Kalla defends plan to fingerprint students of religious schools
Kalla defends plan to fingerprint students of religious schools
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government defended its plan to fingerprint all students of
Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) as part of the antiterrorism
drive despite opposition from some lawmakers and religious
leaders, whom he asked not to display an "allergic reaction" to
the proposal.
Addressing an international seminar on radical Islam organized
by the State Islamic University (UIN), Vice President Jusuf Kalla
explained that the proposal had been made in good faith.
"This is our war against the people who fight us, Indonesia,
without any reason. This is total war," he told the seminar,
which was attended by a number of ambassadors.
The government is aware that the fingerprinting proposal is a
sensitive issue in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
However, the government will proceed with the plan as it was
aimed at protecting the country, Kalla said.
"There is no need for an allergic reaction. Look at it in a
positive way," the Vice President urged his listeners.
Kalla had previously been successful in persuading Muslim
leaders to pledge help to the government's efforts to curb the
spread of militant ideas spread by terrorists, who in the past
had recruited young men, including some from Islamic boarding
schools, by manipulating the teaching of Islam.
The latest move, however, has drawn opposition from many
quarters. Ali Maschan Moesa, the leader of the East Java chapter
of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim organization in the
country, said he was irritated by the plan as it placed the
students of Islamic schools under suspicion, and presumed they
posed a danger to national security.
In what may be effort to ease the situation, Minister of
Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni denied the government would
fingerprint the students of religious schools as part of
the antiterror drive.
"It's excessive," Maftuh said when asked by reporters.
However, he said the fingerprints of students could be taken if
necessary to anticipate "something like a traffic accident".
Meanwhile, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said the
fingerprint plan was still only a proposal within the police, and
denied rumors that the police had already started taking the
fingerprints of religious school students.
"That's not correct. We have not taken any fingerprints. We
have only taken copies of their ID cards," he said, adding that
the police wanted to help religious schools to avoid "bad
influence from external sources".
Meanwhile, Sidney Jones, the director of the International
Crisis Group (ICG) in Jakarta, asked the government not to
generalize radical Islam and terrorism as it could divert the
government's antiterror efforts.
"Only half of the captured terrorists studied in pesantren,
the others half studied in secular schools," said Jones, a
terrorism expert.
Neither could the government blame poverty as the main cause
of terrorism here as nearly all of the captured terrorists came
from middle-class families, she added.
"The authorities could map it out by observing the backgrounds
of the captured terrorists or interviewing the captured
terrorists about their new recruits," Jones suggested, adding
that the government could not win the battle of minds against
terrorism simply by banning books published by the terrorists.