Garuda and Being Not So Secure: Indonesia

My late father gave me a penknife which his father gave to him and so it is a fairly valuable piece. I carry it everywhere with me. It sits in a special pocket in my backpack.

I never gave it much thought when I passed through Immigration checks at the airports. In fact I have to my knowledge been on 12 flights since the WTC disaster in New York. Of course after that cowardly desecration of human life and dignity airports around the world tightened up their security. But as I said I have been through countless Immigration checks since then and not one of them picked up this penknife that sits so happily in my backpack.

Airlines began using plastic cutlery much to the disgust of passengers. However I did notice on my last International Garuda flight there was the plastic fantastic missing and instead cold steel. I was delighted to read in yesterday's Jakarta Post an hilarious article by Duncan Graham of Indonesia Now fame about just this matter.

Is Garuda at the cutting edge of security sanity?

Here's a slice of good news to dunk in your breakfast coffee this Sunday morn: Common sense may be returning in matters of public security.

Passengers on Garuda's international flights are now trusted to eat their baked omelettes using steel knives.

A real 17-centimeter long knife with an unbendable (I tried) serrated blade. The sort which vanished from the plastic trays of plastic food after terrorists armed with box cutters hijacked four airliners in the United States almost five years ago.

Following the 2001 outrage any potentially offensive weapon was banned from the cabin. Passengers' bags were X-rayed and every sharp confiscated. Women's nails are now rotten and ragged because thousands of files, clippers and other lethal aids to beauty have been filched from their owners' purses.

The security industry exploded (sorry, expanded exponentially). Everyone wanted their own metal detector.

A five-star hotel manager in Surabaya told me he found his shiny new walk-through machine an embarrassment. It was working too efficiently and revealing the concealed handguns worn by many top business gents.

The manager sought help from the police. His employees were loath to try to seize the weapons as a man will not willingly divorce his pistol. Even if they were successful, how could untrained staff handle and store guns?

The police's advice? Ignore the weapons, as most would be licensed. That made everyone feel much safer.

Meanwhile more civilized guests with solid wristwatches, heavy leather belts and a pocket full of loose change were being frisked.

Dangerous guys indeed: unable to open fire they could throw coins in your face, whip off their belts, thrash you with buckle or karate chop you with a watch wristband. Be ever alert.

Security advisors ransacked their brains to out-think the terrorists and close off the opportunities.

National security senior fellow Dr Stephen Flynn put the following scenario to a US Senate subcommittee earlier this year:
The low-paid driver of a container truck in Surabaya is persuaded to back his vehicle into a warehouse while on his way to Tanjung Perak, East Java's major shipping port.
The container has been loaded with shoes destined for the U.S. The manufacturer has been certified safe and the cargo carefully sealed by authorized inspectors.

But the door hinges are prized off by the smart terrorists who slip a dirty radioactive bomb amongst the footwear. The bomb is inside a lead-lined box so escapes detection by the container terminal's X-ray machine.

The container goes from Surabaya to Jakarta and Hong Kong - and eventually to Chicago. The doors are opened and....

The hyper-imaginative Dr Flynn testified this was "the terrorist scenario that most keeps me awake at night."
What keeps me awake is that these over-paid experts think Surabaya a good spot for bomb transfers. Don't they know the locals are so nosy such an operation could never go unnoticed? They'd all want a pair of sneakers and the container would be gutted in a trice.

The difficulty of making the world absolutely safe from the crazed and devious was well illustrated by Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone.

She told a Rotary meeting in Australia that she'd cynically asked Prime Minister John Howard if pencils should be banned from aircraft because their sharpened points could be used to stab crew in the eyes.

In a rare moment of candor (she didn't know there was a journalist in the audience) Vanstone also admitted that many government decisions were designed to make the public think something effective was being done about security when total safeguards were impossible.

It's clear we're all starting to relax - and let's hope that is OK. Guards at police HQ in Surabaya are no longer interested in pushing mirrors under cars' skirts, while shopping center security men would rather chat than wand bags.

So congratulations to Garuda for letting us use real cutlery. Now the airline needs to do something about another potential weapon.

The stale bun I was served last week was a cricket ball in disguise - so hard I could have lobbed it down the aisle and knocked out the purser. This should be drawn to Dr Flynn's attention and raised at the next U.S. Senate sub-committee. Along with Minister Vanstone's pencil plot.

Duncan Graham