BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, July 29, 2009 Indonesian official urges changes in terror law
Indonesian newspaper Kompas Cyber media website on 28 July reported that the Head of the Counter-terrorism Desk at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Inspector General (retd) Ansyaad Mbai, said on 27 July 2009 that there are elements of Indonesian society which take a tolerant view of terrorists and their ideology. As a result of this stance, terrorists are able to find shelter. He pointed to the example of Noordin M Top, who even married [while on the run]. According to Mbai, this tolerant attitude is not found in other countries, including Malaysia. When terrorist leader Azahari was wanted by police, his family had to move about because they were not accepted in local neighbourhoods. In addition, Mbai believes that terrorist ideology is accepted and able to develop in Indonesia due to the lack of strong laws capable of restricting the activities of radical groups. He added that a legal framework was needed which supported the treatment of terrorism as an extraordinary crime requiring extraordinary measures. Mbai referred to France, where terrorists can be detained for long periods of time since authorities require sufficient time for investigations. Mbai recommended that Law No 15/2003 on terrorism be amended by including additional articles to strengthen and support the role of authorities, such as intelligence agencies. He said there was no need to create a new law since the legislative process in Indonesia was long and complex. Meanwhile, Edy Prasetyono, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, has pointed to the importance of strengthening intelligence agencies and eliminating inter-agency rivalry. Many departments and state agencies have a role in intelligence, including the Department of Home Affairs, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), the Indonesian National Police (Polri), the Attorney-General's Office and immigration. However, these institutions have not been well-integrated. According to Prasetyono, the community is concerned about terrorism, although perhaps this is still limited to when a bombing occurs. Most of the time, the community prioritises economic concerns and other necessities. Prasetyono said that the poor could easily be influenced by terrorist ideology. Meanwhile, the poor state of the resident administration system has also led to problems in the fight against terrorism, as it allows people to create false identities. In relation to this, the Department of Home Affairs has promised to finalise the Resident Administration Information System, one aspect of which involves [the implementation of] a national Resident Identification Number system by 2011. The Head of the Department of Home Affairs' Information Centre, Saut Situmorang, said on 27 July that once the system was in place nationally, each individual would have a single Resident Identification Number, which would be used for passports, driver licenses, tax file numbers, insurance policies, land certificates and other forms of identification. Saut said that all government agencies would be required to use the data from this system. He added that a fingerprint system would also be available to reveal all data pertaining to an individual. Source: Kompas Cyber Media website, Jakarta, in Indonesian 28 Jul 09 ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.35/2271 - Release Date: 07/29/09 18:07:00 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
