TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Amid more intolerance, don’t welcome IS returnees
Instead of embracing returnees on behalf of human rights, the government must consider long term consequences if such decisions are ever made. #opinion
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A screen capture of Mariam Abdullah, an Indonesian in Islamic State camp in Syria, in a video by Tirto.id. (JP/-)
F
ollowing the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) movement at the end of March in Syria, Indonesia faces the question of what to do with some 500 former Indonesian recruits currently living in shelters. Tempo magazine has recently reported on the situation of the women in the refugee camps.
One gains the impression that those who fled from Indonesia to join foreign forces still have the right to receive sympathy from fellow Indonesians. Yet many people have expressed strong disagreement against such notions, as reflected on social media.
The cause is quite clear: that IS supporters left for their personal beliefs and interest, disregarding their status as citizens of a sovereign nation comprising people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Perhaps Tempo has forgotten about the victims of terrorist actions in Indonesia, who have endured hardships and trauma because of such misguided, violent actors.
Instead of embracing returnees on behalf of human rights, the government must consider long term consequences if such decisions are ever made. The primary considerations are that Indonesia is a pluralist nation and its leadership in ASEAN on countering terrorism is equipped with an action plan to prevent violent extremism. Embracing former members of a terrorist network does not appear consistent with this commitment.
Evaluations on whether Indonesia should receive IS returnees or not must also consider increasing intolerance of pluralism among Indonesians. To remain part of Indonesia, one should acknowledge collective values as reflected in the state ideology despite its challenges. Pancasila remains a foundation uniting all our differences since Indonesia’s declaration of independence in 1945, among a largely moderate nation.
A 2018 study by the Wahid Institute has revealed the increase of violent incidences related to extremist beliefs; and that youth, especially those aged between 15 and 25, are prone to extremism.
Similar results from other studies last year, among others, by Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UIN) and the forthcoming study on the “short-fused” tendencies of intolerance by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), apart from an investigation by Tempo magazine following the attack on the National Police’s Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Depok, West Java, last year show us that terrorism — not just violent extremism — has been creeping into state-affiliated campuses.
