If you are a movie buff, then you would have also watched
Chalize Theron in The Italian Job, which also used Venice
as the setting.

And who can forget watching Madonna squirming in a gondola
in her music video Like a Virgin.

Arriving in Milan
on Saturday, I was told that I could catch a train to Venice.
It would just be an hour's ride.

It was too good to resist. It would cost me only about 20
euro (RM94) and I could return to Milan
the same day.

Besides, the hotels in Venice
were too expensive. It would have been over-indulgence to stay overnight just
to join the rich romantics watch the sunset and drink expresso by the sidewalk
cafes.

With fellow journalists from the other press, we joined
thousands of tourists in the unbearable hot summer, leisurely admiring the
canals that had inspired poetry, art, music and literature.

The quaint cobblestone streets and medieval churches were
as quaint as I expected.

The movies captured those Venetian scenes well. If you
had watched The Talented Mr Ripley – which starred Matt Damon and Gwyneth
Paltrow – you would know what I mean.

Summer is really not the best time to visit Venice.
It's uncomfortably hot at this time and, while the Europeans love the sun,
Asians like me looked around for some shade.

The restaurant and ferry (and gondola) operators
overcharge you because it is the peak season.

Many of the eateries do not have air-conditioners. The
spaghetti dish I ordered was mediocre yet pricey.

I could never understand how the Italians could have
their pasta with tomato sauce alone – no meatballs, no seafood, nothing – and
at 20 euro per serving.

There were two Chinese restaurants but the idea of
sitting in Venice eating fried rice
seemed out of place, even ridiculous.

The souvenirs were overly expensive for us, bearing in
mind the ringgit-to-euro exchange rate, but the positive part was that none of
us spent our money unnecessarily.

To console ourselves, we agreed it was "patriotic" to be
thrifty and that it was not worth buying those tacky tourist rip-offs.

I had to tell the illegal African immigrants peddling
fake Louis Vuitton handbags not to bother me.

Like a two-hour movie, my one-day visit to Venice
was over by 6pm. We had missed the 4pm train back to Milan
because some of my colleagues lost their way in the maze of the Venice
alleyways.

As a result, we missed watching the Euro 2004 final
between Greece
and Portugal at
the Duomo Square where a
huge screen was set up for city folk.

We missed the train, the football final but, most of all,
we missed Venice.

We had arrived in Rome
ahead of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who was making a
working visit to Italy.

Despite being a seasoned traveller, I had a phobia about Italy.
A colleague was robbed in broad daylight some years back and arrangements had
to be made to send him some money because he was left penniless by the
small-time Mafia.

Before leaving Kuala Lumpur,
I looked at several websites on Rome.
Many of them warned first-time visitors like me of the dangers of the Italian
capital.

One item warned that on arrival at the airport, you may
be approached by people claiming to be employees of the Rome Tourist Board. I
had no such problem.

I read about the indifferent police officers who enjoy
sending victims from station to station just to lodge a report. Sounds
familiar?

Another item told of greedy taxi drivers ready to fleece
visitors. However, my ride from the airport to the hotel at Viale Castro
Pretoria, near the Coliseum, was a pleasant one.

Despite all the negative reports, particularly about the
notorious gypsy pickpockets, tourists from all over the world continue to visit
Rome.

Many like me would hold on tightly to our bags when we
visit tourist spots, fearing we would be relieved of our wallets.

In July 2000, ex-Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson lost
US$4,000 after being accosted by a small group of gypsy girls at the famous Via
Veneto – and they outran him.

Like Malaysia,
Rome has its fair share of snatch
thieves, too. Men in scooters often prey on tourists.

But Italian officials are not worried by these negative
reports. Some Malaysian officials, on the other hand, have tried to coax the
press into not reporting cases of snatch thefts, saying the publicity would
drive away tourists.

It is all very silly. By highlighting these issues,
tourists would appreciate our concern in fighting crime.

In Jakarta or
Manila, snatch thieves would not
make front-page headlines because they are so common.

But in Malaysia,
the public and the media are angry because our streets used to be safe. We want
the police to deal with these crooks effectively.

Rome reminds
me of New York. It is noisy,
dusty, dirty and chaotic. Even the Metro trains have similar graffiti painted
on them.

Unlike Singapore,
which is sterile but pretends to be hip and hot, Rome
oozes energy. But the Italians don't believe in rules; you only have to look at
the way they park their vehicles.

Italy
has one of the biggest economies in the world, producing some of the finest
names in cars and fashion but its government and social structure are
comparable to that of a banana republic.

Rome is a
city of contrasts. I attended the service at St Peter's where the aura of the
place, especially its pale rays of heavenly light, can move to tears tough and
cynical journalists like me.

I also "weep" later at the Vatican's
souvenir shop where nuns were selling expensive religious memorabilia. The weak
ringgit against the strong euro would make my stay an expensive one.

As I was about to finish this article, a colleague called
up to find out whether the cunning gypsies had got their hands on me.

Not as far as I know, I said. But give the gypsies time –
it was only my first day in town.

A few had stayed up to watch the games daily while the
others said they tried to watch the game but fell asleep even before the
kick-off.

Like schoolboys, a few wagers were placed as the debate
over the merits of the teams became more heated. A few of us were asked to be
witnesses and it was followed by plenty of good laughs over football jokes.

The poor Tan Sri who owned a golf course had little to
contribute because he confessed that he could never get excited watching football.
He was keen to talk about the US Open but few wanted to listen.

I have managed to watch only two games so far – the France
versus England
game on June 13 and yesterday's game where the French took on the Greeks.

As an ardent supporter of the Arsenal football team,
there were plenty of good reasons to watch the defending champion fight to keep
the cup. Watching Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera and Robert Pires – the stars of
Arsenal in the French team – has always been a delight.

A survey by Nielsen Media Research Telescope indicated
that the France
versus England
game on June 13 (telecast live on TV3 at 2.30am
on June 14) attracted an estimated 547,000 viewers although the next day was a
Monday. That game, however, did not draw the most Malaysian viewers. The
biggest surprise – like some of the results so far – is that 857,000 Malaysians
watched the Czechs beat the Latvians 2-1.

The Nielsen Media Research Telescope tracked the
television viewing habits of 2,590 individuals above the age of six in 670 randomly
selected households in Peninsular Malaysia. The research agency has named Euro
2004 as a winner for television stations broadcasting the matches. Those of us
who had been following the English Premier League weekly through Astro have
felt let down by the cable television network.

Like many Malaysians, I still find it hard to accept
three commentators sitting in a studio and talking about the games without
visuals. Astro has no doubt lost out in Euro 2004.

TV3, which has the broadcasting rights on Euro 2004, has
become the darling station of Malaysians. It consistently garnered more than
half the number of TV viewers whenever a game was showed live, according to the
survey. For example, the TV station captured 68% of the viewers for the opening
game between Portugal and Greece on June 13 but many of us who wanted to watch
the repeats had to do so on 8TV – the sister station of TV3.

It may be a corporate strategy to get us to tune to 8TV
but many Malaysians do not like the idea of having to install an antennae on
their roof. However, the survey reported that 8TV secured its highest number of
viewers (500,000) during the game between Greece
and Spain on
June 17, followed by Switzerland
and Croatia
(366,000) on June 14. The two games also gave 8TV its largest percentage of
viewers at 30%.

Football has become more than just a game for men. It has
become a passion, and the game has attracted women, too. It is no longer just a
sport; spin-offs include fashion and design.

Celebrity footballers now spread messages of goodwill,
peace and the fight against diseases. For example, if a politician talks about
peace at a stadium, only his supporters would show up. But if England
captain David Beckham were to speak on the same subject, you can be sure that
the stadium would be full. That's the power of football.

Euro 2004 has, to some extent, generated much goodwill in
the office as colleagues break the barrier of rank and seniority to talk about
the game and trade friendly insults on the teams they support.

Besides the media, mamak stalls and the pubs making money
from Euro 2004, Malaysian bookies are also raking in plenty of money from
pundits – some say to the tune of billions of ringgit. The authorities must
face the reality of betting on sporting events, especially football. At least,
allow existing gaming outlets to take bets. More important, the Government will
get good tax revenue from gaming.

As it is now, illegal bookies are making tons of money
that will probably be channelled to other illegal activities. Despite the
police announcing big plans to rope in the bookies before the start of Euro
2004, only a few have been nabbed so far.

Now that Les Bleus are out of the running, which team is
your favourite to win Euro 2004? Anyone care to bet?

Despite locking the steering wheel and activating the
anti-theft alarm, Khoo found his car stolen from a designated car park about
100 metres from where the function was held.

He was invited to the launch by PJ Utara MP Chew Mei Fun
whose house was burgled last year.

Khoo lodged a report at the Damansara Utama police
station three hours later.

Interestingly, snatch theft victim Cheryl Chow Bor Ling,
who was paralysed after the incident eight years ago, recalled that the snatch
theft occurred in front of the Damansara Utama police station.

Her father, Chow See Jeok, claimed that there had been
many such cases in the area.

Recently, I was told of an attempted snatch theft in
front of the Mont Kiara police beat base. The quick-thinking woman squatted the
moment she felt the bag strap being pulled.

The beat base was unmanned at the time and the victim
left the affluent area without reporting the case. The snatch thieves, who fled
on their motorcycle, were believed to be foreigners.

The point is this: the criminals are getting braver these
days and seem more ready to challenge the police.

Several top officers of the SEA
Park police station in Petaling
Jaya were transferred recently after Bukit Aman was informed that two illegal
Internet gaming outlets were operating 100 metres from the station. All these
cases give the force a bad image.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Bakri Omar must be
congratulated for sending a strong message to his men: change your mindset or
face the litany of public complaints against the force.

He said if the police ignored the call to change, society
would continue to complain about inefficiency and graft in the force.

"We are responsible for marketing our image. We must live
up to society's expectations of us,'' he said at the Senior Police Officers
College in Cheras on Friday.

An honest approach in tackling crime and the continuous
revamp of the force is necessary for the police to be effective.

No senior policemen should be placed in a particular
district for too long. The government must also support the request by the
police for more constables.

Modern anti-crime equipment such as closed-circuit
television is needed in the absence of policemen on the beat.

CCTV has been effectively introduced in many cities such
as London and Hong Kong,
with the police beat base acting as the control point.

Police vans equipped with monitoring facilities could be
used in busy areas, particularly near banks, tourist spots and shopping
complexes.

My greatest concern is that a week from now, when the
media has lost interest in the snatch theft issue, the authorities may lose
their zeal too.

There is plenty of hot air now with the usual statements
from politicians, social activists and non-government organisations, who seem
more interested in seeing their names in print than looking into the welfare of
Malaysians.

Worse, there are suggestions from minor bureaucrats that
the media should not highlight this issue because tourists would stay away from
Malaysia. In
short, they are asking the media to cover up these criminal acts.

The authorities should not wait for another victim to die
before they respond to public anger; the situation has reached boiling point
with 43 reported cases a day.

And it was public anger that made bystanders assault a
snatch thief in Klang (the man later died in hospital).

The public must not be allowed to take the law into its
own hands. Such mob mentality is a reflection, to some degree, of the lack of
confidence in the police force.

As Bakri correctly said, the image of the force is
important. Malaysians have passed remarks, rightly or wrongly, about cops
stopping motorists for bribes when they should be going after criminals.

Fighting crime, however, is not the job of the police
alone. They are already hard-pressed with the shortage of detectives.

Bakri deserves all our support to fight crime because we
know he is a no-nonsense and clean policeman.

They would also be given a tour of the hospitals and
exposed to the onerous working hours and conditions of medical officers.

Dr Shafie said he had discussed the idea of an admission
test with several ministry officials recently and would call for a meeting with
medical faculty deans. The proposal for MSAT, he added, would be presented to
the Cabinet soon for a decision.

I am sure Dr Shafie's intentions are good – the idea is
to ensure that the applicants with the right character, intention and aptitude
are accepted.

Whether we like it or not, the fact is that not everyone
can become a doctor despite being a top scorer. However, Dr Shafie ought to
speak to more doctors, lecturers, students and fellow Barisan Nasional
component party leaders before going ahead with his proposal.

For a start, it is nothing new. My alma mater, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia,
introduced this admission procedure decades ago but it died a natural death
after a few years.

In many foreign universities, such admission tests have
also been introduced but the practicality of such an exercise has been severely
questioned. In the case of UKM, some lecturers who sat on the interviewing
board found that it was unfair to decide on the future of the applicants in a
30-minute interview.

No matter how many questions an applicant can be asked,
the crux of the discussion was on why the applicant wished to be a doctor.

The outcome from these interviews revealed that some
popular answers were given – namely they had scored the best academic results
and their ambition was to be a doctor. Having secured the best grades in the
STPM, these applicants felt they should be given the chance of studying
medicine, or at least dentistry.

Most felt that studying medicine was prestigious and
would provide them with a good future. Certainly no one would dispute that
reasoning.

Parental pressure was also a factor, while helping
society was the last priority. No one should be surprised with these answers.

Do not expect our doctors to be paid poorly in the name
of helping society and upholding the Hippocratic Oath of the Greek medical
philosopher. While there may be many doctors who have dedicated their lives to
help the poor, future doctors see a bright and financially sound future ahead
of them.

Based on experience, medical college lecturers have found
that, in reality, applicants do not know for sure why they chose medicine. It
is only after their second or third year that most medical students have a
strong inkling of the course they have chosen.

Lecturers also said there was nothing to stop applicants
from preparing themselves and telling the interviewers what they want to hear
during such admission tests.

Dr Shafie said the ministry also wanted to know what kind
of lifestyle they would lead as doctors. If politicians themselves cannot be
trusted to give an honest answer from such a question, I doubt Dr Shafie could
expect an honest answer from college applicants.

The ministry and the Cabinet should carefully study the
feasibility of the proposed MSAT because it may lead to controversy.

There are already calls to review the entry system – one
for matriculation students and another for STPM students. Malaysians do not
want the MSAT to be another source of discontentment if bright students
suddenly find themselves rejected on grounds that they failed the new round of
subjective examinations, where human interference comes into play.

Our bright students are undoubtedly aware of the less
glamorous aspect of studying medicine, but they must not be discouraged from
taking up the challenge.

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But the fact is that such abuse has occurred, not only in
Malaysia but
also in countries where foreigners from poor countries have to put up with
indignity and even vicious assault.

In Malaysia,
statistics show that there were 66 cases of maid abuse in 2001, 39 in 2002, 40
in 2003, and 13 reported cases from this January until March.

While the figures could be considered relatively low, no
one should tolerate any form of maid abuse.

In some West Asian countries, Filipino maids have been
raped and murdered. In some instances, the assaults involved employers with
powerful connections and they escaped prosecution.

The odds are stacked heavily against these maids who are
forced to leave their homes to work as domestic help. Coming from poor
families, they are alien to the demands of modern living and often find
themselves pressured.

Most of us expect our maids to instantly adapt to our
lifestyle, forgetting that many of them come from remote places where there is
no vacuum cleaner or oven.

We can take a few lessons from Singapore,
where the authorities and people have more experience in dealing with foreign
workers.

According to Singapore's
Straits Times, primary school teacher Heng Kwee Huang was jailed 10 months and
fined RM6,000 after she slapped, punched and scalded her Indonesian maid with
hot water in 1999.

A psychiatrist who testified in court said Heng suffered
from severe depression. She underwent fertility treatments, had to grapple with
her demanding job, did not sleep or eat well, had attempted suicide twice and
her marriage was on the rocks.

The judge agreed that Heng faced tremendous pressures but
these were "not good excuses" for abusing her maid.

Adult bullies aside, pampered children were also found to
be abusers in an essay-writing survey of 2,000 children in 40 schools in the
republic. Loneliness at home was highlighted as the main cause for kids abusing
their maids.

With their parents at work, many children seek the
attention of their maids by making unreasonable demands.

Child psychiatrist Dr Brian Yeo Kah Loke was quoted in a
news report as saying that "today's child may be in a more powerful position
and the child often knows this. Some even abuse their power."

The Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre expert said some kids
were "condescending" and "when the maids did not entertain them, the children
deemed them as lazy and bad".

Recently, the biggest story in Singapore
was the case of an opposition MP who had sex with his young Indonesian maid
when his pregnant wife was away. He apologised after the news broke out this
year but the pictures of them in compromising positions are still in
cyberspace.

Similarly in Malaysia,
the line between an employer and master is sometimes blurred. Living in a
foreign environment, they are vulnerable to abuses because their choices are
limited.

They have plenty to lose if they have to return home
without any earnings. If they develop a reputation for being a lousy maid, they
risk being sent home.

Abusers of maids, to put in bluntly, are sick people.
They need psychiatric help because they feel that their action is righteous and
justified – which explains their continuous rage at those who fail to carry out
their instructions correctly.

Some may even consider such actions to be a class
struggle, where the abusers perceive themselves to be the masters who own the
maids.

Although there are laws in Malaysia
to protect maids, the Government should consider imposing non-monetary support
for domestic help, such as rest hours, meals and minimum standard of
accommodation.

Instead of sleeping in the kitchen or the hall, maids
should be given a room and a cupboard, for example. These could be quantifiable
benefits agreed upon by employer and maid.

This is better than the suggestion by Deputy Human
Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar who proposed house-to-house checks
to prevent maid abuse.

We can enhance our laws to prevent abuses but ultimately
it's our attitude as employers that will be of paramount importance. It's a
question of how fellow human beings should treat each other and vice-versa.

Some of us, I am sure, have also heard stories of their
maids taking advantage of them.

But I know of many Malaysians who spoke of friendships
forged with maids and how many of them continue to keep in touch by mail after
their contracts have ended.

In one case, the employer named his newborn child after
his maid because of the genuine joy and love of the husband and wife for their
Indonesian maid.

In yet another case, a husband and wife took their
Filipino maid on holiday every year, travelling business class with them. After
they migrated to New Zealand,
they went to great lengths to get the maid to join them in their new home.

To the couple, she is more than a maid – she is a family
member.

What is exasperating for the long line of law-abiding
motorists is that so many others simply jump the queue and create a second lane
to turn right. This is not only dangerous but causes further delay in traffic
movement for those who follow the traffic rules.

To add insult to injury, on more than one occasion, I
have seen traffic policemen on their motorcycles simply ride past all this
without so much as a warning, let alone a traffic ticket, being given to the
errant motorists.

The only "safe" conclusion to be drawn from this is that
it is all right to break traffic rules; not only does it get you to your
destination faster, it also makes law-abiding citizens look foolish.

It is time these errant motorists are taken to task
before too many decent citizens start to think the law actually sanctions, or
is blind to, such behaviour.

LAW-ABIDING-FOR-NOW
Ipoh, Perak.

The buses are run by 10 companies, including a
quasi-public company, and the result is that Curitiba's
buses carry 50 times the number of passengers compared to 20 years ago but the
people only spend about 10% of their yearly income on transport.

Curitiba has
caught the attention of many city planners because it gives public transport
the highest priority, not just in the number of buses but also in its traffic
dispersal system.

Dr Khir has very good reasons to visit this city because
a major factor why Selangor has such a large number of unwanted low-cost houses
is the location of these housing schemes.

Despite a three-day low-cost housing expo last week,
there was little interest among house-seekers. Dr Khir has adopted a more
cautious approach following a barrage of criticism against him for suggesting
that low-cost houses be sold to the rich.

The proposal created headlines. It was not just
politically incorrect but could lead to the poor being squeezed out of owning
property. There is nothing to stop a factory owner or a college owner from
buying up available units for their workers or students.

Dr Khir has asked for a report on why there were not many
takers. The reasons are obvious – the houses were built outside prime
commercial areas and, naturally, places of work.

I know of an office assistant who has rented out his
low-cost house, obtained through the support of his colleagues, because it is
just too far from his work place. He has continued to stay in a squatter area.

Then there is a clerk who complained that he applied for
a low-cost house from the state government but was turned down. He submitted
appeals to his MP and also sought the help of his colleagues.

He insisted that he must given a flat in his former
squatter area, which is making way for a mixed residential area of medium and
low-cost houses.

Eventually, it was revealed that he was not telling the
truth. His brother, whom he is staying with, was given a low-cost flat as
compensation.

He is still talking of injustices from the government to
his listeners. His friends also found out that he had turned down offers for
low-cost houses in Bangi (he works in Petaling Jaya).

There have been reports of house-buyers who manage to get
their choice of low-cost houses under the quotas allocated to politicians.
Naturally, politicians would reward their supporters as a form of patronage.

These successful applicants, in all fairness, are not
rich people but mainly low-income earners but they are said to have an
advantage over others because they are grassroots supporters.

While various proposals have been made to make low-cost
houses more appealing to the public, the authorities need to seriously improve
our public transport system.

In Tokyo, Singapore
and London, the public live outside
the cities, travelling to work by train, sometimes for over two hours. However,
the trains and buses are efficient, and the feeder system is good, unlike those
in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang.

Low-cost houses, whether we like it or not, cannot be
built in prime areas because the land would be too expensive. It is just not
feasible to build a flat for RM45,000 in Petaling Jaya.

Those who have spent RM800,000 to RM1.2mil on a high-end
property also do not want a low-cost housing scheme near their homes, even if
the cross-subsidy system is used.

But the question of distance would be resolved if a
decent public transport system is in place. Last week, Transport Minister Datuk
Chan Kong Choy said Malaysia
had the lowest number of public transport users in Asia.

In an interview with a Chinese newspaper, he said that
only 16% of the people used public transport in Kuala
Lumpur compared with 60% in Seoul,
56% in Singapore
and 30% in Bangkok.

Chan said that bad service was among the reasons cited for
commuters shying away from public transport.

He said the Government was looking into ways to improve
the public transport system in the Klang
Valley.

Looking at the situation objectively, the public
transport system has improved in recent years.

However, there is a need to divert traffic from the city
centres to allow better movement of buses. More bus terminals, with good bus
connections, should be set up on the periphery to ensure frequent access to
residential areas.

Having the best network of commuter trains or light rail
trains without an efficient feeder system would serve no purpose.

We have the most impressive buildings in Putrajaya but if
a tourist were to ask me to suggest a cheap and efficient way to travel to the
administrative town, I would be dumbfounded. In fact, public transport is a
major complaint among residents there.

But no one should be faulted if they think that Thaksin
does not have an answer to what's happening in the provinces of Haadyai, Yala,
Pattani and Narathiwat, which are close to the border with Malaysia.

These are towns that are familiar to many Malaysians,
especially those living in Penang, Perlis, Kedah or
Kelantan, who would have driven through these areas on trips into Thailand.

Having relatives in Haadyai, the second largest Thai
city, security issues in these areas have always been of interest to me. With
great appreciation and admiration for the Thai culture, I had the opportunity
to learn the Thai language, its history and politics while studying at
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

My interaction with the people of south Thailand
continues until today with the editors of The Nation, the largest English
newspaper in Thailand, who are also mostly from southern Thailand.

The paper's most vocal critic against Thaksin's handling
of the south must be deputy group chief editor Kavi Chongkittavorn, who grew up
in Haadyai but did his secondary education in Penang.

With a better grasp of the sentiments in the south, these
journalists have long warned Thaksin, a northerner, of the simmering
frustrations in these border towns by writing extensively on the frustrations
there, but the Thai leadership ignored them.

In January, Thaksin deployed three senior ministers to
deal with the time-bomb in southern Thailand
after an army depot was raided by 30 gunmen of at least 100 weapons, mostly
M-16 automatics. In the incident, three Buddhist monks and two students were
killed by unknown assailants.

Thai Defence Minister Thammarak Isarangkura was then
quoted as saying that ''now that the bandits have gone berserk, our men must
become crazed too to fight them''.

Instead of adopting a strategy to win the hearts and
minds of the people in the south, Thaksin decided on a law-and-order approach. Some
schools were reportedly ordered closed while 21 schools were set ablaze as the
army decided on more firepower.

On Jan 5, Thaksin declared martial law in Narathiwat,
Yala and Pattani but, two days later, gunmen armed with grenades and assault
weapons attacked a police station near Betong in Yala.

On March 27, bombs hidden in motorcycles exploded outside
a bar in Golok and wounded 30 people, including Malaysians.

This sledgehammer treatment has raised serious concerns
because in the absence of clear objectives, the tough talk from the Thai
authorities would only serve to alienate the people of southern Thailand.

The killing of the rebels at the mosque is likely to
harden the attitude of the people towards the government. A much better way
would have been to flush out these rebels instead of resorting to such harsh
action. The army could have also sought the help of local Muslim leaders to
pacify them first.

The army chief responsible for the shoot order has been
recalled by the authorities but it would take some time for the tension to
subside.

Talk to the locals and they will tell you of their fears,
frustrations and resentment – not just against the army and radicals but the
lack of security in the south.

Travellers to southern Thailand
often prefer to use the transport service of Thai drivers because they fear the
robberies and kidnappings that often occur along the highways. Seasoned
travellers would tell you that no one is sure whether the men in uniform are
the good guys or the bad guys.

The people in south Thailand
are worried that these radicals would graduate to become separatists by
exploiting the current political climate.

The majority of the people in southern Thailand,
irrespective of whether they are Buddhists or Muslims, are peace-loving people.
Many have openly expressed their fear that the radical elements may polarise
the communities if the government fails to deal effectively with the problems
there.

More importantly, the Thai government must issue a White
Paper to give details of the 100-over bandits/radicals killed as the group
appeared organised. The authorities in Thailand
would need to provide as much information to its neighbours on the background
of this shadowy group.

As Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi correctly
pointed out, our concern is the spillover effect of the incident, especially
the possibility of people crossing the border to seek refuge.

The incident has had a negative impact on Thailand.
It would also send a wrong message to the global community that the region is
unsafe.

Thaksin needs to handle the situation in the south wisely
and quickly. He can no longer say mai pen rai (no need to worry).