Extremist Groups Could Cause Third World War

Extremist groups such as Al-Qa'ida, pro-Nazi and racial extremists hiding behind Non-Governmental Organizations may cause the Third World War in the future. Former Foreign Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar revealed, the Third World War is not impossible as it may be launched by the extremist groups who are not bound by boundaries and would bring destruction to anywhere.

Messages of Hatred and Conflicts
These groups employ sophisticated technology to spread messages of hatred and conflicts. Their weapons may not as high-end as the arsenal of military forces, but the destruction could be terrifying, he said. He said so when met after he delivered his keynote address in the International Conference on the Second World War and Emergence of Multilateralism organized by World Futures International Pte. Ltd. (Worldfuture). Also present was the organizer of the conference, Mustafa Latif.

The one-day conference featured 13 working papers from antiwar activists from the United States, the Netherlands, Turkey, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. About 200 participants attended the conference. Among the speakers who had presented their working papers were Prof Dr Hasan Yahya from the US, Professor Albert Jansen from the Netherlands and former Chief the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF), General (B) Tan Sri Mohammad Hashim Ali.

US and Al-Qa'ida
Syed Hamid said, the situation had happened right now between the US and Al-Qa'ida as the former is now pursuing the group all the way to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Middle Eastern countries. This can be a start for a bigger war between superpowers and those groups, he said.

Syed Hamid stressed, he predicted a war between nations would also happen like the war in Balkan countries which involved different ethnic groups in the same country or neighboring countries. He stressed, it was out of the expectation of the whole world when the war erupted in Balkan countries which witnessed massive killing of Muslims.

How to Prevent?
The key step to prevent war in this world is to establish more regional organizations such as ASEAN and so on because these organizations will forge cooperation and can resolve problems by means of the good relationship between two countries. "I believe such regional organizations are the best forum to resolve all problems between neighboring countries," he stressed.

He said, the world also has a proper mechanism to prevent war, that is, to use the media, whether it is mainstream or alternative media. He said, the mechanism needs to be use to educate the world inhabitants about the culture of peace, mutual understanding and give-and-take, as well as the culture of a society.

Violating Human Rights
With regards to the Second World War, Syed Hamid said, the world had never learned from the destruction and sufferings caused by the Second World War which had killed approximately 60 million people, including 40 million civilians. He said, war must not be made as a tool to resolve any differences and conflicts. There is no winner or loser in a war because both sides will suffer losses.

Today we still witness people encroaching on others' sovereignty and violating human rights, he said. He added, the United Nations was founded as a means to prevent war but it had not achieved its goal as it failed to prevent and deal with military conflicts within a nation and between nations.