O

nce again a sickening feeling engulfs us as we witness the death and destruction of the latest terror attack, injuring some 120 people and killing at least 20 including an Indonesian woman among several foreign nationals.

Bangkok is among favorite nearby getaways for tourists in the region, just like Bali, which experienced two major bombing attacks in 2002 and 2005. In 2002 alone, 202 were killed, mostly Australian tourists, and the next blast showed us that terrorists'€™ targets were random '€” foreign and domestic, Muslims and non-Muslims.

The Balinese experienced first-hand how tourism, a major contributor to the island'€™s economy, was slow to return to the level prior to the terrorist attacks despite aggressive efforts to lure back visitors. Bangkok residents will similarly fall victim to the bombing of late Monday as more than 20 countries immediately issued travel advisories.

The Bangkok blasts are also reminiscent of similar incidents including that in June on a Tunisian beach which killed nearly 40, mostly Western tourists. Residents in the Middle East also continuously lose loved ones to murder in the name of God.

No one has claimed responsibility for the Bangkok attacks while investigators have released a sketch of their primary suspect, who is a man seen on CCTV leaving the site of the bombing near the popular Erawan shrine in the city'€™s downtown area after leaving behind a backpack. Even the motives are still baffling. Experts say the easy scapegoats of Muslims from southern Thailand have never struck the capital, while factions and supporters of Bangkok'€™s continuously fractured political elite would not target a shrine, let alone one where locals pray daily.

Nevertheless, the message of the Aug. 17 attacks is chilling, as in the attacks on popular and dense tourist spots '€” that intelligence is weak and security is lax compared to the ability of at least one man to wreak such major damage and loss of life, and compared to the last decade of supposedly improved regional and global collaboration between police and investigators in fighting terrorism.

In such a situation no one feels safe, and for a while at least, people may welcome heightened security measures as witnessed in the wake of the 2001 attacks on the US. Yet there have still been too many attacks on civilians across many countries this year alone, nearly 15 years after 9/11, whether involving cross-border networks or small groups of terrorists, even lone actors.

Indonesians have found out the painful way that one obstacle in that war has been the denial of sufficiently fertile ground for homegrown terrorism, whether those involved are of low or high education, rich or poor backgrounds, inspired by either foreign or domestic figures. We do not know at this point what factors lay behind the carnage in Bangkok.

We can only convey our condolences to all victims, their families and residents of Bangkok, and hope for much better collaboration among the authorities, if necessary under an ASEAN counterterrorism cooperation scheme, in preventing further attacks anywhere.