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People's Insecurity Feeding Extremism
By Azlan Othman in Helsinki

Bandar Seri Begawan - His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam underlined two expectations the sixth Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) that ended Monday had to fulfill, one with each other as governments made up of ideas, projects, proposals and commitments while the other was with the people we all represent.

In elaborating the first expectation in his lead speech at the second closed session on the second day of the summit on "Dialogue Among Cultures and Civilisations" at the ASEM Summit at the Helsinki Fair Centre, His Majesty thought that the first expectation was going well indeed while for the other they hear little that gives them confidence in their own future and that of their families and communities.

"They sense, I feel, that they are losing any purposeful sense of identity. Some are convinced that the modern world does not respect them nor their values, nor their faiths. And we all know how dangerous this can be and how it is being used by extremists.

"So in my view as far as ASEM is concerned, it has to do much more in terms of helping people feel more confident and secure about the real 2151 Century they witness and its demands on them and how they can live in it successfully.

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"In other words, we need to make our ordinary citizens feel more hopeful and optimistic about themselves and others," the ruler said.

"In the process of doing so, we need to address all aspects of the security spectrum such as political, economic and cultural and ASEM has some good things under way.

"Intercultural and interfaith dialogues for example are excellent. We have long supported this. In this regard, I would like to congratulate Indonesia, Britain, Cyprus and Malaysia for co-hosting the last two dialogues.

"But it must move on and we need to come up with practical activities. Without overly challenging the educational establishment, we can as governments encourage certain curriculum elements in the schools we license and certain requirements in teaching training institutions.

"We can encourage exchanges between Asian and European schools and universities at student level. We can step up exchanges and chances to learn and understand each other by giving young people chances to experience directly life in different communities," said His Majesty.

"We have hosted several ASEM projects related to youth, and I feel they have brought many benefits to our young people. We will continue to organise similar projects in the coming years," he added.

"We hope to bring together students and youth to exchange ideas and experiences, and to better understand and appreciate each other's cultures and values." -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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