REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- A plenary session of the House of Representatives agreed in acclamation to pass into law a bill on terrorism on Friday. The agreement reached after almost two years of discussion.
Is the report of chairman of the Special Committee on Terrorism Bill is approved and to be passed into law? Deputy House Speakers, Agus Hermanto who chaired the plenary session asked.
The long delay in the decision was mainly on disagreement on the definition of terrorism. The ten factions of the House reached agreement on the definition on Thursday night after lengthy debate.
The House was under pressure to approve and pass the bill into law after President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) threatened to issue regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) unless the House failed to pass the bill, which is a revision of the old law this month. Police Chief General Tito Karnavian also urgently asked the President Jokowi to issue Perppu to provide legal basis for police to act firmly against terrorist suspects.
Tito's proposal came after terror attacks jolted the country earlier this month . Three Christian Churches in the East Java capital of Surabaya were attacked on May 13 leaving 18 people dead including the six attackers and at least 40 others injured.
The attacks on the three churches in separate locations in Surabaya came only three days after a riot at a detention center occupying by around 150 terrorist suspects at the police mobile brigade headquarters in Jakarta leaving six members of the police anti terrorist squad dead.
The attackers belonged to a family, father, mother, tow daughters and two sons
On the next days another terrorist family of five attacked the Surabaya police office leaving four of the five attackers killed by their bombs.
Another terror attack followed in Sumatra, leaving four terrorist killed when attacking police headquarter in Pekanbaru, Riau.
Tito said the draft law was more effective in eliminating terrorism.
"We know their cells, but the law forbids us to touch on them before they start committing any crime," he said, adding law enforcement agencies need more than just.
He called for support from the House of Representatives saying revision of the Law should not drag on for too long to prevent more victims. Police needs support in legal basis to act on terrorist suspects especially in dealing with those returning from Syria, he said.
There are around 500 Indonesians, returning home from Syria where they fought alongside ISIS. They are free to resume normal life in the country . The attackers of the three churches in Surabaya were said to just returned from Syria.
The revised law allows involvement of the military in the fight against terrorists.
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