The last few weeks after the landmark state opening of the legislative year 2008 have witnessed a chain of interesting development in the national assembly of this country. A number of key interesting bills have been passed through, but, as it turns out for some of these laws, not without thorough scrutiny from the probing members of the house, at least, as some of us have seen on GRTS.

This is by no means the first time such important laws have been brought before the legislatures. But because of their contentious nature, some of these laws have some air of controversy around them, with the potential to attract heated debate, just as we have seen in the house. The scrutiny is so much so for the members’ foresightedness than for mere debating purpose.

Take, for instance, the anti-terrorism bill. A topical issue these days, the world is so engrossed in the war on terror that everybody, including the belligerents, seems to have lost focus. It has become almost impossible to tell the terrorists from those defending themselves against the former.

Yet it is fundamentally crucial that we determine the difference between these two people if we are to dig through this phenomenon. Which means also identifying state sponsored terrorism from genuine war against terror. Since 9/11 we have seen deteriorating levels of human-rights, all in the name of "war against terror." And the thing the world gains from these human right abuses is a worsening of the situation, as attitude of certain states and individual organizations only make more terrorists instead of discouraging its proliferation.

There is no doubting that the scourge of terrorism knows no boundary. When terrorists strike some times the impact of their action goes beyond their primary targets, as we have seen in Kenya and Tanzania, where innocent Africans lost their lives and livelihood for a cause they know nothing about. You can never tell who the next victim would be. In that case it is the prerogative of everybody to join hands and fight the global threat head-on.