Thursday, September 09, 2010 16:44 PM
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The nation was eager but paused upon monitoring media coverage Tuesday of the National Police’s determination to trace the whereabouts, pursue and eventually shoot dead three terror suspects, including the much sought-after Dulmatin — allegedly one of the masterminds behind the devastating 2002 Bali bombings.
The delayed shared feeling of relief immediately turned into a massive expression of joy as National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri confirmed Wednesday that the DNA test results on one of the three bodies matched perfectly those of Dulmatin’s mother, Masniyati, thus eradicating previous doubts of the authenticity and accuracy of the police’s operation target.
We therefore give a big thumbs-up to the police force for its success in diminishing — at least temporarily — the scope and range of terrorist activities at home and within Southeast Asia, as Dulmatin was a key player in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including foreigners, and who had since then reportedly been on the lam in the southern Philippine jungles, helping the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group’s activities there.
We express our deep sorrow for the deaths of three police officers killed while carrying out their duties in the massive police hunt for terrorists in the jungles of Aceh province recently.
The police’s success Tuesday was a repeat of last year when the police’s special Detachment 88 counterterrorism squad managed to kill the most wanted terrorist, Malaysian national Noordin M. Top, in an armed clash in Surakarta, Central Java, in mid-September.
However, the police should not rest on their laurels. Tuesday’s successful operation showed clearly that the threat of terrorism is still with us and will continue to haunt us.
Such an operation is considered a partial resolution of the problem of terrorism in the country and Southeast Asia. The police’s operations to run after, arrest and/or kill the terrorists will not be able to permanently tackle terrorism. As many observers and experts have said, arresting/killing the terrorists is like the routine activity of mowing the lawn — sooner or later they crop up again as time passes.
The root causes of terrorism — such as poverty, social injustices and misguided religious teachings — have a greater influence on nurturing terrorism. Therefore, more comprehensive and integrated measures are needed in an effort to permanently tackle the problem of terrorism here and in the wider region.
To make it a success, joint efforts from all elements of the nation — the people, the government, law enforcement agencies and NGOs — are urgently needed. They should join hands in settling the problems of poverty, including job unavailability, unemployment, and housing and food scarcity; establishing social justice through faithful implementations of the rule of law; and providing pluralistic religious teachings that recognize the presence and progress of different faiths and help settle differences in religious concepts and beliefs in a peaceful and democratic manner.
Those are indeed long-term and tangible measures that are difficult to perform. But that does not mean they are unfeasible or unattainable.
