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New terror prevention plan must not lead to rights breach, Muslim groups say
Indonesia’s two biggest Muslim organizations say the government must provide details of a new policy that aims to tackle violent extremism and terrorism, or it could become a new source of conflicts in the country.
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Illustration of terrorism. (Shutterstock/-)
I
ndonesia’s two biggest Muslim mass organizations have urged the government to provide details of a new policy that aims to tackle violent extremism and terrorism, which includes community policing, warning that it could become a new source of societal conflict in the country.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed on Jan. 6 a presidential regulation on a five-year national action plan for the mitigation and prevention of violence-based extremism that could lead to terrorism. The document outlines strategies for detecting and preventing violent extremism and allows government institutions to run the action plan with the general public, including a plan to train people under a community policing program.
Muhammadiyah secretary-general Abdul Mu’ti said the government needed to be clear with its definition of extremism.
"[The government] needs to make sure that [the definition of extremism] is not linked to a certain religion, but [it is defined] in broad terms that could also include [aspects of] politics, culture and so on,” Abdul said told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He added that the document and community policing program could potentially encourage the rise of paramilitarism and social division if implemented without clear details.
In the regulation, violence-based extremism that could lead to terrorism was defined as “belief or action that utilizes acts of violence or threats of extreme violence with the aim to support or conduct acts of terrorism”.
Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) deputy secretary-general Masduki Baidlowi said the government must draw a line so as to avoid acts that could be interpreted as repressive as a result of implementing the action plan.
