REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By : Nunun Wahyuni *)

Late February 2016  in Jakarta a discussion on terrorism was held by Kontras. The discussion was covering general problem of terrorism, but roughly all the presenters was  making comment on the problem of The Revision of Law on Anti Terrorism. The discussion was attended by around 30 participants.

Andrew Montong of  The  Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said terrorist action is done by those people who are wanting  to change the State system of  to day. Terrorism has the revolution character to change the world totally. The terrorism of to day is modern revolution, they use modern technology. “Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism of our country should be revised to apply more effective and perfect repression on terrorism,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, Wahyudi Akmaliah said in the framework of the de-radicalization of religion various action have been done by Maarif Institute,  among others are publishing books, producing film, training among youth and training on living tolerance through Elected Student Jambore. The Police should work  wisely to protect the minority and avoiding   the unexpected victims.

“Deradicalization Program, to minimize terrorist activities has been responded   by Maarif Institute. Family education is increased based on Alquran teaching. To create correct Islamic education which is more human,” said a Researcher of Maarif Institute. Wahyudi stated law on Anti Terrorism should not  be used to press politically  the opposition group of the government.

Another speaker Arsul Soni said the Revision of Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism has been agreed by The House of Representative and the Government, as the Legislative Program of  2015-2019, but it does not belong to Priority group. However BNPT (The National Body to Eliminate the Terrorism) has been requested to make  the academic paper to be based of the legal and rational revision of the Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism. The meeting between the Commission I of The House of Representative with all the Ministers under the Coordinating Minister of  Political, Law and Security Affairs  agreed to revise Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism urgently.

“Some important points of illegal actions should be added in the revision of Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism among others are joining military training for terrorism, the additional punishment for the terrorist and  the illegal action for the organization considered as terrorist. Additional punishment among others are to retrieve the individual passport and citizenship,” he said.

According to Asrul Sani who is Member of Commission III of the House of Representative, there is the possibility of rejection to the appeal of BIN to have the right to catch and to detain  someone believed as terrorist element. Members of the House of Representative tend to reject the appeal of BIN to have the right to catch somebody and to detain until 30  days. The BNPT is requested to present The academic paper on the idea to revise Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism and it should be justified correctly.

“The revision of Law No 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism is generally agreed but it should be discussed intensively by the House of Representative. In the discussion to revise Law no 15/2003 it will be wise if the House of Representative to invite some one from outside the House considered as expert on certain matter,” he added.

Haris Azhar said terrorism of course should be fought, but we have to calculate wisely the price we have to be paid. To catch and to detain some one considered as terrorist for 30 days is too exaggerate. “Kontras feels it is too hurry (revising the Law No 15/2003) and The House of Representative should clarify  the consideration may be there is something not logic and without clear legal consideration in the decision to  revise Law no 15/2003 on Anti Terrorism,” said Haris Azhar, a prominent figure of Kontras.

Assessment

The Government and the House of Representative should likely describe that terrorist action is a political and security threat of the country.  Terrorism is not just social phenomena. The people also should be convinced that the victims of the terrorist action are the whole nation. Terrorist action are apparently  should be proved that it is handled  by a group of people who want to create political  revolutionary  changing and concurrently also the state system. Radicalism is the character of revolutionary action.

Terrorist activities are secret movement and accordingly the counter intelligent capability is certainly needed to counter the terrorist action. Of course the intelligent service and the security forces  need various operational facilities to detect the terrorist hiding place and their secret movement within the society. War against terrorism is apparently much different character to the conventional warfare.

Democratically those operational facilities should be approved by the Law. The defense against terrorist threat could not be implemented only  by the intelligent and the security forces themselves, they need the citizen’s support . The character of people support are might be felt against human right, accordingly the House of Representative should approved the law to eliminate the terrorism wisely.

Considered as against humanism, it is likely the appeal of BIN  to have the right to catch and to detain someone suspected as terrorist element would not be approved by the House of Representative. The idea to substitute  the necessity of BIN  to get the secret  information concerning terrorist intention and terrorist course of action, the State through the Presidential Decree could establish a Special Intelligence Unit as the operational organization under the command and control of BIN.

Conclusion.

According to this discussion , terrorism is the  impact of human dynamic who wish  to change the situation revolutionarily. This discussion also made the clarification that the radicalism is the character of people which support the terrorism. Accordingly the preventive effort should be dedicated to neutralize radicalism. Religion as one of important Life Teaching  likely has been miss conducted by the Terrorist to grow the radicalism among youth and religious followers.

According to this discussion radicalism were developed through the wrong method in following the religion. Also accordingly to avoid wrong result of following the religion,  all the religion should expose its human and peaceful character to his followers.

Being critical NGO, KONTRAS has remind The House of Representative to  revise Law No 15/2003 wisely and correctly. In case of the request of BIN to have the right to catch and to detain someone suspected as terrorist element, it would likely not be approved by the House of Representative. To substitute this necessity, the State based on Presidential Decree could likely to establish the Special Intelligence Unit operational under the command of BIN. Special Intelligence Unit is administratively independent, but operationally is under the command and control of BIN.

*) The writer is an Intelligence and the security observer.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika