Society, individual also part of security

Koo Jin Shen
BRUNEI-MUARA

SECURITY is not just about national defence. It is about something as mundane as water to the thirsty, a visiting academic from Leeds University said in his keynote address at the 10th ASEAN Inter-University Seminar at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).

Victor King, emeritus professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the northern England university said that when it came to security "we tend to think in terms of nations, international relations and strategic matters between nation states".

In an interview with The Brunei Times, King said that a national government might make a decision about public spending or taxation in the national interest from the government's perspective.

However, by doing so it might "cut across" an individual's perception of security.

"It is a complex matter," the visiting professor at the Institute of Asian Studies said.

He added that from his perspective as a sociologist and anthropologist, he was more concerned about security on an individual or community basis.

"We shouldn't just think about human security in national or regional terms, but also in local and community terms as well.

"There is an increasing concern that the world through globalisation is becoming more complex, with all kinds of decisions which affect us."

He observed that while organisations such as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) ensured a reasonable level of peace and prosperity in the region, at the community level there were all kinds of problems.

King said Brunei was not isolated when it came to the issue of human security, even though it has vast natural oil and gas resources and suffered from no overt issues of ethnic conflict and poverty like those afflicting other countries.

He cautioned that the availability of basic resources, such as water, would become increasingly important as the effects of climate change begins to bite.

Dipetik dari - The Brunei Times