Jakarta – Despite making progress in clamping down on suspected terrorists, Indonesia lacks a comprehensive policy to combat terrorism and puts too much weight on responding to possible attacks rather than preventing them, security analysts say.
Terrorism should remain a high concern this year even as public attention starts to shift towards the 2004 general election, they add.
Analyst Edy Prasetyono, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), pointed out that about 70,000 foreigners had fought or trained in Afghanistan, of which half were from South-east Asia.
"But the government doesn't track their movements, so where are they now?" he remarked at a conference on Indonesia's economic and political outlook.
Mr Edy added that Indonesia's slack control over its sea and air space meant that people could move about easily without detection.
On the anti-terrorism Bill, Mr Edy remarked that it contained measures to take against terrorist strikes, but left out details on how to prevent them.
"How do we control the movement of people and their financial sources?" he asked. "The war against terrorism is a war of intelligence." Instead of being helpful in fighting terrorism, the antiterrorism Bill could instead pose a greater risk to civil liberties, Mr Edy said.
Rights activists have warned of a draconian law with which an authoritarian regime could suppress democracy.
"The government here must strike a balance between guarding security and upholding civil rights," said Mr Edy.
Sharing his views, military affairs analyst Rizal Sukma said: "What we need is a policy on combating terrorism – a policy that is comprehensive, coherent and integral." He said the government had so far focused its efforts only on responding to terrorist attacks, but the issue of preventing terrorism should be given more importance.
Since the October 12 Bali bombing, which killed more than 190 people, mostly foreign tourists, Indonesia has set up an anti-terrorist desk to bypass bureaucracy among the authorities that handle security affairs.
The police went out of their way to show steady progress in the Bali bombing investigation and have detained 15 bombing suspects with the help of the Australian police. Military anti-terror exercises also intensified in the wake of the bombing.
"For 2003, however, the issue of preventing terrorism, called counterterrorism, should be of greater importance," Mr Rizal said, adding that preventing attacks required measures on a much broader front than what the government had taken so far.
The government should do more about transnational crimes such as money laundering, arms smuggling and immigration issues, he said.
"If someone can easily obtain an identification card, while that person is, say, holding a Dutch passport, then we have a real problem here."