Regional governments must cooperate to counter terrorism

THE regional anti-terrorism conference in Kuala Lumpur last week struck the right note with its focus on finding ways to change the mindsets of militants bent on using violence to pursue their ends. The pooling of ideas and experiences of handling radicals has much to be commended; collectively, South-east Asia has considerable experience in tackling militants of every shade since World War II.

While the world has recently become all too familiar with the brutality perpetrated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the concept of frightening people into submission on the promise of an ideologically pure nation has been tried in this region in the past. In Singapore and Malaysia, for instance, the Communist Party of Malaya promised a socialist paradise and posed a huge threat to life, limb and liberty until the mid-1950s. Elsewhere, there was the Baader-Meinhof Gang of West Germany, the Japanese Red Army and Peru's "Shining Path", among others, which wreaked their share of havoc.

Admittedly, ISIS is the only group that controls significant territory. It has scale and is thus unique. It has succeeded in displacing hundreds of thousands, enslaving communities and forcing its rule on big population centres. The attacks in Paris, Istanbul, Beirut and, most recently, Jakarta show how effectively ISIS has used social media to extend its reach. Indeed, Al-Qaeda, which has been overshadowed, now seems to be engaged in some kind of macabre competition: It has launched murderous attacks against civilians in Mali and Burkina Faso.