opinion Admittedly there are genuine concerns for national security, both internal and external, for every country in the world. And this is especially so after the cowardly and despicable Sept 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York.

Besides enhancing security in airports, seaports, military installations and other critical infrastructures, there is also a pressing need for transnational cooperation against international terrorism, including information exchange and intelligence sharing.

However, while endeavouring to upgrade our interstate, technical and technological capacities to combat terrorism, we should also seriously look into two other aspects which are of long-term significance.

One - the eradication of socio-economic and political injustices, not only internationally, but also domestically, that tend to provide breeding grounds for popular sympathies for terrorists.

Two, the prevention of trivialising issues of national security and especially anti-terrorism efforts, by politicians and the mainstream media that have lost public credibility.

It is the second point that this article intends to address as a matter of utmost urgency. As a point of departure, let us begin the discourse with the politically controversial clipping aired over the government-controlled television stations - RTM 1 and RTM 2.

In its unbounded zeal to remind the people of the many 'threats' confronting the country and in order 'to strengthen national resilience', the ministry of information continues to approve the use of psychological signals and images to 'defend the country against foreign powers'.

Conspiracy to invade

Who are the 'foreign powers conspiring' to 'invade' Malaysia?

In the early Cold War years, we might reasonably be convinced that Malaysia might be threatened by Mao Tse-Tung's Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Sukarno's Indonesia, the Philippines, the Soviet Union or the unified Vietnam.

However, there is no more a Soviet Union and its successor state, Russia, is weak in its military and political presence in the Asia-Pacific region because of internal preoccupation with political and economic reforms.

Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are now fellow members of Asean and the Asean Regional Forum (ARF). China has long been accepted as one of our peaceful neighbours and trading partners.

True, there are still some territorial disputes between Malaysia and Indonesia in the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan, but the cases have been referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for amicable settlements. As for the 'hot spots' in the South China Sea, especially around the Spratly Islands, it is a multilateral and complicated issue. No war is imminent in any foreseeable future.

Above all, the defence and external security environment of Malaysia is not that fragile. Malaysia is a member of the Five Power Defence Arrangment (FPDA) whose members includes Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. We also have certain bilateral arrangements, such as the Bilateral Training and Consultative Group (BITACG) programme, with the United States in areas of defence, logistics, and training.

These arrangements of defence co-operation are vital and instrumental in maintaining and preserving regional stability and the genuine national security of Malaysia. They should enjoy bipartisan support.

Major investors

Seen from this perspective, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore are not our enemies, but friends. They are also our major investors, trading partners and the prime destinations of our overseas tertiary students. To imagine any one of them 'invading' and 'occupying' our sovereign territory is simply hilarious.

It is exactly this kind of hilarious messages that cause the erosion, if not complete loss, of credibility of the government's information system.

The Barisan Nasional government is seen attempting desperately to 'score cheap points' by linking the images of real terrorism with to legitimate activities of the parliamentary opposition.

True, some of us may disagree with opposition parties and their leaders, but that is only normal in a democracy. However, to publicly insinuate without evidence that they are 'terrorists' or 'terrorist-linked' would not only cause anger, indignation and contempt, but also erode the political credibility of the government.

The mindless repetition and unnecessary exaggeration of these so-called threats by the many over-zealous politicians only leads to psychological saturation among the people who may treat all 'warnings' and 'cautions' as political gimmicks.

Thus, the trivialisation of national security issues as partisan polemics may win the elections for the ruling parties and their politicians, but it is extremely dangerous for the nation and society in the long run.

While lost seats could be re-gained, destroyed public credibility could evaporate forever for a regime that is based on what political scientist, David Brown terms 'siege legitimacy'. (see David Brown, 'Crisis and Ethnicity: Legitimation in Plural Societies' inThird World Quarterly 7, No.4, 1985; pp.988-1008)

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia. Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.