Camelia Pasandaran, Bogor – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on Tuesday for state an law-enforcement institutions to work together to prevent terrorism, radicalization and inter-community conflict.
"I invite you all, ministers, governors, military and police officers to cooperate and seriously uphold security and order among our people, to prevent and solve acts of terrorism," Yudhoyono said before a cabinet meeting on security at the Bogor State Palace.
"Prevention is better than cure," he said. "We should not neglect deradicalization."
Yudhoyono warned that the country was still beset by problems of terrorism, extremism and horizontal, or inter-community, conflict.
"Acts of terror still occur, and there are signs of radicalization in several corners of the nation," he said. "These three problems, if we let them, could disturb national security, and our people."
Yudhoyono said people's sense of security should not be violated, otherwise they would take actions into their own hands.
Meanwhile, Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in its latest report, "Indonesian Jihadism," that last week's suicide bombing at a police mosque in Cirebon was indicative of a growing pattern of "individual over organizational jihad."
This shift meant that extreme acts were increasingly carried out by small groups against local targets acting independently of larger organizations, the report said.
"The emergence of these small groups undertaking jihad on their own highlights the urgent need for prevention programs – which are virtually nonexistent in Indonesia", said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based senior adviser with ICG.
She said it was essential that vulnerable communities were identified urgently, starting with areas that have produced extremist groups in the recent past. Jones added that Indonesia also needed to create programs that might strengthen community resistance to extremist teaching.
The report pointed out that the small violent groups that emerged over the past couple of years in Medan and Lampung in Sumatra, and in Bandung and Klaten in Java, all involved at least one former prisoner.
Three had links to Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid, the organization founded by radical cleric and terrorism suspect Abu Bakar Bashir, but seemed to have planned and carried out operations on their own. Three of the four also involved mosque-based study groups that eventually became hit squads.
By contrast, advocates of "organizational" jihad believe that if the ultimate goal is an Islamic state, then public support is critical. Rather than engage in violence, groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and JAT are focused, for the moment, on building up a mass base, by finding issues that resonate with their target audience.
This means a greater focus on domestic rather than foreign "enemies," with officials such as the police, who are seen as oppressors, Christians and members of the Ahmadiyah sect the most common targets. It also means a greater willingness than in the past to form coalitions with non-jihadi groups.
"The last two years have seen an increasing merger of violent and non-violent extremist agendas in Indonesia," said Jim Della-Giacoma, ICG's Southeast Asia project director. "Counterradicalisation programs need to move beyond law enforcement to stop extremism at the source."