A perusal of the backgrounds of the suicide bombers who wrecked havoc in Bali on Oct. 1 can serve to tell us a lot about why there seems to be no shortage of terrorists. Mat Sukarto, a 57-year-old farmer and father of one of the bombers, said he did not fully understand why his less-than-religiously-inclined son, Misno, had decided to take his own life in such a manner.

Mat told this paper, as reported on Nov. 14, that his last meeting with his 23-year-old son was in August, when he bid farewell as Misno set off for Batam island, where he planned to work in a hotel. Mat said he gave his son Rp 1.5 million (about US$150) out of his meager savings.

Terrorism is a complex issue that may be connected with one or more of the following elements: faith, patriotism, globalization, ideology, perception, alienation, belief and poverty. Mat's case underlines the vulnerability of the poor to becoming roped into terrorism. Terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and Dr. Azahari bin Husin may be rich, but not their foot soldiers. Tempo magazine reported this week that Azahari was guarded by his four accomplices when he was killed in a police raid in Batu, near the East Java town of Malang, on Nov. 9. All four accomplices came from the lower income brackets.

The fight against terrorism is a multi-pronged battle. The government can draft in more police and troops, boost intelligence capabilities, increase antiterrorism funding, set up special antiterror units, purchase state-of-the-art weapons, provide specialist training, and even permit foreign donors to assist Muslim religious schools (pesantren), but these are all only part of the story.

It is not enough for the government to be good at fighting terrorism physically, it must also be good at fighting poverty, perverted ideologies, exploitation of religion for short-term political purposes, corruption, and attempts to divert Muslims from the true teachings of Islam, among others things.

This represents a tough challenge. With its vast coastline, most of which is unguarded, it is not hard to see that Indonesia is looking at a long war before the terrorists are defeated.

Among the various challenges, poverty is particularly prominent as more than 135 million Indonesians live on less than US$2 a day, which means below the poverty line. Thus, more than half Indonesia's total population of 230 million people are virtually destitute.

So behind every small step on the road to victory against the terrorists, poverty will always be lurking in the background, like a snake ready to strike at any time.

After poverty, the next major challenges are corruption and the spreading of false Islamic teachings. Corruption is indirectly responsible for rampant poverty. Unfortunately, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has a poor record in this area during his first year in government.

Unlike terrorism, corruption is committed silently, far from the gaze of the public. Often, but not always, it is committed in luxurious office buildings and in high places. It is a silent killer responsible for keeping millions of people poor. Its effects are no less serious than terrorism. It is silent terrorism that is very difficult to eradicate. The fact is, no single government since Indonesia gained its independence in 1945 has ever succeeded in uprooting corruption.

Eradicating the evil of corruption will entail stopping the gravy train for those in positions of power and authority – something that could well prove next to impossible. With corruption still commonplace, mass poverty will continue and the terrorists will have no shortage of new recruits from the lower rungs of society.

Muslim leaders say that Islam has never taught its followers to kill innocent people. Since most Indonesians are Muslim, it is time for the people and the government to work together to rid this country of the scourge of deviant Islam. The pledge given by Muslim leaders last week to work to this end is a good start. The window of opportunity that has now opened must not be allowed to slam shut.