By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesia needs to overhaul its anti-terror laws to curb the threat posed by extremists, the head of the country’s National Counter-Terrorism Agency said Thursday.
Ansyaad Mbai said Indonesia’s anti-terror legislation needed to be tightened to encompass hate speech, military training at home and abroad and verbal support for international terrorism.
"Our terrorist legislation is the softest law in the world," Mbai said in an exclusive interview with The Anadolu Agency.
In particular, Mbai said hate speech – speech or literature that incites hatred against specific groups – was an area that needed to be outlawed.
“We are proposing that the act of disseminating hate must be categorized as a criminal act,” Mbai explained.
Indonesia is believed to have provided the bulk of the estimated 200 South East Asian jihadists who have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and the region has seen the formation of an ISIL-supporting group, the Malay Archipelago Units for the Islamic State.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, lacks the laws of neighbors Malaysia and Singapore that allow for detention without trial. It does not ban speech that could incite hatred or intolerance.
This relatively laxity has allowed fundamentalist clerics to call on young Muslims to fight for extremist groups.
Police recently released Chep Harnawan, a businessman who says he is the leader of ISIL inIndonesia, despite his claims to have overseen the departure of fighters for Iraq and Syria.
National Police spokesman Brigadier General Boy Rafli Amar said his force could only monitor ISIL supporters. “If they have no record of terrorism activities, then they can’t be charged under our criminal law,” he said.
Mbai said most Indonesian legislation was reactive "whereas, for defeating terrorism anywhere, proactive measures are required.”
Even in prison, hate preachers have been able to spread prejudice with impunity, Mbai added, citing the case of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is serving a 15-year sentence for terrorism offences and acts as spiritual leader of extremists in the region. Ba'asyir has instructed his followers to fight for ISIL.
Mbai went on: "His actions are instilling hatred, spreading hostility against the state. Meanwhile, the prison are helpless because there's no regulation."
Terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said granted extra powers to the security services would resurrectIndonesian memories of life under dictator Suharto, whose 31-year rule was marked by military dominance, corruption and human rights abuses.
Ismail said hate preachers were not intimidated by the law because law enforcement agencies had lost credibility due to corruption.
"They should enhance public confidence in the police force," he told an Anadolu Agency correspondent.
He added that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had failed to act firmly against groups intolerant of minority Muslim groups such as the Ahmadiyya and Shia.
Research by Indonesia’s Social and Religious Study Institute has shown levels of intolerance among high school students in Semarang, central Java. A survey in 20 schools showed that 60 percent of students would forbid Muslims from uttering a Christmas greeting while more than a quarter wanted live under Islamic law.
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