PM Abdullah has called on Malaysians to learn from Dr Azahari’s example and eschew violence, over here. He says, among other things:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in urging Malaysians to refrain from resorting to violence, said Azahari was a good lecturer who had chosen the path of self-destruction.

The path of self-destruction. Isn’t that tautological? Because if you’re a suicide bomber you will, by definition, blow yourself up. What self-destruction is he talking about? And these suicide bombers desire their own self-destruction, they want to go up in flames and little pieces for the greater glory of whatever brand of pot they’re on at the given time. It isn’t going to help us very much if we’re told not to be suicide bombers, is it?


What about dealing with the antecedents to such a turn of mind? Maybe it’s not so much of a gaff on the PM’s part, but really, what can he do? You become politicized, you believe in something that’s told to, and when you believe in something with enough conviction, you go out there, sell flowers like a Jehovah Witness, go to temple devotely or, in the case of Azahari, make little bombs that blow up big holes.

Is ideology the enemy? I don’t know, what do you think? I think we are the enemy, the collective “we”, the people, the ones who choose to believe this or that. We believe, therefore we pray, therefore we speak out and therefore we bomb other people in the name of whatever justification becomes convenient at the time.

Is there really, I mean really, a distinction between a person who blows himself up, and a patriot? I’ve been called an ass for thinking there isn’t a difference, because after all, suicide bombers hold to an outmoded credo, or they kill innocents, or the usual characterizations we reserve for despots and serial killers. It’s always a matter of perception, isn’t it?

And so what was Azahari thinking when he joined up with that gang of thugs (ooh, brittle characterization again), the JI fellas? That’s what we should be paying attention to, don’t you think?