A two-day workshop on international terrorism in the South-East Asian region and its likely implications for South Asia was organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at its headquarters at New Delhi on April 28 and 29, 2004, under its International Terrorism Watch Project.
A two-day workshop on international terrorism in the South-East Asian region and its likely implications for South Asia was organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at its headquarters at New Delhi on April 28 and 29, 2004, under its International Terrorism Watch Project.
The Workshop was attended by eminent counter-terrorism experts from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey and from a well-known think-tank of Honolulu, Hawaii.
It was also attended by well-known experts from India, governmental as well as non-governmental and distinguished members of the Indian strategic analysts' community.
The Workshop was divided into five sessions, of which the first was devoted to a discussion on the Indian perspective, the second and third to a discussion on the South-East Asian and Australian perspectives, the fourth to the global perspective and the fifth to a critical evaluation of the Workshop by two of the foreign participants from Indonesia and Singapore followed by an open-house discussion. One of the objectives of the critical evaluation was to discuss a roadmap for future networking among the non-governmental counter-terrorism experts of the South and the South-East Asian regions and Australia to promote research and in-depth examination on the subject.
Each session was preceded by a keynote address by eminent members of the Indian strategic analysts' community on the following themes: "Can Terrorism be vanquished?"; the "Geo-strategic Context of Modern Terrorism" ; "Terrorism in South-East Asia-an Indian Point of View" and "Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Terrorism -Fears & Reality".
Inaugurating the Workshop, Mr.A.N.Ram, a distinguished former member of the Indian Foreign Service and presently the Chairman of the India National Committee of the Council on Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific (CSCAP), underlined three major developments in the South-East Asian region which, in his view, have greatly influenced the discourse on terrorism and political violence in the region. These are - the fact that the economic development in the region has still failed to bring about political cohesion and regional integration; the low priority being accorded by the big powers to South-East Asia in the post cold-war scenario and finally the influence of external factors which have begun to play a role in some ASEAN countries exploiting the vulnerabilities of their fluid domestic situations. He touched upon the Bali Bombings of October 2002 and the growing network of international terrorist groups in the region and stressed the need for a closer cooperation between India and South-East Asia to counter the menace of terrorism.
Mr. K. Subrahmanyam, the doyen of India's strategic analysts' community, who delivered the first keynote address on "Can Terrorism be Vanquished?", underlined the role played by the Western powers, particularly the USA, in the creation and the use of many of the religious terrorist groups of today against the erstwhile USSR and pointed out how these groups had turned into Jihadi Frankenstein monsters haunting the world today. At the same time, he pointed out that the war on terrorism was one of ideas and expressed his confidence that just as the international community had vanquished pernicious ideologies of the past such as Nazism, Fascism, etc belying the pessimism of many as to whether these ideologies could be vanquished, similarly it would emerge victorious in its struggle against the ideology represented by jihadi terrorism.
During the various panel discussions, the participants exchanged information, insights and perceptions on Al Qaeda, the Jemaah Islamiya (JI), the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other jihadi organisations allied to Al Qaeda and the Hizb-ut-Tahrir. There were also two interesting presentations on the global perspective and on suicide terrorism. Each session was marked by lively interactive discussions on different perceptions and the linkages amongst the terrorist organisations of the regions concerned. These interactions promoted a better understanding and appreciation of the concerns and preoccupations of different countries confronted with the problem of international terrorism.
While agreeing on the importance of effective short-term action to protect the people of the region from the destructive activities of the terrorist groups, the participants stressed that the equally important task of countering the new kind of terrorism represented by Al Qaeda and organisations allied to it in the medium and long term at the ideological level should not be lost sight of. It was stressed that the fight is not just against Al-Qaeda, but equally against 'Al-Qaedaism' and that the progressive Islamic scholars would have to play an important role to counter the threat posed by distorted interpretations of Islam by fundamentalist elements.
During the critical evaluation session, the Workshop, inter alia, identified the following areas and themes for future co-operation among the think-tanks and non-governmental experts of the Asian region and Australia:
-
Maritime counter-terrorism.
-
How to counter the new terrorism ideologically?
-
The importance of an empirical analysis and information networking especially at the level of non governmental public policy think-tanks and other kinds of research organisations.
-
Devising a mechanism for making the inputs of Workshops such as this available to organisations such as the CSCAP and policy-makers.
-
Strengthening the regional organisations like the SCO, ASEAN and the CSCAP etc.
-
Restructuring intelligence agencies to prevent the forgery of passports and other important documents
The Observer Research Foundation would be taking the necessary follow-up action on these ideas and themes, which have emerged from the Workshop.
List of Participants
-
Dr. Anthony Smith
Senior Research Fellow, Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu
-
Dr. Kumar Ramakrishna
Head (Studies) and Assistant Professor, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
-
Dr. Bilveer Singh
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore
-
General Jose T. Almonte
National Security Advisor and Director- General of the National Security Council in the Cabinet of former Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos from 1992-98
-
Lieutenant General (Retd.) Agus Widjojo
-
Former Vice- Speaker, People's Assembly, and presently Distinguished Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta, Indonesia
-
Afifi Raswan Dean
Researcher, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-
Surat Horachaikul
Lecturer, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science,
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
-
Clive Williams
Director of Terrorism Studies, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
-
Ersel Aydinli
Associate Professor, University of Bilkent, Turkey
-
A.N. Ram
IFS (Retd), and presently representative of the Indian Chapter on the
Council on Security Co- operation Asia Pacific (CSCAP)
-
K. Subrahmanyam
Former Convenor, National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), Government of India
-
Air Commodore Jasjit Singh
Distinguished Member of the community of Indian Strategic Analyst and Former Member of National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), Government of India
-
Prof. V. Suryanarayan
Former Director of Centre for South and South- East Asian Studies, University of Madras, Chennai
-
Prof. Matin Zuberi
Distinguished Member of the community of Indian Strategic Analyst and Former Member of National security Advisory Board (NSAB), Government of India
-
Dr. Ajai Sahni
Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management and South Asia Terrorism Portal, New Delhi
-
Prof. S.D. Muni
Professor, Centre for South Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi and Honorary Director of Research, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi
-
Wilson John
Senior Fellow and Director, Information Services, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi
-
Dr. P.V. Ramana
Research Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi
-
Praveen Swami
Chief of Bureau, Frontline Magazine, New Delhi
-
R. Sridhar
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Madras Christian College, Chennai
-
Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan
Independent Political and Security Analyst, Chennai
-
Commodore R.S. Vasan (Retd.)
Coast Guard Region (East), Chennai
-
N. Sathiya Moorthy
Honorary Director Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter
-
B. RamanDistinguished Fellow and Convenor Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter
-
R. Swaminathan IPS (Retd.)
DG- Security, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India
-
Dr. Geetha Madhavan
Advocate, PhD in Law on International Terrorism and Expert on Terrorism
-
Kshitij Prabha
Principal in Charge, VPM's College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai
-
Swati Parashar
Researcher, Observer Research Foundation (ORF)
Report prepared by Swati Parashar, workshop co-ordinator.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
PREV
