As I have mentioned many times before, the main scourge infesting the coastal areas of the Sulu Sea, at least those areas along the eastern sea coast of Sabah, is not terrorism in the modern or contemporary sense, but the essentially old-fashioned piracy and kidnapping for ransom. But why the seemingly hair-splitting distinction above between “modern” and “contemporary” terrorism (both of which, as I argued above, are again dissimilar to what is essentially a piracy problem affecting us all)? Before that period, so-called “modern” terrorist acts were often committed with “pragmatic,” somewhat “achievable,” albeit ideological and political, goals in mind. The exchange would take place there, with the terrorists and their comrades later granted either asylum or safe passage by the “exchange” country. These sorts of almost surreal “modern” terrorist acts are indeed rare nowadays.

Source: Manila Times July 04, 2017 16:18 UTC