Terrorism in Singapore

Article: DPM warns of radical ideas being spread through Internet
Category: Societal Issues
Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/261659/1/.html
Date: 2nd March 2007

Summary: Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng has warned that a new terror phenomenon has emerged and the internet age is to blame. Besides about 6,000 websites with pro-terrorist ideas, there are also websites which teach everything from dismantling weapons to making a homemade bomb, leading to the worry that young singaporeans would be wrongly exposed to terrorist ideas.

I find this problem quite worrying, for it is easy to access information on the Internet, and yet it is hard to completely shut down terrorist websites. Therefore I strongly agree with DPM Wong that a more effective method of preventing terrorist manifestations in Singapore would be to go online and counter such extremist propaganda. When young Singaporeans hear the serious consequences of terrorism from the government itself, they would most likely be inclined to stop any form of influence terrorist propaganda might have been having on them.

Education definitely has a huge role to play. Singaporean youths must be able to understand the severity of terrorism and why they should not subscribe to the radical ideas of terror organisations. Having speakers visiting schools or setting up websites to educate teenagers about the threat of terrorism could help reduce the influence of terrorism among our youth today.

If one were to view this problem from a different perspective, one could say that teens breed such radical ideas due to a lack of multi-racialism. As Singaporean youths did not live through the tough times of racial and religious disorder in our country a few decades ago, they fail to understand the importance of multi-racialism towards the functioning and survival of Singapore as a whole. Personally I have also found it hard to understand the true severity of racial disputes as I have never witnessed any major inter-racial disputes in my life, so I have to be constantly reminded about how Singapore would fall without inter-racial harmony both by the wiser older generation of our country and by the teaching of past events in school. That is the step the Singapore government has to take in order to prevent young Singaporeans like myself from developing incorrect and inappropriate extremist ideas.

Some may believe that one day we would be able to completely rid our world of terrorism, as we are constantly taking a step closer towards eradicating them, having captured important figureheads like Saddam Hussein and working hard towards the eventual capture of the man at the top of it all, Osama bin Laden. Yet I personally feel that even if he were captured and killed, terrorists would still be able to worship a new leader and continue spreading their influence around the world.

In fact, as technology advances, terrorists would not only be able to spread their influence more quickly, but would also be able to carry out more terrifying and unpreventable misdeeds on the human race. We can never completely eradicate the terrorists themselves, yet one thing we can surely do, is stop their influence. I may be assuming that education will receive a positive response from the Singaporean youths, and the innocent me may be careless in saying that the influence of terrorists can be completely stopped, but I strongly feel that if everyone remains well-informed, working hand-in-hand in the fight against terrorism, we would still eventually be able to bring world peace to this planet we call home.

(500 words)