Fourth blast in Zamboanga reported in the last few hours (which is the centre for the Philippines military in Mindanao) in less than 3 weeks - seems to be terrorist related.

Pressure is building on Indonesia president Megawati to act against terrorist bases in Indonesia, mainly on an "I told you so" basis. What Indonesia needs now however is help, rather than rhetoric, which Australia is seeming to provide. There are important reasons why Indonesia has not been as vitrolic and fast in "hunting down "terror".

As a poor country, policing resources are badly underfunded, and a rural highly uneducated population who hear almost all from their local "imans" are susceptible to rioting and domestic violence.

For all they know America's strong stand on Iraq is a demonstration that they are targeting all Muslims, and local politicians opposing Megawati, from previous experience, will be quick to jump on any government attempts to target terrorism in Malaysia as a local attack on Muslims.

The US, Singapore and Malaysia have been the most vocal in their pleas for Indonesia to get their act together, but in all three places such calls are also very much politically correct - they also back up the political egendas of the ruling administrations, for different reasons, in each country. In Indonesia, such fast and ill-considered action could spark off a mass exodus of angry Indonesians from the provinces to Gambir raliway station in Jakarta, ready to pillage.

What Indonesia needs now is help and co-operation, not lectures...