T

he government has urged the House of Representatives to accelerate its deliberations on the amendment to the existing 2003 Terrorism Law so as to improve preventive measures.

Speaking during a meeting with the House Commission I and III on Monday, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said that Indonesia'€™s counterterrorism laws were still weak.

'€œWe have to immediately strengthen the authority of the National Police because we can'€™t detect precisely when and where a terrorist attack may occur. The best solution is to strengthen our preventive measures,'€ Luhut said.

Luhut said that, in the amendment, in order for the police to have sufficient time to stop a planned attack, the National Police should be granted the authority to arrest suspected terrorists, even if they had yet to act, with the ability to detain them for at least ten months, an increase from the current six months.

Attorney General M. Prasetyo said at the meeting that the country'€™s counterterrorism actions remains slow because the police were hampered in their ability to collect evidence.

He, therefore, recommended that the amendment stipulate that evidence collected by intelligence agencies be considered as valid evidence.

He also wants the amendment to stipulate clear prohibitions on making connections with those individuals or radical organizations abroad proven to have potential for conducting terrorism attacks.

'€œThe current law does not stipulate with regard to organizations that send combatants abroad to join radical groups,'€ Prasetyo said.

He also requested that the amendment prohibit military training abroad that is conducted by radical groups. Furthermore, the law should also stipulate clear punishment for those people or groups who join and or recruit people to join radical groups, or help such groups to prepare terrorism attacks by providing financial aid.

Prasetyo also said that there should be a strict and long-term monitoring of ex-terrorism defendants. '€œThey should be monitored for at least a year after they are freed,'€ he added.
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'€œThe current law does not stipulate with regard to organizations that send combatants abroad to join radical groups.'€

He further said that current deradicalization programs were not effective and that the country should have a more comprehensive deradicalization program, citing a statistic suggesting that at least 15 percent of the country'€™s 600 ex-terrorist defendants had repeated acts of terrorism.

However, the amendment may still take time to deliberate as pros and cons still being discussed among the lawmakers.

Abu Bakar al-Habsy of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said that the amendment was not urgent as he felt that the current terrorism law stipulated sufficient regulation for preventing terrorism.

'€œIt'€™s not about the regulation, but more about the implementation of it by the authorities in the field. Moreover, there have been many wrongful arrest cases toward suspected terrorists. We have to evaluate it first,'€ Abu said.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Effendi Simbolon said that the lawmakers had to support the amendment in order to strengthen the country'€™s preemptive measures. He also recommended that the Military (TNI) be granted a similar authority to arrest suspected terrorists as the police.

'€œSo we create a better special force to deal with terrorism, one that comprises both TNI and the police, so that TNI may be more useful,'€ Effendi said.