Indonesia told to get tougher on terrorists

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.