President George W Bush announced in Mexico that Malaysia has agreed with the US proposal to form an anti-terrorist training centre in Kuala Lumpur. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that Asean leaders have also agreed.

With the acceptance of this proposal, Malaysia is in fact heightening her collaboration with the US in defence and military matters. Malaysian leaders must move with caution so that the country and the people will not be exposed to greater dangers.

Abdullah tried to assure us that there would be no military training involved. But, it should be reminded that on April 24, 1984, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as prime minister, signed a US-Malaysian defence agreement with the then US Defence Secretary, Casper Weinberger. The Malaysian government has consistently declined to disclose the full content of this agreement. But it is well known that the agreement contains provisions that allow for joint military training and exercises, by land, air and sea. To say the least, Abdullah's assurance is meaningless.

Malaysia's consent to form this centre is greatly ironical, in view of Mahathir's constant public postures against US imperialist hegemony in the past. We share the view that there is a need for concerted efforts to fight against international terrorism. But we would also like to see greater commitment to the resistance against state terrorism. In this connection, we are extremely disappointed that there is not enough condemnation and sanction against the Zionist state terrorism.

We hope that with this closer US-Malaysian collaboration at least two things will not be allowed to happen. Firstly, efforts must be made to ensure it will not further endanger the security of Malaysia and her people; there is great need to make sure that it would not provoke terrorist attacks on us. Secondly, this collaboration must not allow the Malaysian government to be more repressive against genuine democratic dissent, using the Internal Security Act that has the power for continuous detention without trial.

Finally, we are of the view that it is out of place (in fact, shameful) for the current Malaysian leaders to go on claiming credit for the success in defeating the communist movement in this country. In the first place, they did not lead the fight against the communist uprising.

The British, with the help of local and commonwealth police and military forces, were largely responsible for this before Merdeka. Granted that the communist guerillas committed many acts of terror, but why have these leaders always failed to point out the state terrorist acts of the British colonialists?

The British used the Emergency Regulation to suppress the communists before. But now, the Malaysian government uses the ISA, which has almost similar powers of the Emergency Regulation for detention without trial, to incarcerate genuine political dissenters, to weaken legal opposition and to spread the psychology of fear among the public.

PRM is worried that the recent growing ties with the US will be used opportunistically by BN leaders to further strangle the democratic space in Malaysia.