New antiterrorism regulations a strong deterrence: Expert

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite controversy surrounding their issuance, the two new government regulations in lieu of any laws on antiterrorism will live up to their purposes, a criminologist says.

Topo Santoso of the University of Indonesia said on Sunday the regulations would serve as a powerful means to crack down on terrorist activities, but the judiciary needed to maintain tight control of the regulations execution to minimize rights abuses.

Meanwhile, human rights activist Hendardi and legal expert Rudi Satrio said the regulations would be ineffective in fighting terrorism as it would be easily used to arbitrarily arrest people and political enemies, as happened during the tenure of former president Soeharto.

Topo said various categories of terrorist acts, a broader power for law enforcers and intelligence to take specific measures and the inclusion of a retroactive principle were the crucial points that would make the rulings effective.

"Terrorism is an extraordinary threat, so we need a special regulation to combat it," he told The Jakarta Post.

But he warned that as long as the country's intelligence remained weak and the corrupt and politically-influenced judiciary remained in place, the regulations could be easily misused by those in power to arrest people or political enemies.

"So we must improve the performance of the intelligence and establish an independent judiciary. If the conditions are met, we'll be able to minimize abuses," he said.

According to Topo, the Criminal Code and Criminal Code Procedure do not classify and label terrorist acts and therefore give limited powers to law enforcers and intelligence to take action.

Hendardi said the regulations would clearly lead to the misuse by the current unprofessional security officers who would carry out repressive measures against the people.

"The problem of the failure to detect and to disclose terrorism networks lays with the poor performance of intelligence and police, not on the lack of a legal basis," he said.

Opposition groups during the tenure of former president Soeharto were repressed by a range of measures, including terror and abduction.

Hendardi urged the government to use both the Criminal Code and Criminal Code Procedures, and create a new, comprehensive antiterrorism bill that upheld democracy and human rights. He also suggested the enactment of a law on intelligence to control intelligence activities.

In his criticism, Rudi said the new regulations only gave the new label "terrorist", which was not recognized in existing laws.

"I say that we can use the Criminal Code and other laws to charge terrorists. What we need is to maximize the penalties, improve the performance of police and intelligence, and establish an independent judiciary," he said.