REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Students newly admitted to universities must be protected from the influence of radicalism, according to Commissioner General Suhardi Alius, chief of the National Counter-terrorism Agency (BNPT). Without protection, he feared that the future generation could be plunged into harmful ideologies.

New students are the youth being targeted by the radical groups' propaganda, he remarked as quoted in a statement. "Young people are unstable. They are quite curious, so they become targets of brainwashing. You have to be careful," Alius noted while addressing 5,800 new students of the University of Andalas and over three thousand new students of the State University of Padang in Padang, West Sumatra, on Wednesday.

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He called on universities to have a special program in place during the orientation period of new students aimed at strengthening their spirit of nationalism and increasing their knowledge on radicalism.

"What I mean by radicalism is anti-NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia), anti-Pancasila (state ideology), intolerance, and spread of the teaching of takfiri that often accuses another Muslim of apostasy. This is quite dangerous and should be fought against," he stated.

He also called on universities to invite resources that could increase awareness among new university students of the dangers of radicalism.

Earlier, BNPT director of prevention Hamli said many state universities in Indonesia have been exposed with radicalism. Some of the universities are University of Indonesia (UI), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Diponegoro University (Undip), Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS), Airlangga University (Unair), and Brawijaya University.

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