Just over a year ago, a man wearing a bomb concealed in his clothes walked into Paddy's Bar, a popular nightspot for tourists in Bali, Indonesia, and launched a suicide attack. When the survivors fled into the streets, a minivan loaded with 50 kg of explosives went off. The attacks claimed 202 lives and alerted Southeast Asian leaders to the threat that terrorism posed to their region. Governments have mobilized against the danger, but their actions have been sporadic at best.
Until Bali, terrorism was considered a threat to other countries. While the Philippines had battled a Muslim insurgency for years and Singapore and Malaysia, in the aftermath of 9/11 had cracked terrorist cells within their midst, Indonesia and Thailand preferred to turn a blind eye. The price of that neglect became clear on Oct. 12, 2002.
Thailand was even slower to react. Worried about the potential damage to its tourism industry, the Bangkok government denied that there were terrorists in the country. The arrest of several Muslims in the south earlier this year put an end to that fiction (although some questioned whether the arrests were proof of a new commitment to fight terrorism or an attempt to score points with the Bush administration). The arrest of Hambali, the highest ranking Southeast Asian in the al-Qaeda network and the mastermind behind many of its operations, ended any doubts about the threat and Bangkok's readiness to confront it. Vigilance has increased as Bangkok prepares for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit it will host this week. Authorities are especially concerned about rumors that terrorists have acquired surface-to-air missiles that they may use against incoming airliners.