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Malaysia
would go all out to protest against Australia’s move if it
resorted to the world body’s help: Badawi
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By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL South East Asia correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, December 8 (IslamOnline) - Australia has again caused tension
and anger in the South East Asian region with suggestions that it will
seek the influence of the United Nations (U.N.) to allow it to attack
suspected terror bases in the region.
Malaysia
said it will oppose if Australia seeks the influence of the U.N. to
fight terrorism in Asia, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
said Saturday, December 7.
He
said Canberra had no basis to make a “hue and cry” over the
“terrorist activities” in Asian countries as the situation in the
region was stable and under control, Bernama News Agency reported.
Malaysia
would go all out to protest against Australia’s move if it resorted
to the world body’s help, he told reporters at his Hari Raya Eid
al-Fitr open house.
“Even
if they want to bring up this matter to the U.N., we will oppose. The
U.N. can impose restrictions only if there is a major crisis.
“Only
in such circumstances, the U.N. can send a peacekeeping force like in
Bosnia-Herzegovina or Somalia but if it is only they (Australia) feel
their citizens are under threat, it is unacceptable,” he said.
Badawi
said Australia should respect the sovereignty and independence of
other countries.
Southeast
Asian leaders have expressed outrage and anger over Howard’s
statement that his country reserves the right to launch per-emptive
strikes against terrorists in Asian countries.
Malaysia
and Indonesia said they would retaliate if Australia decided to bomb
any particular areas of their territory or sent special swat teams to
search and destroy suspected terrorist targets in these countries.
Badawi
said Australia’s action would be rejected as Malaysia’s ability to
safeguard its security had been acknowledged by other countries.
“If
Australia is scared and feels that it needs some form of assistance
from our country, we are prepared to provide. Actually, this is the
practice under the bilateral relations.” he said.
Abdullah
said Australia had portrayed an impression that the neighboring
countries were incapable of guaranteeing their own security.
“What
I fear is the intention to act unilaterally to enter into another
country to carry out enforcement which will lead to a chaotic
situation,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Sunday, December 8, the
global war on terror was “aggravating the situation” and that
terrorism would remain a threat for a long time to come.
Mahathir
added that the worldwide assault on terrorists was “not very
clever”.
“At
the moment, the handling of these terrorist attacks is not very
clever. They (those combating terrorism globally) are aggravating the
situation,” Bernama News Agency quoted him as saying.
“When
people don’t feel safe traveling or flying, business cannot be done
and that affects the world economy,” he added.
Mahathir
said acts such as the Israeli military killing Palestinian civilians
promoted terror acts.
“For
example, you see the Israeli army killing civilians and the world
never stops Israel,” he said.
“But
they want to stop the Palestinians but not Israel. Children are being
killed. If a house is suspected of having a terrorist, the whole house
is demolished together with all the people in the house.
“At
one time they (Israel) at least picked on the terrorists, they
identified (them) but now they pick on the house. They also select the
whole settlement, destroy the settlement. If there are two or three
suspected terrorists in one town, they destroy the whole town,” he
said.
Mahathir
said such actions made the people angry, “and when people are angry,
it is very difficult for them to stop expressing their anger in the
only way they can and that is by terrorist attacks”.
