Selfish terrorists defy the will of the people
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There have been many words used to describe Friday’s hotel bombings in Jakarta. The US called them “vicious”, the EU said they were “brutal”, Japan described them as “abominable”, and Italy referred to them as “detestable”. I would like to add another; “selfish”. These attacks were utterly selfish.
Many countries around the world have suffered the atrocities of terrorism. There are various reasons behind each incident; some of the assaults can be argued (not by me or anyone at TDA, I hasten to add) as acts of war - fighting for the future of a country, or fighting against oppression and occupation. Such arguments are tenuous at best, especially when targeting innocent civilians, but the argument remains.
The acts in Jakarta however, displayed none of these factors. They were acts of pure destruction; fighting for nothing, and running contrary to the will of the overwhelming majority of people. Indonesia’s 240 million people had just re-elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a second term in office by a landslide vote. The country has showed incredible progress in recent years, with analysts predicting that its economy may triple in size by 2015. Following China and India, Indonesia is the country people are now looking toward to drive Asian, and global growth. By reaffirming President Yudhoyono as the person to take the country forward, the Indonesian people stated their desire to pursue this dream of economic strength and prosperity.
These bombings were an attempt to destroy this dream. Seeing that the vast majority of Indonesians want to build a prosperous future, these terrorists tried to destroy that simply because it wasn’t what they wanted. This was the act of a child stamping its feet, and breaking another’s toys. These were utterly selfish acts.
It is always sad when people feel the need to fight against something, instead of for a cause. By definition, this is a destructive notion, and the smoke and debris from the Jakarta bombings signify not only a destructive act, but a destructive ideology. One only hopes that the terrorist masterminds are caught before they can do further harm to the will of the Indonesian people.
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