Made Arya Kencana & Anita Rachman – Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar on Friday said radicalism and recent bomb threats called for the swift passage into law of a draft intelligence bill.

"Threats are everywhere, from bomb terror to NII. Is this not making it urgently needed?" Patrialis said, referring to the Indonesian Islamic State movement, a banned hard-line group with a goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the country.

He said that the revival of terrorism and subversion through NII was attributable to a lack of a strong legal foundation to support the work of intelligence personnel. Without an intelligence law, he said, agents could not work to their full potential.

The bill is being deliberated by the House of Representatives. Among its main points is to give the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) the authority to preemptively arrest suspected terrorists before they carry out attacks.

But such wide-reaching powers have drawn criticism from rights groups and lawmakers, who say the bill's provisions could be abused.

Patrialis, however, said that in the wake of mail bombs being sent to activists and others recently and a suicide bomber attacking a mosque on April 15, the state needed to conduct more intensive surveillance of radical groups such as the NII.

Tubagus Hasanuddin, the deputy chairman of House Commission I, which oversees security affairs, argued that the core problem with was not lack of intelligence-gathering but rather a lack of tolerance training for impressionable youths.

Hasanuddin, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker, told the Jakarta Globe that the ministries of education and religious affairs should move to shield students from falling under the influence of NII to narrow the field for potential radicals.

"The nature of the intelligence bill is repressive. It's not that urgent to deliberate the bill just because of the NII cases," he said. "Don't speed up or slow the discussion down just because of NII," he added. "Let's go with the normal [procedure]."

Hasanuddin also said the BIN already wielded considerable authority, and that the agency should focus its energy on the early detection and surveillance of radical groups and possible terrorists. "What's the use of arresting 100 people, but only two of them are true terrorists? " he said.

Deputy House Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso from Golkar said Patrialis's argument had some value and added that he agreed that the BIN needed greater powers to fight radicalism.

But fellow deputy Taufik Kurniawan from the National Mandate Party (PAN) said any additional powers granted to the agency through an intelligence bill should only be given with the consent of the citizenry.