Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATION 15592). As has been widely recognized, the success ofcertain movements (e.g., collective actions, rebellions)relies heavily on the support of individuals as well ascommunities. By “disseminating” grievances, themovement can recruit supporters more cheaply. Hence,“even where the rationale at the top of the organizationis essentially greed, the actual discourse may be entirelydominated by grievance” (Collier 2000, 92). In relationto terrorism and insurgency utilising terror tactics,Stern observed some types of exposed grievances such asalienation, humiliation, demographic shifts, historicalwrongs and claims over territory (Stern 2003).However, grievance theory collides with Olson’s theoryon the phenomenon of free-riders in a situation ofcollective action (Olson 1971). Since justice is a publicgood (Collier 2000), the movement will face the problemof free-riding. Collier is evocative of the fact that “eventhough everyone is agreed that rebellion is desirable, it iseven more attractive if the costs are borne only by othersand the success of rebellion will not be dependent uponthe participation of any one individual” (Collier 1999).Thus, grievance-based factors are insufficient to driverebellions or collective violence in most cases. This is thecase due to “the non-excludability of the consumptionof justice” (Collier 1999).In view of these problems, Collier looked at theimportant role of economic motives. In order tounderline the contrast to the grievance theory, he calledthis theory “greed theory.” He suggested that it is greedor the economic motive of certain parties that drives aconflict. The greed theory is also regarded as capableof embracing the above problems. As Collier foundby means of empirical cases, the true cause of violentconflicts is “not the loud discourse of grievance, but thesilent force of greed.” In his study of worldwide rebellioncases, he found that “greed considerably outperformsgrievance” (Collier and Hoeffler 2001). In summarizingher case studies of terrorism and insurgency usingterror tactics, Stern (2003, xix) maintained that whatsurprised her most in her research was the “discoverythat the slogans sometimes mask not only fear andhumiliation, but also greed—greed for political power,land or money.”Such approaches are useful when analyzing terrorism andinsurgency using terror tactics. However, there are somecuriosities left concerning the use of such approachesin explaining such terror attacks as suicide bombingsin Indonesia. Hence, this research also attempts to gobeyond these two contending perspectives.Terror attacks and their origins in Indonesia, thePhilippines and ThailandIndonesia, with a total population of 208.8 million in2005, is a Muslim-majority country where Muslimsmake up 87.2 percent of the total population, Christians,6.2 percent; Catholics, 3.3 percent; Hindus, 2.2percent; and Buddhists, 1.1 percent (BPS 2005). ThePhilippines is a Catholic-majority country with a totalpopulation of 76.5 million in 2000, where 84.2 percentof its people are affiliated with the Roman CatholicChurch, 5.4 percent with Protestant denominations,4.6 percent with Islam, 2.6 percent with the PhilippineIndependence Church, 2.3 percent with Iglesia niKristo and 2.2 percent with others (including animism)(Abinales and Amoroso 2005). Thailand’s population ispredominantly Buddhist, numbering to 95 percent ofthe total population of 60.9 million in 2000. Muslimsmake up 4.5 percent of the total population and the restare Christians, Hindus and Sikhs (Abuza 2003).These three countries have experienced numerousterror attacks or terror related actions in the recent past.Some of the attacks in Indonesia were the attacks on16 churches across Indonesia on Chrismas Eve, 2000,resulting in 16 people dead and over 100 injured; theso-called Bali bombing I on October 12, 2002, resultingin 202 people dead and 317 injured; the MarriottHotel attack on August 5, 2002, killing 14 people andinjuring 132 persons; the Australian Embassy attack onSeptember 9, 2004, killing 11 people and injuring tensof others; and the so-called Bali bombing II on October1, 2005, killing 23 people and injuring 148 others.In the Philippines, some of the attacks were a grenadeattack in Zamboanga that killed two female Americanmissionaries; bomb attacks in 1993 targeting amissionary ship, the MV Doules, in Zamboanga;Zamboanga airport, and Catholic churches, injuringseveral people; the kidnapping of three Spanish nunsand a priest in 1994; the kidnapping of 52 teachersand students in Tumahubong, Basilan, in which twoteachers were beheaded; the Sipadan kidnapping of19 foreigners and two Filipinos; the kidnapping of tenWestern journalists (mostly Germans); the kidnappingof three French journalists in 2000; the kidnapping ofthree Americans and 17 Filipinos at Dos Palmas Resort(Palawan) on May 27, 2001; the SuperFerry 14 bombingin 2004 that killed 118 people and injured hundredsof others; and the Makati, Davao and General Santosbombings in February 2005 that killed 13 people andinjured 140 others.Some of the attacks in Thailand were the attack on threeAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows