Indonesia told to get tougher on terrorists

The Australian, Sydney

Just as the Sept. 11 attacks propelled the world into a dangerous and uncertain era, the Bali bombing will mark a watershed in Australia's relations with the region -- particularly our largest and most influential neighbor Indonesia. Although the bulk of those killed by the blasts are Aussies, this abhorrent act transgresses national boundaries. Australia moved quickly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon to strengthen security ties with Southeast Asia.

Backed up by subtle but effective diplomacy, we must redouble those efforts by offering practical assistance to those countries on the new front line in the war against terror. But the endeavor to prevent Southeast Asia from becoming a breeding ground for terrorist groups requires reciprocity.

While Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand have tackled terrorism as far as their capacity to do so allows, Indonesia has been slow to respond to repeated and detailed warnings from the U.S., Australia and its neighbors.

That the world's most populous Muslim nation would somehow remain immune to radical groups who wrongly use Islam to justify a holy war against the West was dangerous and naive. Now the doubters have been proven so horribly wrong, it is time for President Megawati Soekarnoputri to turn words into actions and crack down on terrorist groups whatever their ideology or religious persuasion.

Whether the perpetrators of the Bali attack have connections with al-Qaeda or not, the evidence that groups capable of plotting and carrying out the most heinous acts of terror with gruesome efficiency operate across the archipelago is irrefutable.

But it is still possible for Megawati to turn the Bali tragedy to her political advantage. Leaders like Gloria Arroyo Macapagal of the Philippines and Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad have made the restoration of security the centerpiece of their administration. By providing evidence that terrorism is a local, not just a U.S., problem, they have garnered domestic support for cracking down on Islamic extremists and cooperating in the U.S.-led war on terror.

Megawati is Indonesia's most charismatic politician and faces little real political opposition. Yet she has been reluctant to go after Soeharto-era crooks, human rights violators, groups fomenting communal violence and Islamic extremists. The time for inertia and ambivalence is over. Megawati must make a case to the overwhelming mass of moderate Indonesians that fighting terrorism demands stern action, even if it upsets her political allies or elements in the military who have fostered extremist Islamic groups for reasons of nationalism.

The coming weeks and months will also be a test of Australia's ability to forge closer ties with Indonesia to fight a common but elusive enemy. The counter-terrorism pacts Australia has signed with Indonesia and Malaysia are a pragmatic step towards reengagement with a region we had started to overlook.

But sharing intelligence, offering forensic expertise and material assistance is the easy part. Strengthening the capacity of ill-equipped security forces to take on terrorist groups in countries like Indonesia is more difficult.

The Indonesian army's atrocious human rights record notwithstanding, Australia and Indonesia are right to cautiously move ahead with restoring military ties in areas such as anti- terrorism co-operation. The recent U.S. offer of $US50 million to the Indonesian military and police is an example of how aid can be used for anti-terrorist training and to raise human rights awareness among the security forces.

Such approaches are both necessary and an acknowledgement that the war on terrorism is multi-layered and cannot be limited to one threat or even one strategy. As George W. Bush, Tony Blair and many other world leaders have reiterated since Sept. 11, 2001, the battle must take place at every level -- diplomatic, political, security and intelligence.

Of course it is important that the campaign to remove weapons of mass destruction from Iraq does not distract from the campaign against al-Qaeda. In reality the two can and must go hand in hand. Although Australia's focus must be on the immediate terrorist threat in our region, that does not imply we are any less alert to the threat of chemical and biological weapons posed by Saddam Hussein's regime.

There has been speculation that the U.S.-led war against terrorism is somehow to blame for what happened in Bali. The argument is that the anti-terror campaign, including the push to remove weapons of mass destruction from Iraq, provoked the Bali bombers.

But there is little evidence the Iraq issue has directly inflamed Islamic extremists in Southeast Asia, although the military action against Afghanistan did attract some criticism from Indonesian militants. Islamic radicals filled with hatred of so-called Western decadence, Hinduism and foreign tourists who like to party are unlikely to be pacified by a policy of appeasement of Iraq.

And what was the alternative to launching an aggressive fight to root out terrorism after the events of Sept. 11? The blame- everything-but-the perpetrators position assumes Bali would never have happened if the U.S., and the rest of the civilized world, had remained neutral after the attacks on New York and Washington. Vigilance in the past year has ensured some planned attacks, including the bombing of the Australian High Commission in Singapore, were foiled.

The anti-terrorist strategies pursued by the Bush administration should be debated. Some U.S. Democrats and even a few Republicans say the administration's focus on the Iraq threat has been to the detriment of the fight to track down al-Qaeda activists. Others say the White House has not moved quickly enough on Iraq. But it is difficult to argue that the U.S. has taken its eye off the al-Qaeda threat, which it knows extends from the Middle East throughout Asia.

As most of the Asian press has realized, the U.S. cannot be blamed for the security and intelligence breakdown in Indonesia that is partly to blame for the Bali bombings. Apart from assisting Jakarta with financial and intelligence support for anti-terrorist measures, the U.S. issued warnings last week about renewed al-Qaeda activity in the region.

The terrorists who carried out the Bali attack must be brought to justice. Adversity can be turned into advantage if this atrocity leads to a strengthening of the international coalition against terror and builds stronger bridges between Australia and the region.