Indonesia's security law

Indonesia's security law

Powerful arguments are being raised in Indonesia's ruling circles in favor of a punitive security law that its advocates say is necessary to prevent terrorist acts. It will permit preventive detention of persons regarded as threats to state security, an old law with which Singaporeans and Malaysians are familiar. The development is inevitable - after the two ruinous explosions in Bali and Jakarta and numerous smaller blasts all over the country in the past three years, ascribed to terrorist groups and political activists seeking independence for Papua and Aceh.

When the chief proponents of the law are the defense minister and the coordinating minister for security, and they have the backing of the country's military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, it is a reliable bet that the proposal will surface formally soon. It could be bound for parliamentary approval.

Those of Indonesia's neighbors with a direct stake in its anti-terrorism campaign - Singapore and Malaysia - will welcome any tightening of its security structure that would help disrupt terrorist plots and recruitments. If it can be accomplished with the sort of legal muscle being sought, there should be no squeamishness about acquiring it.

The military and the police need to show the law will not be used to silence government critics and activists. President Megawati Soekarnoputri would be the last person to underestimate the democratizing instincts that the Indonesian people have acquired after 32 years of president Soeharto's rule, which ended in wild disorder in May 1998.

Under the next two presidents, B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid, hundreds of prisoners were freed in presidential amnesties. The irony is that the repeal in 1999 of Mr. Suharto's anti-subversion law will have come full circle if the current President puts down her imprimatur on an updated version. But these are perilous times.

-- Straits Times, Singapore