Controlling the terrorism genie.

THIS is with reference to the article 'Revamping Nacta' (Jan 14). There is every reason to revamp and re-energise the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), giving it the lead role in our effort to control the genie of terrorism.

Unfortunately, we happen to be a short-sighted nation of even more short-sighted leaders. Since the end of the Afghan jihad in the late 1980s, we could not realise what could be the repercussions of getting involved in that conflict.

Likewise, after 9/11, we could not sustain pressure from the United States and had to become its partners in its so-called 'war on terror' to fight against our own trained jihadis; this time labelling them as 'terrorists'. This resulted in colossal damage to us in terms of lives, infrastructure and economy.

Unfortunately, we could not learn a lesson and the situation is the same after a lapse of almost half a century. There is no doubt that we are just about managing our day-to-day situation, but there is also no doubt that we are unable to strategise our response to the root cause of the problem.

Today, we are not able to differentiate between government policies and state priorities. The government policies are fluctuating from time to time owing to political expediencies. This happens at the expense of state priorities, and this is the root cause of all of our issues and miseries.

Also, the responsibility...