senseless

I was on my way home on the bus last night when i heard on tvmobile that the singaporean held hostage in Mumbai had died. I wasn't certain if i heard it right, since the bus was kind of noisy and all i could do was to lip-read and piece it together with whatever my ears could capture. At that time, i thought if it was true, he/she'd be the first singaporean to lose his/her life in a terror attack. True enough, when i got home and switched on the telly, CNA and all other news report confirmed what i roughly heard on the bus.

I had this strange (perhaps not) feeling within me when i heard this piece of news. This piece of news hit me harder than all previous reports on terrorist acts. It was shock, coupled with sadness and helplessness... i can't really describe exactly what i was feeling, it's all to peculiar. I think it's really different when such things happen to a fellow singaporean, it's something closer to heart. My sympathy really goes out to her family. As i read the pages of reports today, I couldn't help but agree with what our leaders have said, that no one, nowhere is spared from the acts of terrorism. And with all the descriptions in the papers, I imagined myself in those people's shoes and literally shuddered at the thoughts.

Also, it was a wake-up call to me and i think all singaporeans should have realised that singapore is not at all spared from such terrorist acts. I think it's the fact that one singaporean actually lost her life to terrorism that jolted me: a seemingly resilient Singapore could well be the next target of terrorism. And as Singaporeans, we should remain vigilant at all times (as cliche as it may sound) because i really think that the next target could possibly be us. Imagine yourself as a terrorist, what level of pride and satisfaction would you garner from being able to successfully strike a seemingly formidable and safe city like Singapore. We have never had a successful terrorist attack launched on our soil, but this doesn't mean that it will never ever happen. With the Indian terrorist threatening our hostage 'at gunpoint' to tell the Singapore government to tell Mumbai authorities to refrain from acting against them, it is a clear sign that terrorist now see Singapore as a clear opposition to terrorism and that our name has risen in status in their eyes. Hence the possibility of them plotting against us is unthinkably high.

The targets this time round were nothing unusual: the Americans and the Britons and probably the Isrealis. But have you seen the statistics? Only 3 Germans, 2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Italian and 1 Briton were killed, as opposed to 133 Indians and other unidentified people. It is not known whether the militants were locals or foreigners. If they were locals, how ironic would it be to kill so many of your fellow citizens in the midst of getting back as the Westerners and effectively only killing a handful of them. No wonder they are labelled as 'senseless'. There's even attacks targeted at the mass public, like the random shooting of people at the railway station. I really can't see their focus in this attack. First, it seems that they're targeting the West by attacking places that are usual tourist attractions. Second, they seem to be looking for revenge as one of the militants questioned the Indian government, 'Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims? Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?' This is obviously political and religion-related.

A former member of India's parliament and adviser to the late Indian PM wrote that the chief of India's Anti-Terrorist Squad actually received a death threat from the nearby city of Pune. He however, did not bother to investigate it as his unit was 'busy playing games on behalf of its political masters'. How is it possible to ignore such threats that could possible regenerate into real terrorist acts which could have harmed the innocent? It is obvious that such government is blinded by politics and has in essence, lost its focus on governance. No wonder the writer labelled the article as 'A Shameful Collapse of Governance'. And to think at this point in time, the Indian government is putting the blame on Pakistan, for Pakistanis alleged involvement in this round of attacks, which Islamabad denies. There's even a threat to dismantle goodwill between the two countries that has just been established. If this were a motive of the terrorist, then they would have almost succeeded. Although i'm no expert at politics, I would think that the most crucial task at hand would be to put aside the blame-game and work together to nab these 'senseless creatures' and patch up their individual social, political and security network to prevent such tragedy from happening again. Because this is not only about India and Pakistan; it is about the foreigners in their territory too. The Japanese and the Singaporean, they're innocent.








THE WORLD IS FAR TOO COMPLICATED