Editorial: SIS right to be vigilant

OPINION: University academics have reacted with predictable prickliness to an approach from the Security Intelligence Service asking for their help in stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It is understandable that there are concerns about the SIS request to exporters, manufacturers, scientists, researchers and academics to remain alert to "suspicious advances and seek advice on any concerns they may have".

Some SIS actions in the past have been heavy-handed, confusing legitimate dissent with subversion.

Tertiary Education Union president Tom Ryan points to concerns the SIS move will undermine the autonomy of tertiary institutions, and worries it could create an atmosphere "where colleagues and students don't know whether they are being spied on or not".

As the world marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall nobody wants a reprise of a Stasi-style state with armies of informants and aisles of records on citizens.

The American experience with the legal and human rights disgraces of Guantanamo Bay, "enhanced interrogation techniques" – more accurately called torture – and forced rendition show it is all too easy to destroy the core values of Western democracies in the mistaken belief that extreme actions are needed to save them.

However, it is equally undesirable to have a system that operates on the basis that everyone in New Zealand is a law-abiding person of good intent. Terrorists have no more respect for borders than they do for the lives of the innocents they kill.

Green Party human rights spokesman Keith Locke betrays his own naivete when he says "the SIS is really trying to make work for itself given there are no terrorists or really dangerous people in New Zealand".

There is no certainty of that, and nor can there ever be.

What is known is that there are individuals and groups who would do New Zealand harm or use what can be obtained here – including a safe base for operations – to do harm to others. New Zealand has been the subject of a terrorist attack, albeit one by another sovereign state, France. Its passport system has been subject to subversion, again, sadly, by a nation most would have regarded as friendly, Israel.

Mr Locke also seems to forget that New Zealand's soldiers are engaged in military action in Afghanistan against groups with a track record of terrorism. New Zealand cannot expect to be an island of serenity in a world that is anything but serene. It does not have some special immunity against terrorism.

Mr Locke and the academics are entitled to be cautious, but they need to realise there are real dangers to be confronted outside the cosy comfort of the university common room. The SIS move is a prudent response to realities of the 21st century world.

- © Fairfax NZ News