How Leaders Can Fuel Terrorism

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How Leaders Can Fuel Terrorism
Yohanes Sulaiman | September 12, 2012

There is good news and bad news about the latest rash of failed bomb-making attempts by the misguided wannabe-jihadists in Indonesia. 

The good news is that their failure means that the government, through good intelligence and increased cooperation with other countries, has managed to disrupt international terror networks. 

Many of the terrorists that caused bloodbaths in Indonesia in the early 2000s, such as the one in Bali, had good connections with the international jihadist network, notably Al Qaeda, that was cultivated in the 1980s, when many of their colleagues or superiors spent years fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Thanks to the strong connections, they were adequately trained in bomb-making and terror attacks by instructors in Mindanao, in the Southern Philippines, Pakistan or Afghanistan. That made them uniquely skilled in blowing up their targets and causing many casualties. 

The impact of successful training can be devastating. The Americans experienced it firsthand in Afghanistan and Iraq, where improvised explosive devices were used to cause many casualties. The use of IEDs is apparently so successful in Syria that Syrian soldiers reportedly don’t dare to venture too far from their bases, where tanks and other vehicles are vulnerable to attack. The Syrian rebels seem to have learned the art of bomb-making from Islamists that honed their skills in Iraq. 

The fact that the past few years have seen many aspiring terrorists fail in causing mass casualties, or managed to blow themselves up while making bombs, suggests that the international connections have started to dry up. Terrorist networks are not easy to build. There are many difficulties, notably the problem of trust. Who could guarantee that a new recruit is not a mole planted by the government in order to undermine the network? Or, having spent some years in prison, there are always possibilities that a former prisoner would either be closely watched by the police or has become an informant. 

With each successful crackdown on a terrorist network, it is becoming harder and harder for the network itself to maintain itself. This strain showed up in the recent explosions, or premeditated attacks like the ones in Solo. The police, with little difficulty, are managing to crack down on the entire network. 

Many of these people are simply lacking the proper training to handle and manufacture explosive devices, or more importantly, to create a strong organization that could launch deadlier attacks. 

While they can learn the art of bomb-making from the Internet, it is very different from the hands-on training that experienced instructors provided. Building a strong and deadly terrorist network requires a lot of experience, especially in the art of strategy, notably on the question of how and when to attack, to maximize the impact. 

The bad news about the latest rash of failed attempts, however, is that they also suggested that many of the wannabe jihadists are homegrown. It is easy to blame globalization, growing inequality, or the declining respect and adherence to Pancasila as the state ideology that cements the nation together, as the main culprits of the radicalization of our youth. That would be incorrect. It is the fault of irresponsible religious and political elites. 

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali labeled the Shia as a deviant sect. By doing this, Suryadharma provided justification for any attacks on the Shia community, while absolving the attackers from blame, since they are attacking the guilty party anyway. 

Similarly, sermons denouncing Buddhists for their attack on the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar — even though the majority of Buddhists in the world had nothing to do with it — provided a misguided justification for attacks on Buddhists everywhere. 

Not surprisingly, the wannabe terrorists who managed to blow themselves up last Saturday in Depok, West Java, were planning to target a Buddhist center in Jakarta to avenge the Rohingya Muslims. 

What is the right way to handle the rising radicalism in Indonesia? Aside from a strong deradicalization program, the government keeping the pressure up, and surveillance on any suspected terrorist networks, the best answer would be to tell the religious and political elites to stop denouncing others for short-term political gain. By providing justification for further radicalization of society, these people — our leaders — are sacrificing the unity of Indonesia on the altar of selfish personal interests. 

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zerodiversity

10:17am Sep 12, 2012

@ Pak Yohannes

The main problem is Indonesia does not have a real leader who places the country welfare in front of his own personal benefits and ambition as well as the political party benefits. Just take a look at how many ministers are allegedly involved in corruption and how many are really doing their jobs. Not to mention the large number of House representatives being absent from meeting most of the time and you have a government that does not work. A government that does not place the country welfare first will result in many people being dissatisfied and easily recruited into terrorism.

Valkyrie

11:06am Sep 12, 2012

Yohannes...

The people will 'listen' when their stomachs are filled and that they can honestly afford three square meals a day. their children would receive proper education and finally reliable medical services for the poor and needy. Short of any of the above, this country will be susceptible to radical influence.

Radicalism thrives on poverty too! It's frightening when we are told that almost 109 million Indonesians are deprived of clean water.

On another thread, I mentioned about the 23 trillion that was allocated for 2012 to cover travels.

The way to the hearts of the citizenry is through their stomachs.

jchay

11:34am Sep 12, 2012

The continuing problem is we let ourselves being put into different boxes (majority, minority, ahmadiya, sunni, shia, christian, chinese, papuans etc etc), and it is used as justification of discrimination or attacks.

When we start accepting ourselves as one: the people of Indonesia, what left is only the case of some criminals attacking or killing the people of Indonesia (regardless religions or race etc), and it is the responsibility of the Government of Indonesia to assure safety and protection for all Indonesian people.

devine

3:49pm Sep 12, 2012

Bpk Yohannes, although I believe the Ministry of Religious Affairs should not even exist it would alternatively be a good to at least extend the Minister with several Ministers, one of each religion. It is a known fact that the current Minister is called the Minister of Islamic affairs... so there should be a balance, either a Minister that equally respects ALL religions or as said above several ministers that should be allowed to speak out only after a common consent is found among them (vote i.e.)...

and jchay: yes! 100% correct, that would be the real solution!

DrDez

6:41am Sep 13, 2012

Some Indonesian politicians (in the name of Sunni Islam) fuel the hatred and therefore support and encourage acts of sectarian violence and even terrorism - and often as we see mob murder - with impunity from prosecution

In most developed nations they would be jailed or at least stripped of office. Ali is one such man - but there are hundreds more

Yesterday we read about attacks on the West because of some movie being offensive to Islam - well here and now many who are acting under the guise of Islam are offensive to humanity ... We in RI are on a slippery slope and our leaders via greed and/or religious motivation have allowed, nay supported their 'brothers' often openly - it is disgraceful - it is a crime

JC - but whilst a good number of Sunni Muslims push a violent agenda what the rest of us accept matters not one bit

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:35am Sep 13, 2012

Thank you so much for your kind comments.

@Zerodiversity: It is sadly the case. Most of the so-called representatives and officials are more interested in lining up their pockets than to actually serve. Truly a recipe for a failed state.

@Valkyrie: Poverty matters, but not really in this case. There's a study a couple years ago that actually stated that majority of terrorists had middle-class background or even rich people -- one reason, I suspect, is that these people actually have time and opportunity to actually read and think about this issue -- poor people are too much focused on their stomach and to feed their family. In Indonesia, the "middle-class" is a disputed term, so we might have a nice debate on this, but from what I observe from our suspects here, at least they have the ability not thinking how to feed their wives and offspring, meaning that they actually have some resources available, and this not that poor after all.

Yohanes-Sulaiman

7:39am Sep 13, 2012

@Jchay: I blame that on the short-sighted selfish officials that zerodiversity already condemned. If you don't have the ability to govern and can't make a case that you are a good official, the best way to still come ahead is to condemn others as heretics or kafir or whatever it is. It is politics of hate for selfish interests.

@devine: You raised a good point, but I don't think that's workable. Most importantly: the quality of the ministers. How could you expect that the quality of these six(?) ministers are high, when the one we have here is already a trainwreck with the big cheese doing nothing but composing songs?

Yohanes-Sulaiman

8:57am Sep 13, 2012

@DrDez: As long as they only receive a slap on their wrists, these people will not learn.

Solo Reveals Terrorists’ Power Is Waning, but What’s Next?

This article analyzes the changing nature of terrorism in Indonesia, that moved from Jamaah Islamiyah/Al Qaeda model to loose groupings.
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Solo Reveals Terrorists’ Power Is Waning, but What’s Next?
Yohanes Sulaiman | September 27, 2011

Policemen and their bomb squad vehicle guard the site of an explosion at a church in Solo, Central Java, Sunday. (JG Photo/ Ali Lutfi)

Before people start talking about the ineffectiveness of the national security forces following Sunday’s suicide bombing in Solo, or speaking about the rise of extremism, I would argue that this attack shows that both the police and the State Intelligence Agency have actually done a good job. Thanks to firm action by the government and the National Police’s counter-terror squad Densus 88 in pursuing and hunting down terrorists, the power of groups like Jemaah Islamiyah to stage deadly attacks has declined significantly.

The reason is simple. Terrorist groups are personality-dependent entities. They can’t easily trust others, lest spies infiltrate them. As a result, they recruit and get their funds based on the close relationship between one key member of the group to the other members.

Thus, the reason why Indonesia’s JI has a close connection with Al Qaeda is due to their working together in Afghanistan back in the 1980s and later interaction in Mindanao, the Philippines. Such closeness creates a sense of comradeship, and trust.

As a result, when Densus 88 and the intelligence agency known as BIN managed to eliminate, or at least contain, key people such as Hambali and Noordin M. Top, the link between Al Qaeda and JI was strained. The ultimate coup was the isolation of Al Qaeda itself in Afghanistan due to pressure from the United States.

With JI severely weakened, there are very few people in Indonesia who can recruit and train the new extremists in the art of bombing, let alone finance them.

This weakness was also evident in the most recent spate of bombings. Pepi Fernando, who allegedly sent book bombs to various prominent figures in Jakarta in March, did not receive any training at all. He learned the art of bomb making from the Internet. During interrogation, he actually claimed that he did it in order to get the attention of Al Qaeda, which he hoped would offer much-needed funding and training.

The April suicide bombing of a police mosque in Cirebon bombing and the Solo bombing, while traumatizing, were far cries from the sophistication shown in JI attacks. These involved dual suicide bombings with high explosives and killed dozens or even hundreds of people. In short, the power of JI in Indonesia is ebbing and the recent attacks, to put it bluntly, were caused by JI-wannabes, who would never be able to cause as much damage and casualties as the JI of yesteryear did.

Police unfortunately have not been able to adapt to the changing threat. The new, relatively small and very tightly knit terror groups are difficult for police to infiltrate. It is simply impossible to ensure that there won’t be any more attacks from these small groups without seriously infringing on human rights.

What the police really need is a smarter approach in dealing with suicide bombers.

Political psychology expert Jerrold Post has argued that some terrorists are “lonely, isolated, alienated individuals who find, through the Internet, a sense of community — a community of hatred.” In essence, many terrorists are emotionally disturbed people who are easily influenced by radical discourse that would provide a sense of belonging and purpose, regardless of how twisted it is.

It is tempting to argue that shutting down radical Web sites would be the best way to solve this problem. Yet, as the Americans found out, the radicals would simply move to other sites.

What we really need is to foster a society in which radicalism and suicide bombing are socially unacceptable. Denunciations of bombings by Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah are not enough, especially because radicals simply do not listen and pay attention to such mainstream groups.

The first step should thus be at schools. The quality of many religious teachers in schools is atrocious, however. This is reflected in an infamous Institute for Islamic and Peace Studies (LaKIP) survey that noted that 28.2 percent of Islamic Studies teachers were willing to commit religiously or morally motivated violence. A recent increase in the Religious Affairs Ministry’s budget should be used to make sure that only qualified teachers who back pluralism will be allowed to teach.

In addition, allowing groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) to disregard laws and act with impunity will only give the signal that the government is half-hearted in dealing with extremism. Their radicalism in turn will inspire many misguided individuals to push for more violent actions to “defend Islam” and will fuel the rise of new terrorist groups.

Once the government deals firmly with extremism to promote a pluralistic Indonesia, coupled with better religious education, society will start looking at extremism as unacceptable. This in turn will lower the appeal of such groups and cause their downfall.