'€œTo achieve victory, we must mass our forces at the hub of all power and movement. In order to disarm the enemy, we need to find the center of gravity as its source of power, thereby we could deploy all of our capabilities, both physical and non-physical, with the sole purpose of controlling the center of gravity,'€ says Carl Von Clausewitz in the book written by Antulio J. Echevarria II entitled Clausewitz'€™s Center of Gravity: Changing Our Warfighting Doctrine '€” Again .

Clausewitz defined the center-of-gravity concept as the '€œhub of all power and movement, on which everything depends, the point at which all our energies should be directed'€. He observed centers of gravity as sources of moral and physical strength, power and resistance.

Indeed, they could be intangible factors, capabilities, alliances or leadership. Each combatant has a distinctive center of gravity at the strategic level of war, providing the critical link combining strategy, operations and tactics. In this regard, a strategic center of gravity is a prominent entity that is fundamental to carrying on the fight (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 6).

Within the perspective of eradicating crime in general, there are several elements that need to be possessed and conquered by every individual who wants to fight against those crimes. Those elements are man, modus, material, money and chance, and they are all associated to each other.

For particular crimes like terrorism and terrorist financing, an added element is the factor of ideology and the knowledge to influence others. For example, in the case of the Bali bombing, Imam Samudra played an important role in convincing his colleagues to commit the crime. Man, as the perpetrator, would not be committing any crime if he was not equipped with the tools or knowledge on criminal modus, moreover, if there was no chance at all.

However, from all those aforementioned elements, the two with the strongest determinants are money and man as the center of gravity. The AUSTRAC annual report 2014-2015 says that of the 81,074 '€œsuspicious matter reports'€, 536 were related to potential terrorist financing. The value of those was US$53 million '€” $11 million of which was in cash (The Australian, Nov. 6).

People with strong influence of power, whether it arises from their position or from prominent characters, could mobilize other people to commit crimes. The other people mentioned here are those with primordial or psychological relations.

However, it does not work the same way with money as the center of gravity, as with money someone could influence almost anybody who wanted the money and would not be constrained to those with primordial or psychological relations. In other words, if you have much money you can do anything.

This condition would be worse yet given individuals who no longer honor and uphold noble principles of life. They would neglect sins and shame in order to get the money and would do anything, including becoming terrorists.

Having identified money and ideology as the center of gravity, there is no other way to effectively eradicate crimes, particularly in the case of terrorism and terrorist financing anywhere, anytime, or by anyone than directing the prevention and eradication efforts at controlling the center of gravity in policy-making and at operational levels, such as:

First, establishing a system of Know Your Customers (KYC), which must be adhered to by reporting parties (both financial institutions and designated non-financial business professions '€” advocates, notaries, accountants, public accountants and financial planners) who are related to gathering, managing and accommodating funds from the public.

The KYC principle contains important information on customers, which is in line with the Indonesian Anti-Money Laundering Law No. 8/2010, particularly Article 18, paragraph 5, which reads: '€œThe principle of Know Your Customer must at least consist of: identification, verification and transaction monitoring of the customer.'€

Furthermore, paragraph 6 stipulates that '€œin the absence of a regulatory body, the principle of KYC shall be stipulated in the regulation of the head of PPATK [Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre].'€

Second, conducting national risk assessment in order to comply with Recommendation No. 1 of the Financial Action Task Force'€™s 40 Recommendations.

Third, proposing a bill on delimitation on cash transactions and a bill on in rem asset forfeiture to the House of Representatives.

Fourth, reinforcing the roles of the National Coordinating Committee on anti-money laundering, particularly on the implementation of a national strategy concerning electronic identification numbers.

Fifth, reinforcing the supervision of cross-border cash carrying through multilateral cooperation with neighboring countries.

Sixth, establishing preventive action on ideology-related issues through the educational system, de-radicalization programs and nurturing tolerance '€” for example via interfaith dialogs.

At the operational level, the efforts include conducting audits, both on a regular basis and special audits for reporting parties, keeping domestic lists in line with UN Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1373 within the framework of joint regulations between strategic institutions (the Supreme Court, Foreign, National Police, National Counterterrorism Agency and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) and establishing an interconnectivity database under the auspices of a National Coordinating Committee.
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The writer is head of the Indonesian Financial Transaction and Analysis Centre (PPATK) and lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Pancasila, Jakarta. The article was abridged from his paper presented at the Counterterrorism Financing Summit in Sydney on Nov. 17.

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