Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Fear shall not rule
In the recent years, there have been many attacks carried out by extremists everywhere in the world leading to many civilian casualties including fatality and serious injuries. Many of these attacks were bomb blasts in packed trains, buses, restaurants or crowded places in countries where democracy as a way of life is traditionally valued. Peace and tranquillity in these countries had now been shattered and the people are now living in fear.
In the good old time, a bag left unattended would be picked up and kept in the missing item office waiting for the rightful owner to come forward to collect it. Today such incident would attract an army of bomb disposal squad coupled with robots to ascertain the content of the bag. In good old time, farmers would buy fertiliser in bulk to save on bulk buy and be praised as having good business sense. Today such incident would likely lead to neighbours reporting to the authority for fear that such fertilisers may be converted to explosives. In good old time, we admired the cultures of other races and their dressing as fascinating and emulating them in variety shows. Today we view the people who dress differently from us as suspicious and dangerous. Yesterday, we lived freely and viewed others as interesting. Today we live in fear and view everyone as suspicious. We feel anxious and we feel unsafe. The sky has fallen in. We are now living on the edge with fear.
This situation of fear had prompted the governments of many western countries to introduce tough new anti-terror laws aimed at coping or preventing such future attacks. Such laws include detention without trial, shoot to kill, electronic monitoring of suspects and many more draconian measures. While it is a warm and fuzzy feeling that such laws would work to prevent or reduce future terrorist attacks and to make us safer, there is no guarantee that terrorist acts can be eliminated. Such drastic law if wrongly implemented, would see many innocent persons detained in direct violation of their human right to freedom and justice. By accepting such law as capable of protecting us, we have given up our right to freedom under the cloud of fear.
We can maintain our freedom and our democratic way of life. We do not need to live in fear. We can be more understanding and contribute our part to cater to the need of all regardless of their cultures and backgrounds. The root of evil often grows from deprivation and despair fumed by mistrust and misunderstanding. To stem out the root of evil, we need to have policies that treat everyone equally and implement process to create equality and fairness. We need to understand and we need to share. Together, we can stem out the growth of evil. When we share, we do not need to live in fear.
In the good old time, a bag left unattended would be picked up and kept in the missing item office waiting for the rightful owner to come forward to collect it. Today such incident would attract an army of bomb disposal squad coupled with robots to ascertain the content of the bag. In good old time, farmers would buy fertiliser in bulk to save on bulk buy and be praised as having good business sense. Today such incident would likely lead to neighbours reporting to the authority for fear that such fertilisers may be converted to explosives. In good old time, we admired the cultures of other races and their dressing as fascinating and emulating them in variety shows. Today we view the people who dress differently from us as suspicious and dangerous. Yesterday, we lived freely and viewed others as interesting. Today we live in fear and view everyone as suspicious. We feel anxious and we feel unsafe. The sky has fallen in. We are now living on the edge with fear.
This situation of fear had prompted the governments of many western countries to introduce tough new anti-terror laws aimed at coping or preventing such future attacks. Such laws include detention without trial, shoot to kill, electronic monitoring of suspects and many more draconian measures. While it is a warm and fuzzy feeling that such laws would work to prevent or reduce future terrorist attacks and to make us safer, there is no guarantee that terrorist acts can be eliminated. Such drastic law if wrongly implemented, would see many innocent persons detained in direct violation of their human right to freedom and justice. By accepting such law as capable of protecting us, we have given up our right to freedom under the cloud of fear.
We can maintain our freedom and our democratic way of life. We do not need to live in fear. We can be more understanding and contribute our part to cater to the need of all regardless of their cultures and backgrounds. The root of evil often grows from deprivation and despair fumed by mistrust and misunderstanding. To stem out the root of evil, we need to have policies that treat everyone equally and implement process to create equality and fairness. We need to understand and we need to share. Together, we can stem out the growth of evil. When we share, we do not need to live in fear.
