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Important questions and concerns about Malaysia’s stand in the war against terrorism must be addressed by  a full debate if Parliament is not to be shockingly remiss in failing to confront one of the most burning issues of the country and the world Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Penang, Saturday): DAP is strongly of the view that Parliament should not end its two-month parliamentary meeting next week without holding a comprehensive debate on the threat and challenge of terrorism after the September 11 and Bali terrorist attacks, or it would have abdicated from its fundamental responsibility as the highest political forum in the country to discuss the most urgent and contemporaneous issues facing  the nation and people. Important questions and concerns about Malaysia’s stand in the war against terrorism must be addressed by  a full debate if Parliament is not to be shockingly remiss in failing to confront one of the most burning issues of the country and the world.    In such a comprehensive debate, the government would have the opportunity to clarify the various confusing and conflicting signals it had sent out about its position on  the threat and challenge  of terrorism in the country, the region and the world  as well as provide a national sounding-board to ventilate and focus on the primary concerns of Malaysians on this issue.   Among the questions about the threat and challenge of terrorism which Parliament should focus on is to ascertain the  government stand on Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and  Jemaah Islamiyah.   The following motley of events for instance yield a most  confusing, ambivalent and even contradictory picture of the Malaysian government’s stand on the threat of terrorism:   The Thursday statement by the  Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that Osama bin Laden had “succeeded beyond his wildest dreams” by creating global fear and raising the possibility of a clash between Muslims and non-Muslims;  Malaysia’s agreement to host the US-Malaysia anti-terrorism centre in the country;  International media reports, including the Asian Wall Street Journal on Thursday,  that the Bali bomb blasts on Oct. 12 which killed more than 190 people was planned from locations in southern Thailand near the Malaysian border in January this year by al-Qaeda’s top South East Asian operative, Riduan Isamuddin better known as Hambali,  after a  plot to bomb US, Israeli and other targets in Singapore was foiled in late 2001.  Increasing warnings by security agencies in various countries, the latest from the worldwide police authority Interpol that al Qaeda militants seem to be preparing a major operation involving simultaneous attacks in several countries at the same time with the field of battle stretching to all countries and mobilizing several terrorist groups.  Mahathir’s repeated  call to the Muslim states to  use oil as a weapon to protect their interests against the West and the developed countries.  The  terrorist attack of  the Petronas-chartered French supertanker Limburg in Yemen early last month, which Mahathir  earlier claimed  was caused by “short-circuit”, but which was later associated with al-Qaeda and even believed in some quarters  to be aimed at Malaysia.  The statement by the Deputy Home Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin in Parliament a fortnight ago that the government has no intention of imposing a ban on sales of T-shirts or toys depicting Osama bin Laden.   It is not fruitful to speculate whether Malaysia will soon have the tantalizing spectacle of  a  US-Malaysia anti-terrorist centre in the country manned by personnel wearing Osama bin Laden T-shirts, but there is no doubt about the confusing and contradictory signals emanating from the series of contradictory stands taken by the Malaysian government on the issue, which should be put to rest with a full and comprehensive debate on the issue in Parliament. (9/11/2002) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman