The week in review: Terrorists around us

The week began with a suicide bombing that rocked the Central Java town of Surakarta, injuring 22 congregation members of the Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (GBIS). Regardless of the low explosive used in the attack, Sunday’s bombing was another slap in the face to the country’s security and intelligence institutions.

The bombing was the fourth in the archipelago this year after a small blast in Lubuk Linggau, South Sumatra, in June; a suicide bombing in Adz-Dzikro mosque in a Cirebon Police compound in West Java in April; and a series of parcel bombs sent to, among others, the founder of the Liberal Islam Network in East Jakarta in March.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has indicated that there is a connection between the Surakarta bombing and April’s suicide bombing in Cirebon. The National Intelligence Agency (BIN) said the latest attack was committed by a lone agent without external support, in contrast to previous group-supported bombings, making it difficult for the agency to have detected, let alone preempted, the bombing.

Two-thumbs up should go to Surakarta Mayor Djoko Widodo for immediately gathering local religious and community leaders to strengthen the sense of harmony and unity of the people in the sultanate city.

The incident shows that Indonesia is yet to be rid of the threat of terrorism. It would not be asking too much, however, if the public expected the police and security forces to improve their performance in anticipating future attacks.

The public realizes that preventing acts of terror will never be easy. Therefore, security agencies need to involve  all elements of the nation. Hopes abound that efforts to  prevent future terror attacks will receive a boost after the House of Representatives finalized the intelligence bill on Thursday.

***

Tragedy evolved with fatal accidents involving sea and air transportations this week. On Thursday, a Casa 212 plane, operated by Nusantara Buana Airlines, crashed in Langkat en route to Alas Leuser Airport in Kutacane, Aceh, shortly after leaving Medan’s Polonia Airport.

A joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team announced Friday that it had found the wreckage of the ill-fated aircraft. According to initial observations, none of 14 people aboard the plane, four of them crew members, survived the crash.

Vice Marshall Dariyatmo of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said one of the agency’s helicopters had discovered the aircraft in a tree on a steep slope in a hilly area of Leuser National Park. Apparently, the aircraft had crashed into the slope, with its nose completely crushed, while most of its body remained intact.

A day earlier, eight people were killed and 55 others injured in a stampede aboard the KM Kirana IX ferry at Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya. The incident occurred as panicking passengers jostled to disembark after a truck laden with garlic caught on fire inside the ferry, which was ready to set sail for Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

The fatalities, seven of whom were women, are believed to have died due to a lack of oxygen after being trampled by passengers who were rushing to get down the stairs.

Both accidents were the fourth of their kind for both airplanes and sea vessels in the archipelago in September.

These accidents have cast doubt among passengers over the safety standards of the country’s public transportation. Even though the government has announced numerous times that it would improve the safety standards, there has been no major steps made by the authorities. Human error and bad weather have often been blamed.

Without any extra efforts to improve safety standards of public transportation, accidents will remain inevitable and more lives will be lost.

***

Meanwhile, the rift between lawmakers and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) stole the public’s attention after the House of Representatives’ members threatened to discontinue deliberation of the draft 2012 state budget in a show of resistance to the antigraft body’s move to question the House’s budget committee members in connection with alleged corruption linked to government projects.

It was a relief on Thursday that the lawmakers finally regained their common sense and agreed to continue the budget talks, arguing that they were mandated to do so by the Constitution.

Lawmakers Melchias Markus Mekeng of the Golkar Party, Tamsil Linrung of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Mirwan Amir of the Democratic Party and Olly Dondokambey of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) were questioned by the KPK over a high-profile bribery case centering on a Manpower and Transmigration Ministry project to build resettlement areas in Papua. The committee was alleged to have imposed a “commitment fee” on the company winning the Rp 73 billion (US$8.03 million) contract.

The House then invited leaders of the KPK, the National Police and the attorney general to attend a consultative meeting on Thursday, aimed at raising law enforcement bodies’ awareness of the House’s budgeting authority and mechanism.

None of KPK leaders showed up, however, citing the presence of committee leaders implicated in the graft case. The antigraft body leaders said they just wanted to maintain the KPK’s credibility.

As the government is painstakingly struggling to fight corruption, we hope the KPK continues to maintain credibility by investigating high-profile cases without discrimination. We also hope the lawmakers — many of whom have seen their colleagues been put behind bars for corrupt practices — display commitment to the antigraft campaign.

— Primastuti Handayani