Post Bag
Look at the network, not the schools
- Published: 10/07/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: News
Some Islamic schools have a magnetic quality for radicals in Southeast Asia, but this does not mean that all such institutions, teachers and students are the problem. The relationship between the place and the people is often misunderstood.
Schools are places where young men, at the most reflective and passionate time in their lives, congregate in large numbers. Like any high school or university in the West, this makes them good conductors for the flow of radical currents pulsing through these societies.
Two recent International Crisis Group reports from Indonesia and Thailand have shown links between educational institutions and radicals. In the Indonesian regional city of Palembang, for example, radicals met in Jemaah Islamiyah schools to plot, but most were neither students nor teachers. A misplaced sense of duty or loyalty oaths meant that school administrators felt the radicals could not be turned away, even though the school's director was opposed to violence.
In southern Thailand, recruiters infiltrate schools to seek out students with potential as insurgents before singling them out for special extracurricular attention that shepherds them along the path to fighting in the insurgency. Crowded classrooms and dormitories provide good cover for covert activities that most of those who teach, live or learn there probably never know of or fully comprehend.
It would be foolish for any government response to this challenge to focus on closing schools or punishing teachers. Further, efforts to revise texts, or change curricula, while possibly beneficial for their overall education, won't affect recruitment because the problem lies elsewhere. Crackdowns will not insulate the society; only send these highly charged elements along different paths of least resistance.
Understanding schools as a place where social networks converge and gaining insights into how these networks function is more important. Some may be uncomfortable with the highlighting of such links, but the connection between a small subset of educational institutions and radicals is beyond doubt. The challenge is to spotlight the problem without stigmatising the whole system.
In Thailand, those who start out on the road to violence often begin their journey in the classroom of modernised Islamic schools. In Indonesia, extremists seek refuge in a few dozen sympathetic pesantren and use them as communication hubs.
It is the network, not the school that is the threat. Governments should remember this nuance when considering policies and responses.
JIM DELLA-GIACOMA
Southeast Asia Project Director,
International Crisis Group
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Slipping on ethics
I am puzzled by the logic of key Democrats: they are not forcing the departure of Kasit Piromya as foreign minister simply because upholding the good ethics of former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin and former social affairs minister Witoon Nambutr had not helped the party's interests (Bangkok Post, July 9).
In the past, the party never sought any reward for upholding ethical standards. It has survived because of its life-long objective to doing the right thing, irrespective of the consequences, right from the time of Khuang Abhaiwongse to the days of Chuan Leekpai.
Is this highly educated leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, so materialistic as to let me down?
Furthermore, Kasit's case is aggravated by his prior promise to leave if a summons were issued against him. If he does not keep his word (or even attempts to wriggle out with semantics), the party's image will be permanently tainted and reduced to the likes of other come-and-go parties whose word carries neither weight nor commitment.
I am not a red or yellow shirt supporter, but have been a life-long supporter of the Democrat Party. But now, for how much longer, I'm not so sure.
SONGDEJ PRADITSMANONT
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Elite downgraded
I was planning another vacation in Thailand, but now? Forget it. My family love Phuket and Koh Samui and I get the opportunity to play golf and enjoy a spa when they relax on the beautiful beaches. But no more can I play golf in either of these places, and you leave me with only one spa in Phuket and none in Samui.
What are you doing? I am probably not the only Elite Card member who visits these destinations. I feel I'm being treated like an ''enemy'' of Thailand, not a ''friend''. So give me back the money I paid you; the card is now worthless to me and, I would think, to most members.
A VERY DISGRUNTLED MEMBER
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