In the 1970s and 1980s it was said that the safest flights to be on were Air France as the French had come to certain “agreements” with Middle Eastern terrorist groups. I have no idea how true that is and eventually France became a terrorist target anyway.
However I have long felt that something similar was going on with Malaysia. All their neighbours, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines suffered major terrorist attacks or attempted attacks but not Malaysia. Malaysia always seemed to have an immunity from attack, and then one noticed how many of the terrorists in SE Asia had Malaysian connections.
The major terrorists in Indonesia behind the big spectacular attacks were either Malaysian citizens or were trained in Malaysia but Malaysia always got a free pass from the world press as a peaceful well-run Muslim nation while Indonesia was usually painted as a den of terrorism.
I suspect Malaysia’s pact with the devil might well have blown back on them at last.
Very good analysis.