THE CLOUDS of conflict looming over Iraq have brought Asians on to the streets for a series of peace demonstrations on a scale not seen since the Vietnam War. But Iraq is not in the region's backyard, so why are anti-war passions running so high?
There is little social outcry over drug trafficking, child prostitution and smuggling, as rampant now as they ever were. Only sporadically is there some semblance of a united voice and even then it is not truly regional - soccer fever during last year's World Cup tournament or occasional flashes of anti-Japanese sentiment.
But Iraq is surely far removed from our radar. Why, then, are we apparently as inflamed with anti-war passion as many Europeans and North Americans?
Such a question would seem readily answered in the case of Muslim nations like Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, where support for the Middle East has always been strong. The Philippines and Sri Lanka, with hundreds of thousands of contract workers in Persian Gulf countries, would also be expected to be angry at the disruption war would cause to foreign currency remittances.
This reasoning would not seem to apply, though, to the peace forum held in Hong Kong last week, the 10,000 people at a protest rally in the centre of Bangkok yesterday or the hundreds of South Koreans who want to hear British socialist writer John Rees, the founder of the Stop the War Coalition, speak at a meeting in Seoul.
The coalition last November co-ordinated with peace movements in Europe, North America and Egypt to hold demonstrations yesterday. The idea has been taken up by dozens of Asian non-government organisations.