The New Straits Times, January 7, 2001
Prof. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
WELCOME to the Third Millennium. There is a sense of deja vu in this message. Was it not at the same time last year that we heard the same greeting? What has become of it? Opinions on this differ.
According to one person, "the idea of the millennium at 2000 is one of the most stupid things I’ve ever heard".
This is what scientist and author Arthur C. Clarke (now Sir) has to say: "We had only 99 years of this century by Jan 1, 2000; we have to wait until Dec 31 for the full hundred".
This is because the western calendar starts with Year One and not Year Zero, as zero had not yet been introduced by the Arabs. Clarke must be right; after all, his name is synonymous with year 2001. He co-wrote the screenplay of Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. He is the ‘Millennium Man’, exclaimed Time Web-only Exclusive (Dec 28, 2000).
Unlike the year 2000 celebration, this time around the celebration lacks the worldwide millennium madness. No new major structures and icons are being erected to commemorate the day. Instead one of the most prominent icons, the Millennium Dome in London, was closed on Jan 1. The Dome, a characteristic white marquee (white elephant to some!) erected on the banks of the Thames River, finally closed its doors to the public after the 999th and last performance of the Millennium Show. It marked the final act in a "falsely" declared millennium year in front of a crowd of almost 30,000.
But this is not the only incident which mars the occasion. The discovery of nearly two million tonnes of explosives scattered all over Germany by Allied pilots during World War II indicates how violent the last millennium has been.
Still, much remains hidden in Germany and it will require decades more to clear them. They include an array of anti-aircraft missiles, incendiary bombs and hand grenades. Many toxic chemical weapons were introduced and tested during the war, too.
A conservative estimate puts the number of deaths during World War II at 50 million, making the six-year struggle the bloodiest in history. But the figure may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Some reports claim that at least 180 million people perished in wars or human-engineered tragedies, such as Mao’s infamous ‘Great Leap Forward’ campaign to redesign China’s agricultural system that resulted in prolonged famine.
Indeed, even during 2000 the turbulence remained unabated in terms of human suffering and lives lost. Afghanistan, mired in a decade-long civil war, sank deeper. In Sri Lanka, the violence also remains.
In occupied Palestine, violence erupted as the New Year dawned, taking more than 300 lives. Five people reportedly died in fighting on the morning itself.
Ethnic cleansing took centre-stage again in Europe, the heart of so-called modern civilisation. In fact, historians are quoted as saying "no other century suffered more sheer slaughter".
Closer to home was the wave of bomb blasts in the Philippines on Dec 30 which left 22 dead and 120 wounded. Then there was Indonesia, its economy crumbling and violence spreading.
While Malaysians are spared such intense violence, the al Ma’unah incident did take the country by surprise.
But then there are other forms of violence which occur more frequently, namely those related to health. For example, in March in Sarawak, hand, foot and mouth (HFM) disease struck about 500 children. Fortunately there were no deaths.
A month later in Penang, malaria reared its ugly head affecting mostly Indonesians. Then in the Klang Valley there were cases of measles affecting about 100 children, putting into question the implementation of the vaccination programme in the area.
In September in Kelantan, was the cholera epidemic involving children especially in Kota Baru and Tumpat. In October, a HFM outbreak was seen in Johor with 300 cases and several deaths reported.
Though most of these incidents were well handled, the fact that they happened as we approached the new millennium is disturbing.
More so was the revelation that a 47-year-old housewife was given HIV-contaminated blood in Jitra Hospital on April 29. This was attributed to human error, leading to another disclosure of a similar case occurring a few years earlier in a Pahang Felda community.
Thus, while year 2001, dubbed ‘Y2K+1’, is virus-free with no Y2K hysteria, the real situation seems to be no less safe. According to a study released by the US National Defence Council Foundation (a non-partisan think-tank created in 1978) recently (NST, Jan 3), in today’s world there are many civil conflicts of low intensity -- fought primarily with small arms by using guerilla forces instead of tanks and
artillery.
Overall, the number of conflicts globally has increased by three to 68 since 1999. The study noted "a dangerous increase of instability in South and Central Asia, where the number of conflicts had gone up to 10 last year, from six in 1997".
Unlike Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, this is no figment of the imagination. It could even be more frightening given Clarke’s latest prediction published in the British newspaper, the Observer.
Clarke suggests that computer keyboards and voice recognition software, which could be used in virtual low-intensity conflicts, might be replaced by ‘brain caps’ which allow signals to be passed directly to the brain bypassing all the body’s organs.
Although he did not elaborate how the brain cap will work (preferring to leave it to the biotechnicians), what is certain is the new century will experience unprecedented scientific and technological innovations. Some will definitely be abused and utilised for violent purposes.
Clarke may have fallen short in some of his predictions before. For example, there is still no computer as infallible as the mainframe HAL 9000 envisaged in 2001. However, there is no denying that the great advances technology today are spin-offs from warfare technology.
In other words, the world can never be safe even in Y2K + X should human beings still possess the archaic mindset of violence and destruction of the last millennia.
