Looking around the world today, it seems that chaos is everywhere: the bombing in Bali, another in the shopping district of southern Philippines, the ongoing sniper saga in the US, the tensions in the Middle East, an Africa gripped by the horror of AIDS and poverty, the nightmare of financial uncertainty in Southern America.
Problems such as this will always endure as long as we're dealing with the unpredictability of the human spirit. There will always be murderers, always be people who are trying to take advantage of others, always be disease and death. That's just how God has created this world.
Should it then make me feel guilty to be living in the relative peace of Malaysia?
The peace that we have in Malaysia: has it come at a cost? We've been told that giving up some of our civil liberties has been the price that we need to pay to live peacefully in a multi-racial society. The disaster of 1969 still burns fresh in the memories of my parents and they remind me of it each time the Opposition parties make some noise about the ISA or the lack of freedom of speech.
But is it worth it? Worth the threat of imprisonment without trial, worth the cries of ridicule from the international community for our "draconian" laws?
Honestly, i don't know. Being as apolitical as i am, i can honestly say that i should never fear the ISA - it just wouldn't apply to me. But i should care about how it affects my fellow Malaysians, shouldn't i? How it breaks up families, how it takes fathers away from their children, husbands from wives. That should matter to me, i know it should. But it just doesn't, or at least, not enough for me to agree that the price of peace is the chaos of a few freedoms.
