Plenty left to do in fight against terrorism

Bantarto Bandoro, Editor, The Indonesian Quarterly' Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Jakarta, bandoro@csis.or.id

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, a Muslim militant dubbed the "smiling assassin", was sentenced to death on Thursday for his part in last year's deadly night club bombing on Bali.

The verdict came just two days after a bomb explosion at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, and coincides with concerns that a shadowy Southeast Asia network linked to al-Qaeda might be plotting further attacks.

The verdict also came at the same time a bomb exploded in Poso, Central Sulawesi, on Thursday. Experts in terrorism said that another series of bombings would likely occur following Amrozi's verdict.

The government, accused of being too soft on terrorists before the Bali bombings, has been eager to demonstrate to the world that it is committed to bringing the perpetrators to justice. The public, however, is not satisfied enough with the way the government is tackling the problem of terrorists, in spite of the enactment of the country's antiterrorist law, given that terrorist attacks have recurred, apparently undetected.

Amrozi's death sentence, to some extent, has provided some sense of comfort to those who lost their loved ones. But the government should not be complacent about this. The Marriott bombing and Amrozi's statement made after the verdict was delivered, that there will be "a million more Amrozis", sent a clear message that more bomb attacks could be expected.

Terrorism, in whatever form, will continue to be a grave threat to national stability and security. The government clearly has much left to do. It must initiate more decisive national measures to contain the threat of terrorism.

If the Amrozi verdict is followed by similar convictions for the other defendants, our notoriously inefficient judicial system could get a much needed boost in its efforts to control those who appear to be Islamic radicals. But the problem of confronting the terrorism threat is not only about strengthening our judicial system; it is also about law enforcement.

It is, after all, about national security and stability.

Combating terrorism should be placed within the framework of national security efforts, meaning that the process of battening down national security must be increasingly correlated with threat of domestic terrorism. If a series of terrorist acts were to occur following Amrozi's verdict, perhaps it is time for the government to use national security concerns to justify the introduction of a more decisive and, if necessary, repressive, antiterrorist measures.

Such steps would, however, have to be built on the belief that domestic terrorist acts are treated as criminal acts that pose a grave threat to national security regardless of their motivations. It is thus important that the coming verdicts on the other alleged bombers also be based on considerations of national security.

Many among the public would hope that the panel of judges for the other Bali bombing trials would declare the same verdict as that handed down to Amrozi. It is hoped that the final court decisions would have some practical effects on the way the government is pursuing its antiterrorism policy. The death penalty for other defendants, should they deserve it, would certainly heighten the public's demand for a more active role by law enforcers in combating terrorism.

Thus, a concerted and systematic effort is indeed imperative if the government is to gain the sympathy and moral support of the public in its fight against terrorists.

The public expects authorities to arrest the perpetrators of the Marriott bombing immediately. If they are captured, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar should not show the same cordiality to them as he did to Amrozi. What most people remember about Amrozi was his behavior at a strange public interrogation conducted by the police chief a month after the blast, at which they met in an atmosphere of friendliness.

This coverage sparked revulsion from foreign countries -- particularly Australia -- which suffered the greatest number of victims in the Bali attack. Investigators should obviously be sensitive to public perception.

The government's new approaches toward combating terrorists, if any, must be able to convince the public that it does have adequate counterterrorism measures in place -- although even this would not be a reason for complacency.

Attacks, when they occur, are seen as the failure of a system, a lack of vigilance that can be fixed only by the introduction of new, decisive and accurate national measures. Terrorism must be prevented from placing the government on the defensive.

Learning from past experiences, the decision to engage actors other than government elements in particularly "offensive" activities must now be considered. Terrorists must not be feared, but confronted at all costs.