Is anyone safe in the world?

Is anyone safe?
Monday • December 1, 2008, TODAY
P N Balji

IN THE last 11 years, our collective hearts have cried out for the families of victims of two tragedies. We mourned when a SilkAir plane dived into the Musi River in Palembang in 1997, taking 40 Singaporean lives. We mourned in 2000, when an SIA plane that had barely taken off from a storm-battered airport in Taiwan crashed, killing12 Singaporeans.

But the killing of Ms Lo Hwei Yen —described as the life of the party and family connector — by terrorists in Mumbai’s Oberoi Trident Hotel, is different, very different.
To be terrorised and traumatised in that hotel for more than 24 hours and then to be killed by two gunshot wounds is a tragedy beyond our collective imagination.

Singapore has seen two hostage incidents in 34 years. In the cases of the Laju hijack in 1974 and the hijack of an SIA flight from Kuala Lumpur in 1991, the hostages lived to tell their stories.

Ms Lo’s date with terrorism is different, very different.
For this 28-year-old lawyer’s friends, family and colleagues, as well as those who knew her only through the smiling photographs and endearing reports in the media, closure is so difficult to come by.
Her sisters have spoken about living with this cruel reality of not knowing what really happened to Ms Lo.
"It’s going to take time to sink in,’’ said one of them.

This big Kylie Minogue fan is the proud face of Singapore’s internationalisation drive, which has seen many of our family members and friends travelling overseas ever more often, not just for holidays, but also for work.
Ms Lo was in Mumbai for a brief business trip, something many of us do these days without even batting an eyelid.

Who would have thought that a group of youth, just out of their teenage years, would plan their operation with such meticulousness and audacity and kill innocent people with no thought for humanity?

Can any Singaporean, or for that matter, anyone in the world, feel safe anymore?

The Mumbai attacks have given us the answer, yet again: No way. Full stop.
They show once more that if somebody out there has a screwed-up mind and the support to punch a hole in the world’s security apparatus, they will do it. For, terrorists can fail many times, but they need only hit the target once to make their point to the world.
If we had thought that it couldn’t get any more dramatic and damaging than the 911 attacks, these Mumbai raids showed otherwise.
The terrorists attacked 10 spots and held people hostage in three buildings, all at the same time.
However well-prepared and well-trained your security forces, such a scenario is a mind-boggling one to prepare for and fight against.

What do you focus on? The railway station where one group fired their rifles and lobbed grenades? The taxi blowing up after a bomb prematurely went off in it? The three buildings where hostages were being terrorised?

Terrorism is not only unpredictable in its timing, but also in its execution.
That is why there are only two real ways to try and contain it.

First, thwart terrorist plans before they can be executed. Intelligence gathering and intelligence collaboration with other countries, especially with neighbouring ones, are a must.
India failed miserably in this, exposing its messy links with neighbouring Pakistan for all to see.

Secondly, show the terrorists that, though they have kept the world on the edge with their 60-hour show of mayhem in Mumbai, they have not won. That message can be sent only if we don’t withdraw into our shells, frightened to take that holiday or make that business trip.

Easier said than done, you might say. But do we have a choice?


P N Balji is the director of the Asian Journalism Fellowship, which is funded by the Temasek Foundation and based at the Nanyang Technological University. He was formerly Editorial Director of MediaCorp.

(Thanks to Mediacorp Press.)


Don’t let her death be in vain
Monday • December 1, 2008, TODAY

Walter Fernandez
editor walter@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPOREANS watched in horror as the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York were turned to rubble on Sept 11, 2001, killing close to 3,000 people. Since then, they have witnessed, first-hand in several instances, hundreds more terror-related deaths during the bombings in Bali, Jakarta, Madrid, London and other global cities.

On Friday, Ms Lo Hwei Yen became the first Singaporean to be killed in a terrorist attack. She will not be the last. Terrorism respects no borders. Even if the island stays a hard target, thousands of Singaporeans live and work around the world. The fact that none have fallen victim to terrorism since 911 was a statistic that defied all odds, till now.

The grief that grips Ms Lo’s husband and family is unimaginable. "My beautiful angel Yen, without you my life has no meaning and no purpose," wrote her husband, Michael Puhaindran, in an obituary.

As Singaporeans offer their heartfelt messages of condolence and support, they ought to also make the effort to give meaning and purpose to Ms Lo’s death.

Do not let her become just another statistic in the war on terror. Let the tragedy of herdeath remind all Singaporeans that the threat of terrorism still looms large. And let the memory of this 28-year-old with a zest for life inspire us to always keep up our guard. To be prepared to step forward and make that difference when we see something suspicious.

Not like Mumbai fisherman PrasanDhanur or harbour official Kashinath Patil.

Shortly before the bloodbath began that ill-fated evening, the pair sitting near a pier surrounded by small wooden fishing boats, saw 10 young men jump out of a black inflatable dingy, with a brand new outboard motor. The men then hoisted large, heavy backpacks out of their boat, each taking care to claim the pack assigned to him.

"I said: ‘Where are you going? What’s in your bags?’" Mr Patil recalled. "They said: ‘We don’t want any attention. Don’t bother us’." So, the pair did nothing; they did not alert the police; they just watched as the men walked towards the city.

One hour later, the killing began.

Might the attack have been prevented if the police had been alerted? Perhaps. But many have their doubts. "The fact that a bunch of men carrying rucksacks bulging with weapons could roam around a city like Mumbai unchallenged means some basic training is missing somewhere from our police forces," said Mr Arun , a former chief of the Indian Intelligence Bureau.

Sadly, it was not just that one day when the public and police let down their guard.

Months before the attack, other members of the group conducted extensive reconnaissance of the hotels, renting a house and stockpiling weapons and ammunition. They took the time not only to map the best routes to the hotels, but also to find the vantage points best suited to launching attacks on the security forces outside. They even set up command and control centres within the hotels to coordinate their onslaught.

Did none of the staff notice?

Yesterday, Mr Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group that owns the Taj Mahal Hotel, admitted that the hotel had, in fact, been warned of a possible terrorist attack and had temporarily beefed up security. He said that additional precautions included making guests walk through a metal detector and not allowing cars to park in the porch. But these precautions were eased "shortly before" the assault, he said.

Mumbai’s bloodiest and most brazen attack in a quarter of a century represents an unprecedented hybrid of tactics. Despite a few common elements with previous Al Qaeda-inspired attacks, this one didn’t come out of the usual terrorist playbook.

"This attack didn’t involve suicide bombers or booby-trapped cars ... This was essentially a small army sent into the heart of society with orders to kill and keep killing as long as possible," noted :French terrorism specialist Roland Jacquard.

The 60-hour siege also highlights serious shortcomings in India’s counter terrorism strategy and the level of involvement of its own people in the war against terror.
Sadly, Ms Lo paid the price for this.