Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Joe Cochrane – The Attorney General's Office said on Sunday that it was ready to take action against any publication used by terrorists to spread radicalism, but that it was up to the government to name the materials it wanted banned.
"We have to be provided with the books before taking any legal action," AGO spokesman Jasman Panjaitan said. "Until now, none have been given to us."
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Sukarna said on Friday that terrorism could be spread through radical publications widely available across the country. He did not, however, fault the slow handling of the issue by the AGO, which has in the past banned school history textbooks that failed to conform to official views.
The police have been trying to find out who created a blog site that claimed to speak on behalf of fugitive terrorist Noordin M Top, who police suspect was behind the suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels on July 17 that killed nine people and injured more than 50.
Jasman said the AGO could only ban publications if it was decided by the government through a coordination meeting of several departments, including the police, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the AGO.
"It is organized under the Coordinating Ministry of Political, Legal and Security Affairs. We would move if this meeting ordered us to," he said.
However, such a step has been criticized by observers and analysts, who said the government should rethink its position on banning publications.
Sidney Jones, an expert on Jemaah Islamiyah at the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, said she did not think there was a direct link between books and DVDs promoting jihad and people becoming terrorists.
"I think there has to be an intermediary – people can read it and agree with it, but not get involved. It has to be someone using it in religious study sessions, and we've seen that," Jones said.
"It would be impossible to stop book and DVD publication and distribution, but there have been some efforts in discouraging the mainstream bookstores from stocking it... but you can get it anywhere."
Jones said the recently convicted JI group in Palembang was not indoctrinated by written materials. "It was direct face-to-face discussions," she said.
Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security analyst and author of "Inside Jemaah Islamiyah: Asia's Most Dangerous Terrorist Network," agreed with Jones.
"The guys that they get to go on these missions are not computer literate and come from rural areas of the country and are simple folk. I doubt they are [the DVDs and books'] target audience," he said.
The target, he said, would be someone who was more savvy – from an urban center. "Those aren't the guys who are blowing themselves up," Conboy said.
Arul, an employee at Toko Wali Songo, a large Central Jakarta bookstore that sells a number of books on the topics of jihad and extremism, said that since the July 17 bombings, sales of such publications had neither risen nor fallen.