President Obama should start thinking on whether if it is

necessary to pull out from Afghanistan starting now. The

recent bombings in Jakarta clearly showed that he cannot
hope to eradicate religious extremism in Asia. There's no
way that the US can impose its brand of capitalism on the
region.

More than ever in S.E.Asia, the regional governments are still

busily promoting religious and even racial intolerance. While
one religious faction that has official support is allowed to
criticise and lambast others, the others cannot do the same.
Should they try to reply to the attacks made by the offical
faction, they immediately are threatened by the authorities.
The government quickly levels the charge of seditious
behaviour or insulting behaviour and the like at them.
(Reminds one of the US police).

How could Obama ever justify accepting such intolerance in

S. E. Asia while trying his level best to wipe out exactly
this type of intolerance in Afghanistan ? ?

Obama must consider pulling out of Kabul altogether or enter

into negotiations with the Afghan Taliban. The Afghan Taliban
is no worse than the regimes in S.E.Asia. All of them demand
absolute religious supremacy of their own choosing and nothing
less. So, why discriminate against the Taliban ?

The Taliban at least are not hypocrites. They do not boast

about they being worshippers of 'freedom' and 'tolerance',
while practising exactly the opposite. In many nations that
boast about their adherence to 'freedom' and 'tolerance',
their minority citizens are routinely harassed by various
government & semi-government agencies and also by the farcical
ruling bloc politicians who are totally immune to any kind of
action. The Information ministry shamelesssly keeps blaring out
non-stop verminous and malicious anti-minority propaganda. The
minority people are constantly accused of insulting this & that
and instant judgement passed on them in the same breath.

The government claims no censorship but people're always getting

harassed and reminded of offences like 'sedition', 'instigation'
and 'incitement' and other such nonsense. There's a lot of fear
in the air nowadays. People are now fully aware that the ruling
clique is busily conspiring with enforcement people to bring down
the legitimately chosen leaders who were picked by the people in
March 2008. Truly, there is a lot of fear and anxiety in the air
nowadays.

These government(s) blatantly practise bribery and corruption

and even dangle cash and material rewards openly to gain the
desired political support while the society at large have to
grapple with constant shortages of basic commodities like eggs,
sugar, edible oil, flour and adequate housing. Very powerful
monopolies with close connections to the government have been
allowed to control certain industries including the transport
industry. The public bus system has just forced a 40% increase
in fares and nobody has dared to talk about it. The country is
right now severely affected by the A H1N1 pandemic and all the
government could do was to chant 'pig flu', 'pig flu'.

Several of the ruling bloc politicians are deeply involved in

corruption allegations, money siphoning scandals and sex cases
and they are busily challenging and denouncing each other. In
other areas the politicians are promising 'golden child' cash
and material rewards in exchange for votes. What a shame. All
these despite many past complaints about vote buying and vote
rigging. Money politics is always the name of the game.

At the same time, people are dying with clockwork regularity

while they were being detained or brought in for questioning,
yet little or even no objection has been registered. Opposition
politicians especially minority ones are now living in a climate
of fear knowing that they are now been targeted selectively.

Really, leaders like Obama are totally silent to such widespread

abuses but beat their chests when dealing with Yangon, Tehran,
Pyongyang or Caracas. What a shame. Get out of Kabul now and
deal with the dirty and corrupt capitals of S.E.Asia first.

These places are seeing a lot of human rights abuses right now
and at the same time doing a lot of bullshitting and are full
of pretences. The mass media controlled by the ruling bloc is
going full blast every hour on how wonderful things are and
why the citizens should always be eternally grateful to the
ruling bloc yet it is totally blind to the oppression and the
constant harassment meted out to minority groups. The atmosphere
today is actually quite reminiscent of the sixties or seventies.

Minority politicians are constantly facing arrest or threats

of arrest or investigations on allegations made by pro-ruling
class groups. Yet the sources of the false allegations are
never probed by the authorities. This has encouraged the
right-wing groups to hold ralles and gatherings anyhow they
liked and make various kinds of threats against the minority.
And at the same time the pro-ruling bloc press never fails
to fan the flames of hatred. Is this really 'freedom' and
'tolerance' ? Not much different from the Taliban actually.

Obama should get out of Afghanistan and focus on S. E. Asia for

the good of everybody. Stop moaning about Myanmar as the other
countries there are just as bad or even worse. Leave Kabul alone
and allow it to negotiate with the Taliban about Afghanistan's
future.

Obama should not go overboard on places like Myanmar, where the

personalities remain actually very much safer compared to the other
places in S.E. Asia, where minority figures and opposition figures
are unfairly and illegally labelled as 'traitors' and where they
often face dangers from Molotov cocktail throwing Hezbollah-type
extremists who always secretly have the tacit support of the ruling
bloc politicians. Racial and religious extremism is very alive
and well in these places unlike other places like Myanmar. The
person residing in the White House should open his eyes, please !!

The evil and corrupt regime in S. E.Asia should have its dirty
linen washed in public as it has been known to be very fond of
rewriting history to suit its tastes. It is very, very EVIL.

Obama should request the S. E. Asian leaders to clean up their

act and learn to control all forms of extreme religious sentiments
and intolerance. Do not be remembered in history as a leader who
ordered his citizens to go die on the battlefields in Asia but
failed to stand up for the innocent in S. E. Asia. Is this the
vision of a 'better future" ? Hope it isn't.