Taming the terrorism devil

Source:china daily

Terrorism poses a grave threat to people's lives and properties in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, as well as the socio-economic development of the region and the rest of China. To ensure the safety and security of the people, the fight against terrorists has to be intensified in accordance with law. And there should be no leniency.

This strong message was conveyed by Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu in his speech to the national anti-terrorism conference in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, on Thursday. Meng has adopted the right attitude toward the series of terrorist attacks that claimed many an innocent's life in the region recently.

As the minister said, the fight against terrorism in China's western autonomous region will be long and hard because the situation there is complicated. A group of extremists and separatists is hell-bent on denying that the autonomous region is part of China and stability is crucial to the socio-economic development of the region. They use every means, terror included, to fan passions and turn one ethnic group against another without even thinking that good relationship between different ethnic groups is a prerequisite for peaceful and decent life for all.

Terrorists have assumed that their political appeal will provide the rationale for their criminal activities. But they are wrong. Nothing can justify their evil design to deprive the residents of the right to a decent and better life, and their ruthless violence and killing of innocent civilians. So they have to be thwarted in their designs.

But a crackdown on terrorists alone is not a permanent solution. A lot more efforts have to be made in other fields to eliminate terrorism from the roots.

We have to create a social net right from the grassroots level. That explains why Meng emphasized that the departments of the autonomous region government have no choice but to do a better job in social community construction and compulsory education both in urban and rural areas. If the majority of residents of different ethnic groups support the fight against terrorism, the maneuvering space of terrorists will be considerably narrowed.

But this is easier said than done. Efforts must first be made to improve the lives of residents of all ethnic groups to ensure that they get to share the fruits of the country's economic development. Government officials at all levels should be honest, maintain a modest working style and make down-to-earth efforts to solve people's problems.

Places where government work is sloppy and residents cannot meet their needs are fertile breeding grounds for terrorism.

But once residents start benefiting from economic reform and development, they will understand the relationship between stability and development. Therefore, the battle against terrorism has to be fought on two fronts: crackdown and development.