South East Asian government and business hails arrest of Hamadi

August 15, 2003

Despite US President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard referring to the 9/11 WTC attacks in the US as "being the day that changed the world", closer to the truth is that it was the day that predicated a wounded, dazed and relatively innocent US to lead a new "war against terrorism" to protect its face and interests globally.

The threat of Jihad-inspired terrorism on a global level started many years earlier, while not in such a glamorous way but nevertheless more substantively, in the Middle East and the distant provinces of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. Consisting of two of the poorer countries in the world, an oil rich region with enormous disparities of income, and a smallish successful developing Islamic nation, it started in a small way, from the burning of churches and temples, and the activities of black hooded and garbed murderous Ninja gangs in Indonesian towns. In Malaysia and Indonesia it incorporated insidious political influence as a more significant component, with a smattering of abductions of Westerners.

The driving force was Jemaah Islamiah (JI), an organization with strong links and membership in common to Al Qaeda, whose almost sole and ultimate goal is the overthrow of secular governments in the Muslim majority countries of Indonesia and Malaysia, and as a less-viable goal the replacement of governments in the Philippines, Thailand and maybe even Singapore with Islamic governments, creating a pan-Islamic regional state throughout South East Asia.

Yesterday the US announced that Riduan bin Isomuddin alias Hamadi, the henchman of Osama bin Laden, key leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), and alleged mastermind of the recent Bali and J.W. Marriott attacks as well as scores of previous terrorist plots in the Middle East and South East Asia as well as part of the team behind the WTC/Pentagon attacks had been arrested in Thailand on Tuesday and was now in US custody in an unnamed location.

It is perhaps the most significant development for South East Asia on the terrorism front, far exceeding the significance of the still-to-come capture of Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, both symbols of the bad guys for the Us-led Western alliance, but fading in comparison to the significance of this quiet cleric whose misguided fervour led to the murder of many, Westerners but mostly local, including a mass of "collateral damage" to fellow Muslims, and other ethnic groups throughout Asia.

Along the way, business and economy in the region was harmed significantly. Hamadi was responsible for severe damage to the economies of much of South East Asia, by instilling fear in foreign and local investors, increasing country risk and insecurity, driving away tourism dollars, and slowing down the participation of many South East Asian countries in the global economy.

Business people throughout South East Asia may be forgiven today for drawing a collective sigh of relief, perhaps in the belief that the backbone of South East Asian terrorism that has haunted the region for at least a decade and more, may well be on the way to being broken.

That may well be more in hope than reality, as the grassroots organization of Jemaah Islamiah is entrenched to such an extent that it may be able to withstand the loss of leaders such as Riduan bin Isomuddin alias Hamadi and Abu Bakar, the latter presently facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in an Indonesian jail cell.

Regardless there may well be more of a spring in the step of business people doing business in South East Asia today, as the US War Against Terrorism at last is showing some return to the more global concerns of those who support it.

Chao Phraya River Rat in Politics and Government on August 15, 2003 12:03 PM

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