Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian Police force has been branded as cowardly for its reluctance to rein-in radical Muslim groups.
The radicals are determined to show their contempt of the United States and its plan for aggression in Afghanistan by evicting Americans. In yesterday's editorial entitled Police Cowardice, Indonesia's only English newspaper, The Jakarta Post, criticised a lack of police action towards the groups.
Last Sunday, six of them conducted "sweeps" of American nationals in the Central Java town of Solo, storming five hotels to look for US citizens. No Americans were found during the search but the groups vowed that the foreigners would be expelled if the US ever attacked Afghanistan.
Other Muslim groups have also declared holy war, or jihad, against the US. They have said they also would round up Americans and drive them out of the country in the event of a US attack on Afghanistan.
The Post yesterday slammed police spokesman Brigadier-General Saleh Saaf's indifference to Sunday's incident, which he described as "a mere expression of views". Responding to legislators' calls for the arrest of those who had carried out the sweep, Brig-Gen Saleh said the police could only arrest those who had broken the law. As the radicals had not detained, abused or attacked foreigners, no action was necessary, according to him.
But the Post argued that threats could be considered a crime under the Indonesian Criminal Code. Next to its front-page story, the newspaper ran extracts from Indonesian criminal codes which said perpetrators of "acts of coercion" could face a one-year jail term. Perpetrators of mass violence faced up to five and a half years in prison, according to the codes.
The Post went on to point out that assurance from the police that they would react should the threats become a reality was not very reassuring. It cited examples of lack of action by the police towards similar groups that had attacked nightclubs in Jakarta in the past two years.
The Islam Defenders Front had been vandalising various night establishments in the capital and surrounding cities, decrying the venues as "un-Islamic".
Yet the police had never arrested or questioned the groups concerned, despite severe damage having been done to some of the venues and customers having been attacked.
"Under the circumstances, it is difficult to escape the impression that our national police are trying to find excuses to cover up for their lack of courage to act," the Post said.
It reminded the police that such a soft stance would weaken the country's much-needed credibility to woo foreign investors. "Any kind of search for Americans in public places would fly in the face of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's promise to American business people in Houston, that Indonesia would guarantee the security of investors in this country," it said.
Observers have suggested security personnel are reluctant to act because they do not want to be seen as being anti-Islamic.