Rendi A. Witular and Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Amid growing religious radicalism that often ignites acts of violence, and a history of major terrorist attacks in the last 10 years, the fight against terrorism and radicalism may risk losing steam.

The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), which has been on the frontline of this battle for the last two years, has fallen victim to the Finance Ministry's budgetary efficiency, aimed to accommodate the ballooning fuel subsidies triggered by soaring global oil prices.

This year's diminutive budget for the agency, which mostly carries out intelligence work to detect and prevent terrorist threats, has been further cut by 27 percent to a mere Rp 92 billion (US$9.7 million).

The BNPT's chairman, Insp. Gen. (ret.) Ansyaad Mbai, said the cuts had been made amid the agency's aggressive measures to prevent the seeds of terrorism by "facilitating and empowering" moderate Muslims to work against the proliferation of radical groups.

"These cuts will severely impact our operational budget for uncovering terrorist networks, and preventive measures through partnerships with moderate religious leaders and groups," said Ansyaad in a recent closed-door hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission III on legal affairs and security.

With many top terrorist leaders either killed in police raids or in custody, Ansyaad said the agency was planning to allocate more resources this year and next to help prevent moderate Muslims from falling under the sway of radicals.

Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population, has not seen a major terrorist attack since the bombing of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in 2009. However, based on the agency's studies and interrogations of terrorist convicts, the seeds of terrorism continue to flourish.

According to the BNPT, there is a growing trend in which radicals take over mosque management from followers of moderate Muslim groups Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah – the country's largest and second-largest Muslim organizations, respectively.

"Mosques are key sites for the spread of radicalism. People are lured into radicalism by listening to radical preachers during Friday sermons," said Ansyaad. "Then they are encouraged to join smaller preaching groups before being recruited into terrorist cells, and at the ultimate extreme, committing suicide bombings."

According to BNPT data, although around 80 percent of mosques in Greater Jakarta are still under the management of either the NU or Muhammadiyah, the figure is gradually declining, and radicals have started to infiltrate staff at most of the mosques.

Preventive measures are coordinated by the BNPT, which has the immense task of monitoring around 800,000 mosques and 40,000 registered Islamic boarding schools in a country whose territory is larger than the eurozone.

The Religious Ministry's director for Muslim development, Ahmad Jauhari, said there had been attempts at preventing radicalism in mosques for the past couple of years through the distribution of religious materials, both in print and sermons.

"We've been doing this for some time," said Jauhari, whose directorate is responsible for the de-radicalization program. "But the budget for such measures is still small."

While Jauhari declined to disclose any figures, the ministry's financial reports revealed that less than Rp 30 billion is allocated annually for "de-radicalism" efforts, which is comparable with the maintenance budget for five Presidential Palaces.

"The budget allocation does not reflect the President's policy on preventing radicalism and terrorism, and keeping the country safe," said House Commission III member, Eva Kusuma Sundari. "Budgetary efficiency seems to be sacrificing the essentials," she said.

Commission III deputy chairman Nasir Djamil said the commission would lobby the Finance Ministry and the House's budget committee to leave the BNPT's budget intact.

"We'll fight for it. It's for the public's safety. The worst-case scenario is to have the National Police share its budget with the BNPT in terms of intelligence work, and other ministries or agencies for de-radicalization programs," he said.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said the decision to cut the budget was made based on the evaluation of the agency's past performance. "Budget cuts depend on a reward and punishment mechanism. If they spend less, then their budget will be cut. Budget allocation also depends on whether ministries or agencies have new initiatives or not," he said.

Budgetary efficiency was proposed in April, after lawmakers opposed the government's plan to raise fuel prices in order to cut ballooning subsidies worth more than Rp 130 trillion.