NEXT WORLD WAR IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE, SAYS FORMER FM

KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 (Bernama) -- A third world war could not be ruled out
as it might be caused by non-state actors, said former foreign minister
Syed Hamid Albar.

Non-state actors were more in the form of extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda,
new facist groups or pro-Nazi groups where some operated under the guise of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), he said.

"I think, from the way we look at it, we must register in our mind that
(third
world war)...is not impossible. So, there are a lot of new configurations that
you must look (into). You cannot simply look at the conventional third world war
in a conventional sense.

"And the worst thing is that we are looking at non-state actors. It is more
difficult...we cannot see non-state actors as they are borderless and can bring
destruction anywhere," Syed Hamid, who had also served as defence and home
minister, told reporters here Thursday.

Earlier, he delivered a keynote address at the one-day International
Conference on World War ll and the Rise of Multilateralism at the Kuala Lumpur
Convention Centre, organised by the World Future, a Malaysia-based Islamic
online portal.

Syed Hamid said there was a need to teach the culture of peace,
understanding and tolerance in the educational curriculum, to make the world
easily manageable.

"Victor or victim, war is a great waste to both sides. But the world seems
not to have learned from history since we are still witnessing violation of
sovereignty, oppression of the human rights, military invasions and operation,
coup d'etat and other manifests of intolerance, injustice and brutality," he
said.

-- BERNAMA