indonesian authorities resisted for fear of the domestic political repercussions”.

The prospect of a rise of militant Islam in Asia in the long term “is of grave concern for the region’s security but its further development and likely impact can still only be guessed at,” the editors say.

“More immediately, the essays… collectively suggest that the security-oriented responses of governments in the region may impede and slow the emergence of the free and dynamic civil society needed for a healthy democracy.”

Sinapan Samydorai, president of the Think Centre in Singapore, in a chapter on human rights abuses, argues for an agreed definition of terrorism.

Without an agreement “it is likely that human rights abuses in the region will flourish,” he said, noting an increase in discrimination, detention without trial, increased surveillance and invasion of privacy since September

Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Myanmar continued to detain people without trial, while the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong have introduced or are drafting anti-terrorism laws with vague definitions of terrorism that open the possibility to criminalise peace campaign activities, Samydorai said.

ASEAN is accused of showing the same ineffectual response to September 11 as it did to the Asian financial crisis five years, in an essay by David Martin Jones, a senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania, and Michael Smith, a lecturer at the University of London.

In a chapter on surveillance in the region they say Asian intelligence services did not detect links between regional Islamic militant groups and al-Qaeda because it was not on the agenda of concern to the ASEAN leaders.

They conclude: “ASEAN is substantially a facade, reflecting a romantic vision of a handful of academics and peripatetic regional conference circuit speakers without either popular roots or strong state backing.”

On globalisation, the editors say its failure to eliminate global inequalities “has helped unleash a vicious reaction.”

They said the security-oriented, military-based response from the United States that has found favour with many governments in Asia risks “exacerbating the problems that are seen as causing terrorism.”

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This post was written by CALD