Just look around you… the increasing security everywhere you turn… the heightening restrictions on the ordinary things we once partook of with impunity. They now impinge on the little things we thought nothing of in the past - no liquids on planes, no photograph-taking at MRT stations, pre-entry body checks and reporting at many buildings, no loitering here or there, no this, no that... and don’t you dare utter that dirty word ‘bomb’ within earshot of a security officer, even if in jest!
Is this the price we minions-among-the-masses are paying for the war on terror? We are having the simple liberties we once enjoyed and have always taken for granted being robbed from us, one by one. We are losing our freedom and our innocence! It is frustrating.
In recent weeks, the forum pages of the Straits Times have published letters from readers lamenting such broadening restrictions.
One reader, an avid photographer, complained about being restrained from taking pictures at an MRT station when he had all along been pursuing such activity without incident. Another bemoaned having his group of plane-spotting enthusiasts rudely chased away from a pedestrian overhead bridge (and a public one at that!) simply because they were there to gawk at planes taxiing on a nearby taxiway at Changi airport.
Not long ago, a mother and her family were detained from boarding their flight for their holiday and were questioned for hours all because the mother was overheard uttering the word ‘bomb’ as she explained to her young inquiring son why they needed to go through all the pre-boarding security checks.
And only a few days ago, the CAAS issued a statement that photograph-taking of the airport tarmac and other airport areas is not allowed, which means snapping that aircraft of yours prior to boarding, a casual habit of many a traveler and aircraft enthusiast including myself, now joins the list of many a forbidden activity.
Then there are the hours of inconvenience and delays thousands of travelers worldwide have been subjected to from time to time all because certain psychotic miscreants decide to exploit the prevailing paranoia to create mischief by scribbling threatening words like ‘bomb’ on aircraft toilet mirrors or leaving cryptic messages on slips of paper tucked inside aircraft seat pockets.
Osama and his kalashnikov-toting cronies must be enjoying these moments…
If the civilized countries that champion freedom and liberty are now witnessing the simple freedoms and liberties of their ordinary citizens being slowly chipped and eroded asunder in the interest of security, then it is terrorism that has scored a victory of sorts, don’t you think so?
