Heru Andriyanto – The terror plot against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently uncovered in West Java was part of a larger trend as militant groups widened their targets from Westerners to include state officials considered to be thoghut, or symbols of secularism, security experts have warned.
Two suspects were arrested in connection with the plot during a police raid in Bandung on Saturday.
Another crackdown, this one on a militant group that was conducting training in a forested, mountainous area in Aceh in February, uncovered a plot to assassinate state officials and dignitaries during the Independence Day ceremony at the state palace on Aug. 17, said Petrus Reinhard Golose, a senior officer who teaches at the National Police Academy.
He added that in the Aceh scheme, the president was also the top priority.
"The terror plot targeting state officials, including the Indonesian president, was meant to create total chaos in the republic. They were targeted because of their perceived role as thoghut," Petrus said at a recent discussion in Jakarta.
"The next aim was to accelerate the transformation of the country's democratic system into one controlled by Islamic law."
In the past, militant groups plotted attacks against former presidents BJ Habibie and Megawati Sukarnoputri, but nothing had come of them, Petrus said.
In the wake of last year's attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, police also uncovered a plot to launch a car bombing attack on the presidential motorcade. Officers later seized an old Daihatsu van loaded with explosives.
The Bekasi home where the van was found and the president's private residence in Cikeas were only about five kilometers apart, Petrus said.
"The explosives weighing 100 to 500 kilograms were allegedly prepared for the planned attacks on the State Palace and the president's private residence," he said.
Targeting state officials represents the latest evolution in local militant groups selecting their targets, Petrus said.
At first, militants attacked non-Muslims in areas prone to sectarian conflicts like Poso and Ambon. Then they attacked places seen as symbols of Western capitalism, such as KFC and McDonald's.
In the third stage, terrorists targeted embassy compounds and places frequented by foreigners, as seen in the attacks on two Bali nightclubs, the Australian and Philippine embassies and the two luxury hotels in Jakarta.
The weaknesses in the counterterror programs have allowed recidivism as militants continue to regroup and plot new attacks despite successful crackdowns after previous attacks.
Since the 2002 Bali bombings, authorities have arrested at least 500 suspected terrorists and brought about 400 to trial. Over the same period, however, militants have managed to launch a major attack nearly every year, while developing new tactics and widening their scope to take aim at state leaders and assets.
The continuing threat of terrorism, as emphasized by the latest reported plot targeting the president, reveals gaps in the country's counterterrorism, which is lacking intelligence support, a security official said.
"Intelligence has played a minor role in counterterror operations, while police are focusing on field operators. However, they have yet to reach the ideological leaders, the masterminds behind the attacks. That makes our response reactive by nature, while the initiative is in the hands of the terrorists," said Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the antiterror desk at the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.
Ansyaad also criticized the law on terrorism for giving police a limited window to arrest suspects that have not been charged. The law gives police only one week to arrest and investigate suspected militants. If no evidence is found, the detainees must be released after period expires.
Indonesia is composed of over 17,700 islands, often making arrests time-consuming. Deploying "special approaches" to extract information from suspects who normally operate underground also takes time, Ansyaad said.
After the hotel attacks last year, police killed Air Setiawan, a suspect who reportedly delivered explosives for a planned a car-bombing attack on the president.
"Air Setiawan was arrested and interrogated for his suspected role in the 2004 bombing at the Australian Embassy. But it took a long time to find the facts about his involvement, Ansyaad said. "When the detention period expired, police had to release him."
He proposed that the arrest period in terrorism operations be extended to six months. After suspects are charged, the detention period should rise from the current 180 days to a maximum of two years, he said.
Ansyaad also complained of the light jail terms for terrorists. A number of convicts who have completed short sentences have returned to terrorism, such as Abdullah Sonata, who was arrested in Klaten in June for planning to attack the National Police's anniversary celebration and the Danish Embassy.
Ansyaad also proposed that terror trials be consolidated. " The terror trials are usually held separately based on the jurisdiction area of the crime scene and that disperses the evidence against any militant group," he said.
We need a centralized court on terrorism with specialized judges and prosecutors," Ansyaad added.