Three separate explosions – two of them bombing and another possibly triggered by a short circuit – rocked and shocked the capital Friday morning, killing nine people and wounding dozens more, including  foreigners.

We strongly condemn the terror attacks, as innocent people will always be the fallen victims of such inhuman acts. We also express our deep condolence for the victims’ relatives, as they have to endure grief and sorrow upon losing their loved ones. The government should be able to bring the perpetrators to justice, while the failure to uphold the law will be too costly for the nation.

It is too early to identify or find the motives, as there could be thousands of reasons for the bomb attacks. But how could these have happened?

Didn’t the police and the intelligence community have a clue that could be used to anticipate and prevent such attacks from happening?

Friday’s attacks, a sharp contrast to the recently completed July 8 presidential election and the preceding April 9 legislative elections, which were secure and peaceful, have only ruined the image of Indonesia, which is widely tipped to be the next emerging economic giant and a fledgling democracy after passing through a series of political and economic reforms in the wake of the 1997-1998 Asian economic crisis.

The attacks were at the expense of our economic development, as they came at a time when Indonesia has begun to win back the international community’s trust and confidence.

It is true the explosions like the three on Friday – two being set off at about the same time a few minutes before 8 a.m. at luxury hotels JW Marriott and the adjacent Ritz-Carlton, and the third one involving a pickup truck at the Muara Angke entrance to toll road in North Jakarta about two hours later – are considerably difficult to detect and speculate on.

But the fact that the two bombs exploded at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, which are known for imposing tight security inspections for incoming visitors, only adds to the level of suspiciousness of the attacks. And Friday’s attack on the JW Marriott was a repeat of the Aug. 5, 2003, attack on the same hotel, in which 13 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Common sense will then tell that either the executor(s) of the bombings at both hotels were familiar faces who drew no suspicion from the hotels’ security personnel, or that the executor(s) had access to both hotels’ facilities.

Also, the fact that the explosives used in Friday’s bombings were “high explosives” – as the police have said – also throws suspicion on claims the police and/or intelligence community may make that they knew nothing about it. It has become a public secret that such high explosives are not easy to acquire, with tight monitoring from the purchasing stage until delivery.

In line with the statement made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his televised speech Friday afternoon, we therefore ask the Indonesian police and other related institutions, including the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), to uncover the truth behind the bomb attacks.

We have experienced numerous bombings in the past – including the deadly October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, the August 2003 JW Marriott bombing and the subsequent October 2005 Bali bombing – and have had enough of them.

Currently, we are back at square one, as all our efforts, as a nation, to survive and recover from the 1997-1998 financial crisis and subsequent turbulent period in the early 2000s have vanished due to Friday’s bomb attacks.

Only through transparent and objective investigation by our police and security institutions into the attacks can we restore the trust and confidence of the international community and expect that the future will not be as gloomy as everyone predicts.

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