By: S Riyanta *)

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID -  Terrorism as an activity that use violence to create fear to many people for specific purposes such as politics and ideology can happen anywhere. Developed countries, such as the United States and France can’t even avoid the terrorist acts. The emergence of ISIS as radical group which uses violence to achieve its objectives is dominating the recent terror activities worldwide.

Terrorism doesn’t only require to be eradicated. The force of arms and enforcement of the law will only stop the terrorists, but the radical thinking as a basis for conducting acts of terror remains alive. Preventing and combating terrorism should be done gradually in accordance with the target characteristics. Improper handling on terrorism could result sympathy for terrorists. This thing will instead trigger the emerging of new cadres who have dual motives, not just a political or ideological motive but also personal hurt over the treatment of combating terrorism.

In order to prevent and overcome terrorism issue, it is necessary to take measures with the following stages: The first stage of the prevention of terrorism is mapping and early warning on potential terrorism. This stage is carried out at all levels of society by utilizing the intelligence community. Society as a frontline should be encouraged to work together to carry out mapping and early detection on potential threat of terrorism.

Potential threat of terrorism that may emerge are the existence of radical exclusive groups, groups or individuals who perform the speech of hatred towards the person/group whose political ideology tend to be different, or other activities such as the war games, the spreading of doctrines contrary to the ideology of the nation, and so on. The findings on the matter should be followed up with early prevention measures.

Counter Narrative

Early prevention possibly conducted on potential terror should use social community approaches in which one of them is by implementing counter radical narrative measure against speech or a particular story distributed to the target to instill radicalism.

The form of resistance is done by the utterances of peace, tolerance, and respect for diversity. Perpetrators of hate speech spreader normally are in the minority. If the majority do counter radical narrative in positive ways such as speech of peace, tolerance, and respect for diversity, it is expected that minority groups can be affected. Counter radical narrative should be done by the community or well-known religious leaders who have a good relationship with the groups / people who have been exposed to hateful speech.

Characteristics of the group that has been exposed to radical narrative is those who merely want to hear from the leader of the group, or trusted close relative or associates. The counter-narrative steps that are undertaken by the government, especially reflecting the strength of the armed forces, will not work.

The government should turn over counter narrative measure to an organization or group that can be trusted by people who have been exposed to radical narrative. Such as educational institutions, community groups, cultural / arts groups, or other non-governmental organizations using the social community as the basic foundation. The main strength that must be owned by the operator of this step is the trust of the people / groups who have been exposed to radical narrative.

The success indicator of counter narrative measure is when the person / group is willing to socialize with the surrounding community, including attending religious activities in the community. No more mysterious activities as everything is clear. The government can monitor targets by looking at financial transactions and communications records as they could indicate the direction of activities or actions of a person. Early detection made by authorized officers is necessary to be applied at this stage for prevention if the scenarios of counter-narrative failed.

Deradicalization

Normalizing people back who think and act radically is commonly known as de-radicalization. The measure is derived from the mapping results of the person / group who already think and behave radically.

Radical people / groups tend to be exclusive and closed to people outside the group. The approach and special attention is given to the person / group of radicals by people who are known and trusted. The difficulty of this stage is the person / group of radicals who do not believe and do not want to hear what is being said by those outside the group.

At this stage, the approach can be conducted by family who are not radicalized, teacher, or someone that own target’s respect to bring back the peaceful, normal, tolerant, and difference-accepting ideology. The approach and attention must be intense and continuous and should be preceded with the termination of the contact to the leader or radical narrative presenter.

Deradicalization should not be executed by government agencies, as it’s already considered as enemy (the opposition) by radicals. Deradicalization programs are more easily accepted if performed by a non-governmental organization. Functions of government in deradicalization programs should be on a budget, supervision, and legal protection.

Counter Terrorism

Counter-terrorism is to prevent, combat, and eliminate terrorism. This action must be done to a group or individual behaving radically through violence and fears for the community. The interests of society comes first over the interests of radical groups or individuals.

Achievements of law enforcer to carry out counter-terror measures in Indonesia are unquestionable. A series of prevention and response action against terrorist groups is one of them. If not carefully prevented, these groups / individuals can perform highly dangerous acts of terror.

Counter-terrorism cannot instantly stop the terrorism. Counter-terrorism is more on preventing and disabling terrorists. The negative impact of radical thought is likely to grow stronger in the family or friends of terrorists who were arrested in violent manner. Counter-terrorism measures however must be done to prevent the acts of terror in society. However, the impact of the emergence of stronger radical thought around the people affected by counterterrorism measures must be considered and managed well.

Law Enforcement and Empowerment

Acts of terrorism, in which the imposition of the will by violence and fear is an extraordinary crime. Act of terrors cannot be tolerated. Decisive action must be performed. Law enforcement is conducted in order to ensure a deterrent effect and isolate the terrorists from committing acts of terror back in the community.

To prevent further spread of radical thought, it’s necessary to have an intense handling towards associates who are closed to the perpetrators. Several things that can be done is for example by providing the empowerment program towards terrorists’ main family. The wife and children should be assisted to remain empowered and not become victims due to the impact of law enforcement. This program should not be done by governments or state agencies. The empowerment program to the families of terrorists would be more acceptable if performed by people trusted such as religious leaders. In addition, it’s also necessary to conduct normalization leading to deradicalization. The aim is to prevent the terror perpetrators to think radically and to conduct act of terrors.  

*) The author is an analyst of intelligence and terrorism, master degree of Kajian Stratejik Intelijen (Intelligence Strategic Study) University of Indonesia

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