ASEAN's stand on terrorism

ASEAN's stand on terrorism

The recent explosion in a car park at a mall in Central
Jakarta underlines the worrisome fact that acts of terrorism have
indeed become a part of the Indonesian scene. As a matter of
fact, although it may appear that in these last few years acts of
terrorism have escalated, such acts have occurred since the
1950s, albeit on a limited scale.

It should be remembered, for instance, that the current
President of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri, almost became a
victim herself of a terrorist act in 1957 when grenades were
lobbed in the direction of her father, president Sukarno. He was
visiting a primary school in the Cikini area in Central Jakarta,
attended by his children, among others Megawati, which was
organizing a bazaar for fund-raising purposes.

Given such a historical context of terrorism in this country,
it is needless to say that Indonesia did not have to make the
choice, as posed by President George W. Bush in his recent speech
before the United States Congress, that "either you are with us
or you are with the terrorists." For obvious reasons, Indonesia
has always been against acts of terrorism. The question now is
how to better coordinate these measures and make them more
effective.

We know that an interdepartmental taskforce has already been
established for this purpose. However, given the current critical
situation and Indonesia's proneness to terrorist acts, whether of
an indigenous nature or instigated and assisted by outside
elements, we think that a more unified body needs to be set up.

Sayidiman Suryohadiprojo, the former governor of the National
Resilience Institute has frequently proposed, through his
writings and in seminars, to set up a national agency to combat
terrorism. He suggested that the agency should be of a cross-
sectoral nature and manned with experts from the national police,
the immigration service, the intelligence community, the Attorney
General's Office, the central bank and even from the Ministry of
Health for the eventuality of a biological terrorist attack.
Logically, such a national agency should reside under the
jurisdiction of the Coordinating Minister for Political and
Security Affairs.

Given the urgency of the situation, not too much time should
be wasted in preparing the setting up of such an agency. However,
considering the unique geography of the Southeast Asia region,
Indonesia should also speed up its efforts to coordinate its
antiterrorist program with neighboring countries. The President
of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo Macapagal, recently stated her
support for the proposal to set up a regional coalition to combat
terrorism. But it was the speaker of the Philippines parliament,
Jose de Venecia, who suggested that such a coalition should
initially comprise the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia,
noting that each of those countries faces grave domestic problems
related to terrorism.

We might also note that President Megawati, on her recent tour
of ASEAN capitals, visited Kuala Lumpur and discussed the matter
with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The prime
minister has on a number of occasions warned of the danger of
terrorist acts spreading from Malaysia to neighboring countries.
It has been reported that in the upcoming informal meeting of
ASEAN heads of government, scheduled to take place in Brunei
Darussalam later this year, the subject of coordinating progress
in the fight against terrorism will be discussed.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda's statement (made in New York
on Monday on the occasion of the ratification by Indonesia of the
1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the
Financing of Terrorism) that Indonesia would increase
coordination of intelligence information with fellow member
countries of ASEAN and other countries, should be a sign that
Jakarta is indeed driven by a sense of urgency in developing an
effective program to combat terrorism, on both national and
regional planes.

We should be aware that for countries such as Indonesia, which
are in a delicate stage of developing and maturing their
democratic institutions, unbridled acts of terrorism could nip
the process of democratization in the bud.