John Aglionby, London – When Alexander Downer, then Australia's foreign minister, was asked in 2007 to name a country that had made good progress in tackling Islamist terrorism, he said: "Exhibit A is Indonesia.

"They have not always done as westerners have suggested they do," he continued, "but they have nevertheless done an extraordinary job in getting results."

During the past decade, counter-terrorism officials in the world's largest majority-Muslim country and its south-east Asian neighbours have had plenty of "results" to get.

Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda affiliate, and its splinter groups have perpetrated at least six big attacks in Indonesia, killing hundreds of people, and many smaller ones in their campaign to transform the region into an Islamist caliphate.

These included the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, near-simultaneous Christmas eve attacks on more than a dozen Indonesian churches in 2000 and bombings of five-star hotels in Jakarta in 2003 and again last July.

But helped by significant foreign training and funding, Jakarta has arrested more than 450 radicals since the first Bali attacks. All have been prosecuted transparently rather than being detained indefinitely without charge. More than 250 have been released. Only a few militants are thought to be at large.

Brigadier General Tito Karnavian, the head of Detachment 88, the Indonesian police anti-terror unit, believes the secret of the nation's success is the use of "law enforcement, prosecution and the judicial process". He added: "We do not use the military approach."

Sidney Jones, a regional terrorism expert with the International Crisis Group think-tank, said openness was crucial in winning over a public that had become increasingly anti-western.

"It was from the public trials more than any other source that people appreciated they had a home-grown problem rather than a conspiracy from abroad," she said.

Brig Tito also credits the deradicalisation strategy, which seeks to win over terrorists by paying for their children's education and helping them to find work after leaving prison.

Some officials remain doubtful about this approach's long-term efficacy, saying it is premature to judge something that is still being developed.

But Ms Jones credits Indonesia for tackling Islamist radicalism successfully in its prisons, institutions that in many countries are considered breeding grounds for militancy.

"The Indonesians were open to recommendations to reform and have made great strides in the last couple of years in bringing the prisons under control."

Yet analysts stress the conditions in south-east Asia are very different from those elsewhere. "It's a mistake to see everything as attributable to a better counter-terrorism strategy," Ms Jones said. "It can't be [regarded as] a silver bullet and copied elsewhere."

Robin Bush, an expert on Indonesian Islam at the Asia Foundation, a US-based body, said: "A latent minority voice was given political momentum by the general hostility towards the west. When things calmed down internationally, they calmed down here."

The absence of war in the region has been critical. So has the growing culture of democracy. "It has become possible to advocate legally for Islamic law in a way that it wasn't when JI got its start, under the Suharto dictatorship," Ms Jones said

But no-one in south-east Asia expects to eradicate Islamist terrorism. "It's an ideology," said Ms Jones. "There'll continue to be attacks but as more progress is made they should become fewer and further between."

[Additional reporting by Taufan Hidayat in Jakarta.]