Dicky Christanto and Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Human rights defenders strongly rejected a proposal to extend the detention of alleged terrorists to two years without charges.
Activists from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Human Rights monitor Imparsial said the demand for greater power, including an extended detention period was excessive.
The main problem in combating terrorism, "is the failure of government to take preventive actions", Al Araf, a research coordinator from Imparsial, said Tuesday.
He said the counterterror law already authorized the police to arrest and detain people for seven days.
Article 28 of the counterterror law allows investigators to detain anyone strongly suspected of terrorist acts based on sufficient evidence, for a maximum of seven days.
The criminal law only allows an investigator to detain people without charges for a maximum of one day.
The activists were responding to a proposal by the head of the government's counterterrorism desk, Insp. Gen. (ret) Ansyaad Mbai, that suspected terrorists should be detained for up to two years. It was not the government's official stance as reported earlier, but his own view, Ansyaad said.
"In my personal opinion, a two-year questioning session would enable us to dig deeper", he said.
Usman Hamid from Kontras said the proposal was "excessive".
Al Araf said that in reviewing the 2002 law on terrorism, the focus should be on article 26, which permits the involvement of state intelligence to fight terrorism.
In response to Ansyaad's proposal, apart from earlier suggestions from the military and the Defense Ministry to further involve the military in fighting terrorism, legislators have largely voiced approval of either reviewing the counterterror law, or having a presidential decree issued in lieu of the law to enable the necessary changes of the law.
However, a review of the law in the near future is unlikely as the term for current legislators at the House ends on Sept. 30.
Apart from proposing a longer questioning period for alleged terrorists, Ansyaad added that it was likely that police would also need new regulations providing harsher penalties for those found guilty of inciting hatred in public.
"In the future we should no longer tolerate public agitators who incite people to hate or even kill other people just because they have a different color or religion," he added. He cited similar regulations in other countries that he said had significantly helped curb terrorism.
The Internal Security Acts in neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, have often been cited as effective policies to discourage terrorist activities.
So far those proved guilty of inciting hatred in Indonesia are only subject to up to one year in prison for violation of the Criminal Code.
Recent reports of police plans to monitor sermons at mosques for speech inciting hatred during Ramadan led to an uproar and police later denied the plans.
However police in Batam near Singapore said they had started watching over sermons as part of security measures during the holy month.