Southeast Asia There Seems to Be Several

Southeast Asia

There seems to be several situations in Southeast Asia that have the potential of greatly influencing other parts of the world.

One disturbing element in Southeast Asia is the growth of al Qaeda there during the past decade and its link with local radical Islamists (Palmer Pp).

The organization has developed strong roots in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia with Indonesian agents working in close partnership with al Qaeda in promoting terrorism in the region (Palmer Pp). According to Ronald Palmer the "Jemaah Islamiya goal of establishing an Islamic state encompassing Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Southern Philippines is only in its early stages and has been stymied for the time being," however, it appears that the al Qaeda cells which have thus far been discovered may only be the "tip of a terrorist iceberg of unknown dimensions" (Palmer Pp). Local governments face severe challenges to maintain security, requiring a "policy framework much larger than merely fighting terrorism" (Palmer Pp). The Regional Forum on Security was established with its main function being to promote stabilization processes (Security Pp). Any changes and transformations in the countries of the region, "must be effected on the basis of the law," therefore, it is necessary to define, for example, exactly what the term terrorist means and who can be regarded as "a fighter for freedom" (Security Pp).

Perhaps the most disturbing element present today in Southeast Asia is the Avian flu.

In February 2005, it was reported that despite the quarantine and monitoring measure established by health officials throughout Southeast Asia, "World Health Organization officials and health leaders in the region acknowledge that the disease virus is now likely deeply embedded in both wild and domestic bird populations and they do not expect to eradicate it fully" (Stewart Pp). The virus thrives in the brew created by birds, animals and humans living in proximity in large numbers, "whatever and wherever the arrangement" (Stewart Pp). An article in the January 2005 journal, "Vaccine, speculates that the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, for example, which killed about 50 million people worldwide in 18 months, originated from just this: a high concentration of soldiers, pigs, horses and nearby geese, duck and chicken markets in the British base camp at Etaples in Northern France in 1917 (Stewart Pp).

This mix of beasts, birds, an endemic flu virus, and the potential it has for a human health disaster, has created increasing concern among officials because although the transmission of the H5N5 bird flu virus to humans has so far almost always proceeded from birds to humans, there is at least one case in Thailand that is suspected of coming from human to human transmission (Stewart Pp).

In several public statements, World Health Organization officials have explained the difficulty of making any kind of estimate about the death toll of a pandemic from a transformed avian influenza, they have composed studied estimates that range from two million to one hundred million and have also explained the difficulties of creating a vaccine against a rapidly morphing virus" (Stewart Pp). Thus, even at the low end, a pandemic could have devastating global effects (Stewart Pp). Mart Stewart writes that "while it has received scant news coverage in the United States, avian flu in Asia (or anywhere else) is potentially a global event and one with larger consequences than any modern disaster since the 1918 pandemic" (Stewart Pp).