C

oordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan is pushing to improve the country'€™s counterterrorism efforts by increasing resources for the National Police'€™s Densus 88 unit as well as revising the 2003 Terrorism Law.

Early on Friday, Luhut met with National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti for a discussion about what he sees as a lack of support for the counterterrorism squad.

'€œ[We talked about] the fact that Densus 88 still has some deficiencies and that the President has agreed to make improvements, so the counterterrorism unit can play a better role in the future, because the kind of terrorist threat we are dealing with now is different,'€ he said, adding that the government planned to fund better equipment and facilities.

The government has moved swiftly to announce its plans to strengthen counterterrorism measures following a fatal attack on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta last month. The attack, which claimed eight lives, including those of the four assailants, has been linked to members of the Islamic State (IS) movement in Syria.

Apart from pledging to allocate an additional Rp 1.9 trillion (US$142 million) in funds for Densus 88, the House of Representatives on Thursday opened the legislation process for revising the Terrorism Law, which is also a government initiative.

'€œWe also hope that [the deliberation on the antiterrorism bill] can wrap up quickly, because we want our country to be safe. We have all agreed that the police force needs more authorities [to tackle terrorism],'€ Luhut said.

Indonesia'€™s concern over possible future terrorist attacks is not unfounded, given that an estimated 384 Indonesians are thought to have joined IS in Syria. Furthermore, there are 598 former terrorist convicts walking free.

The Australian government recently updated its travel advisory for Indonesia, urging its citizens to exercise a high degree of caution in Indonesia as '€œrecent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia.'€

Meanwhile, Badrodin explained that Australia'€™s updated travel advisory was based on information Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian had conveyed to Australian authorities on the sidelines of a discussion on a criminal case.

'€œOf course, Australia also asked us about the Thamrin attack. We have been able to handle the situation well from the beginning and have even legally processed 16 people [connected to last month'€™s attack],'€ he said.

Since the attack in January, the National Police have arrested and detained 16 suspected terrorists and they are currently on the hunt for one other man allegedly connected to the attack. Furthermore, investigators plan to question two convicts who are already in prison.

Police investigators have temporarily concluded that the 16 suspects were connected to five radical groups across the nation that have plans to commit future attacks.

'€œSo, that is one problem that may be interpreted as a security issue, which is why [Australia] may have updated their travel advisory for their citizens who wish to travel to Indonesia,'€ Badrodin said.