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Terror fight revives Suharto-era
might
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono last week ordered the country's
governors to revive the Regional Intelligence
Coordinating Body (Bakorinda), a network of
intelligence offices last used to quell dissent in
the Suharto era, amid criticism that Indonesia's
intelligence bodies had failed to anticipate
terrorist attacks in the country.
Under
the plan, a new anti-terror agency will also be
set up to coordinate all agencies currently
involved in the national "war against terrorism",
namely the police, the military (TNI) and the
National Intelligence Agency. Bakorinda will thus
synchronize the anti-terror drive by the military,
police and judiciary across Indonesia.
Cynics might argue that the latest moves
were prompted by the president's embarrassment
that his meeting with US leader George W Bush in
Washington last month almost coincided with the
temporary closure of the US Embassy in Jakarta, in
response to "specific information" of terrorist
threats. But the real catalyst for the new push on
the home front is likely to have been the May 28
market bombing in the mainly Christian town of
Tentena, near Poso, Central Sulawesi.
Twenty-two people died and dozens of
others were injured in that blast, making it the
deadliest bombing in Indonesia since the Bali
bombings killed 202 people in 2002. Local
officials have hinted that the Tentena bombing
could have been politically motivated to justify a
strong military presence in the area. The police,
however, say it may have been the work of Islamic
militants hoping to revive religious tensions in
Central Sulawesi.
Shortly after the
anti-terror plan was announced, TNI chief General
Endriartono Sutarto, unsurprisingly, gave his
blessing to the proposed resurrection of
Bakorinda. Asked about fears the new plans would
bring back repressive government, Sutarto said:
"Which do you prefer, having such fears or losing
lives."
State Secretary Sudi Silalahi
deemed the reinstatement of Bakorinda necessary
and said it "is not aimed at frightening people,
but rather to improve the coordination among our
security authorities".
Threat to the
region
Australia has long been wary of its
neighbor - the world's most populous Muslim
country and the setting for Australia's own
September 11, the Bali bombings, in which 80
Australians were killed. The Australian Department
of Foreign Trade last week cited "credible
reports" suggesting that plans by terrorists to
carry out attacks in Indonesia were in advanced
stages. The warning noted that the bomb attack
outside the Australian Embassy on September 9,
2004, "underscores that the threat to Australians
in Indonesia is real".
Police say
Malaysians Noordin Mohammed Top and Azahari bin
Husin, alleged key members of the al-Qaeda-linked
Jemaah Islamiah (JI) Southeast Asian terrorism
network, both of whom top Indonesia's most-wanted
list, are currently recruiting people and planning
another attack. Just last week Top's wife was
sentenced to three years in jail for hiding him.
Noordin and Top are believed to be among
the perpetrators of a series of blasts in
Indonesia, including those in Bali, the 2003 JW
Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta that claimed 12
lives, and the blast near the Australian Embassy
in September that killed 10.
The usual
suspects
Lieutenant General Zen Maulani,
head of the Coordinating Agency for National
Intelligence (Bakin) from 1998-2000, has said on
record that organizations such as Laskar Jihad,
Front Pembela Islam, Laskar Jundullah and Laskar
Hisbullah were not terrorist or extremist groups
in the real sense; they were formed in response to
the repression of Suharto's New Order regime and
unfair and unjust treatment by the government.
They have nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the US
"war on terrorism", claimed the general.
This is the same man who preached to
around 6,000 chanting followers crowded in and
around a Solo (Surakarta) mosque to show their
support for militant cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir
prior to his arrest less than a week after the
Bali bombings. Maulani disputed the allegations
against Ba'asyir and told the gathered masses,
"This war against international terrorism is
merely a tool to dominate the world oil sources."
Ba'asyir, accused by the major powers of
leading the JI, designated a terrorist
organization by the United Nations Security
Council, is presently serving a 30-month jail
sentence for involvement in the conspiracy behind
the Bali bombings. Washington and Canberra have
accused Jakarta of letting the courts get in the
way of fighting terrorism and lacking "political
will" (see Indonesia's trial by
terror, March 12).
Yudhoyono,
for his part, has said Indonesia would outlaw the
JI if its existence could be "legally proven" and
if its members were involved in terrorist acts.
Under current anti-terrorism regulations,
suspicions of terrorism are based on individual
actions and not as a consequence of group
membership.
Criticism of the
police
The national police are coming under
increasing fire for a perceived view of terrorism
as a routine matter, instead of a real threat to
public security. The military and the police were
integrated under the aegis of the Indonesian Armed
Forces, until being separated in 1999. Currently,
the two forces are under the direct supervision of
the president.
Rights groups say the
police and military should remain separate, as
they fear any form of reunification will encourage
the military to resume its socio-political role,
in which the rights of ordinary Indonesians were
often pushed aside to succor and defend the
business and political interests of the ruling
elite.
Two leading legislators - Permadi,
from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
who is a member of a commission on defense,
foreign affairs and information; and Golkar
legislator Akil Mochtar, deputy chairman of a
commission on law, legislation, human rights and
security - have called for the dismissal of
national police chief General Dai Bachtiar.
Their outspoken demands came after radical
Muslim cleric Abu Jibril, a Ba'asyir associate and
member of the Ba'asyir-led Indonesian Mujahideen
Council, claimed a bomb blast a week ago outside
his house may have been masterminded by the US to
intimidate him into stopping his campaign for an
Islamic state.
Jibril, described by the US
State Department as JI's primary recruiter and
second in command, was arrested in Malaysia in
June 2001, during a crackdown on the JI and local
militant organization Kumpulan Mujahideen
Malaysia, a militant group that like JI seeks to
set up an Islamic state. Jibri was detained for
two years on suspicion of links to terrorism, but
was later deported to Indonesia.
Mochtar
was quoted as saying he thought the bombing
outside Jibril's home could have been conducted by
terrorists as a warning that they had approached
Jakarta and might also have been perpetrated by
Australians opposed to the recent conviction of
Schapelle Corby for drug smuggling.
Permadi, though conceding that police have
caught several perpetrators after bombings,
claimed they had failed to take adequate steps to
prevent terrorism. He cited the fact that Azahari,
stopped by traffic police after last year's
bombing at the Australian Embassy, simply paid a
small bribe to avoid a traffic fine. "We should
not expect the security situation to improve much
if police are still like that," Permadi said.
An unseen enemy
The most potent
weapon against terrorism remains effective
intelligence, but pinpointing the enemy in the
vast Indonesian archipelago will be no easy task.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty
has warned the effort needed to eradicate
terrorism in Indonesia was "not a sprint, it's a
marathon".
Speaking just after the attack
on the Marriott Hotel in 2003, Keelty noted that
in Indonesia there was an "almost endless supply
of people who are willing to take up the radical
and fundamentalist cause".
The JI claims
to aspire to an Islamic state, a concept
historically rejected by most of Indonesia's
Muslim majority. But its ability to recruit feeds
on powerlessness, poverty and injustice. The
government has, for some time been working with
the two large mainstream religious organizations,
Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, through the
Ministry of Religious Affairs, to seek their help
in educating the masses away from the influence of
radical groups in the national interest.
Public attitudes toward radical Islam have
already hardened considerably, particularly since
the Marriott bombing that struck at the very heart
of the capital, and in doing so, threatened the
rich and powerful. Despite some 190 arrests
throughout the region, the bombing proved that the
JI had clearly retained the capacity and the will
to launch such devastating attacks. Now up to
two-thirds of Jakarta's 26,000 policemen are
deployed daily to maintain security.
Indonesians now have little doubt that
their country has all the ingredients needed to
nurture and sustain terrorist "sleepers" who are
ready to act given the green light from the
paymaster. Thus, high-profile leaders of local
radical groups are likely hard pressed to whip up
anti-authority sentiment on the basis that Muslims
are the object of observation and surveillance
under the newly stepped up intelligence gathering
network.
Trade-off
The US-led
"war on terror" has been extremely damaging for
human rights, and has been used as an excuse by
totalitarian regimes to impose oppressive laws,
according to a report from the International
Institute for Strategic Studies. The report,
"Human Rights and Counter-terrorism in America's
Asia Policy", says certain countries have brought
in so-called anti-terrorist laws insisting they
are not much different from the Patriot Act
enacted by the Bush administration.
The
emotional passage of the Patriot Act only weeks
after the September 11 terror attacks allowed
little time for scrutiny of its measures. The
act's many critics point out that although it was
passed hastily without any debate or hearings and
under a cloak of fear, its provisions were
obviously very carefully thought out and crafted
to take power out of the hands of the courts and
ensure absolute lack of oversight of law
enforcement and intelligence gathering.
During the New Order era in Indonesia, the
country's security institutions had similar and
absolute authority to act against those found or
suspected of disturbing security and order.
Non-governmental organizations in Indonesia argue
that terrorism allegations derived from US sources
could be used by the military for its own benefit
to either smooth the path to a better relationship
with the US, or to reinforce its political role.
Though the government has promised it
would not resurrect draconian internal security
laws like those used with impunity under Suharto,
and scrapped after his downfall in 1998,
Indonesian society could be forced to come to
terms with a forced trade-off between human-rights
expectations and the sweeping powers expected to
be granted to security authorities. These are
contained in a proposed revision of the existing
Anti-terrorism Law No 15/2003, which Inspector
General Ansjaad Mbai of the anti-terror desk at
the chief security minister's office has described
as the world's "softest" law against terrorism.
The draft law, which has been ready for
debate in the House since February 2004, states
that suspected terrorists can be detained by the
police for up to seven days on the basis of very
little preliminary evidence and then for a further
six months for questioning and prosecution. It
would also allow intelligence reports to be
admitted as prima facie evidence in order
to detain suspects. Investigators would also have
the authority to go through personal mail and
parcels and to tap telephone conversations or
other forms of communication.
Crucially,
the draft law provides for the arrest of suspects
by the military, which would thus give the
military direct involvement in policing and
criminal investigations, the very powers that were
so widely abused in the Suharto era.
This
may already be underway. On taking office last
October, the president ordered the police to
capture Noordin and Azahari during the first 100
days of his term. Significantly, at the beginning
of this week, troops were brought in to hunt down
five vehicles suspected of carrying bombs made by
Noordin's recruits.
Bill Guerin, a
Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since
2000, has worked in Indonesia for 19 years in
journalism and editorial positions. He has been
published by the BBC on East Timor and specializes
in business/economic and political analysis in
Indonesia.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
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