Ex nihilo nihil fit ! Nothing comes from nothing: This was a famous ancient Latin expression of western nihilism, which tried, against all odds, to express the futility of nothingness.

It is the most futile and empty human thought, and yet it is ever present on the world stage, as was the case with the tragedy of 9/11.

september 11 2001 wtc attack 911 Like all of you, I have vivid memories of that dramatic moment ten years ago. I was trying to teach Philosophy at the Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur, when some students came up and explained to me the horrendous nihilistic event that had scorched the sky of New York City.

Instinctively, I knew that world history had changed.

As usual, America dominates the world news with the ongoing commemoration of the tenth anniversary of that event. The shock value of 9/11 has not lost its power to bring horror to our human consciousness.

The mystique of 9/11 will continue to haunt human history for many decades, and even centuries, to come.

Post-9/11 wars

The 9/11 attacks have spawned some of the greatest human conflicts since the holocaust, more than half a century ago.

These post-9/11 wars have cast giant shadows, that have darkened human hearts for the past 10 years. A new world disorder has been created by the bombing of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

NONE In terms of the actual lives lost, 9/11 was not the most horrendous mass killing in recent history.

Many more souls have been lost through warfare, in many of the global bloodbaths that had happened before 9/11 tragedy.

But more than any other recent historical event, 9/11 was the most destructive catastrophe that has struck the human race.

For one thing, it was the most lethal single act of mass killing on America's home soil, destroying once and for all the Americans' delusion of indestructibility.

9/11 showed how vulnerable the Americans are, in a world fraught with dangers caused by religious extremism.

The violence of 9/11 also spawned the Iraq war and the conflict in Afghanistan. It has forced the world to rethink its balance of power in the decade since.

It has forced friends and foes of the greatest military power the world has every known, to redraw their boundaries in all corners of the earth, thereby changing the geopolitical map forever.

We now know that 9/11 was the work of Al-Qaeda. The conflict between Al-Qaeda and the western forces is an example of asymmetrical warfare.

Standing US defence situation

A small handful of extreme religious zealots can never be prevented from exacting their revenge on their enemies, principally because America's defensive forces cannot be everywhere all the time.

NONE Even now, the killing of Osama Bin Laden (right ) will not help to diminish these intractable conflicts, because the seeds of hatred have grown roots throughout the Al-Qaeda world. The spectre of 9/11 will return to haunt the world in unpredictable ways.

Even as I write, the Americans continue to be filled with psychological trauma, a phobia of some new event of gargantuan destruction in their country, that may strike anytime within the next few weeks.

The homeland security apparatus of Fortress America will be on high alert for many more years to come. Americans must now live with a much diminished sense of security than before the events of 9/11.

The only ray of hope is to be found in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, where the Arab nations of the world are bringing about a political renaissance.

There, we witness the rising tide of democracy across these Arab lands, where feudalistic societies are reluctantly giving way to modern nation states. Even so, the political changes across the Arab homelands are full of dramatic challenges.

In an increasingly interconnected world, Malaysia, too, is not free from the vast social and political ructions that plague the world stage.

I am glad we stand slightly apart from the main stage of the 9/11 tragedy and subsequent conflicts, although we are ourselves influenced by shifting conditions in the larger Muslim world.

So far, we seem to have been spared the direct consequences of 9/11. But we should not immerse ourselves in premature self-congratulations.

The deaths of 9/11 and its consequent wars should serve as a perennial reminder to all Malaysians, that lasting peace must still remain in the hearts of mankind as our most treasured hope. We should persevere in our efforts to keep that hope alive.

 

SIM KWANG YANG was member of parliament for Bandar Kuching, Sarawak from 1982 to 1995. He can be reached at sky8hornbill@gmail.com . All comments are welcome.