PAS Youth leader Mahfuz Omar speculates

that the US may be implicated in the Bali bombing killing mostly Westerners — has he an iota of evidence to back this suggestion other than his over-stimulated imagination?

It is appalling for a youth leader of the major opposition party to irresponsibly speculate on possibilities which are easy to toss around and impossible to prove or refute.

To say that the US is equal to the West, and the "West is trying to contain the growth of Islam in Southeast Asia and that the bombing was an excuse to interfere in the security of the region and garner international support for US plans to attack Iraq and topple President Saddam Hussein" is to conjure a scenario of inter-civilisational conflict between the West led by the US and Islam in crass appeal to religious sentiments for political support.

Basically, his spurious allegation is embarrassing to PAS' political ally and coalition partner Keadilan which is launching the "Free Anwar Campaign" on April 14, 2003 to garner international support from world leaders and individuals concerned with Anwar's well-being.

How could Keadilan get international credibility when it partners and collaborates with a political party whose youth leader made such allegation against its one-time main patron, the United States — and whose idea of promoting tourism is to have male tourist guide for male tourists and female guide for female tourists with brothers, sisters, husbands and wives in families segregated on gender lines in the course of the tours?

PAS has, of course, not shown itself to be militant in any way yet but the mindset and extreme values it espouses show a profound distrust of, and an incapacity to cope with modernity of which the West represents — the very conditions that may encourage militancy among some of its supporters against Westerners in this country.

We don't need a scenario like the Bali bombing over here. The situation is bad as it is, at present, in terms of capital flight, drop in foreign direct investments and continuous slide of the KLSE.

As a spokesperson for the major opposition party vying to replace the ruling party, Mahfuz should not make such baseless claims that tarnish our nation's image.