The Roots of Terrorism

Today the National Police announced the identity of terrorist who blew himself at the Church in Solo, Central Java, last Sunday i.e  Pino Damayanto a.k.a Ahmad Yosepa Hayat (31) who was wanted by the Police for his involvement in the suicide bombing at the Police mosque in Cirebon, West Java, last April.

The mass media reported that Ahmad Yosepa and three others were prepared by the Cirebon Terrorist group to carry out suicide bombings.

As a normal human being, I strongly believe that normal human beings would never want to kill themselves and other people for decent reasons.

People who commit suicide to kill others are either frustrated or suffer mental depression or politically or religiously fanatic because of the situation and condition in their lives. Or, alternatively, they are brainwashed or hypnotized by other people who has the power to do so.

All of which can be caused by poverty, lack of education, lack of jobs, injustices, corruption, ugly political condition, etc.

Considering the above, I felt that terrorism cannot be eliminated just by eliminating people who are allegedly involved in any acts of terrorism like urging people to take illegal actions against other people who have different ideology or religion, and/or campaigning illegal actions to the society for example through the internet

Terrorism cannot also be eliminated by merely giving extra-power to the intelligence agencies whose ability and seriousness to detect acts of terror is under question. This is proven from the fact that the Solo bomb exploded just 5 months after the suicide bomb at the Police mosque in Cirebon, although the Police has issued a wanted persons list.
This can also be seen from the fact that violent organizations and website that advocate radical actions like arrahmah.com were allowed to exist.

The best way to eliminate terrorism would be by eliminating all the things that causes terrorism i.e. provide enough job, decent and inexpensive housing, schools, eliminating corruption, fair business competition, decent political practices, law enforcement based on equality before the laws, presumption of innocence and respect of human rights.

The Mysterious Suicide Bomber in Cirebon

On 15 April 2011, a suicide bomber blew himself inside a crowded Mosque at a Police station in Cirebon, West Java, injuring 28 persons mostly Police officers who were having their Friday prayer.

According to MetroTV, this is not the first time that the bomber, later identified as Muhammad Syarief, appeared in public. TV stations show that Syarief have participated in various demonstrations including beating a vehicle of the local Prosecutors office in Cirebon.    

Further, The Jakarta Globe reported that Syarief was suspected of killing an army officer i.e First Corporal Sutejo, and stabbed his friend Ali, in early April, because they heard him taking about the suicide bombing plan. Besides, he was also suspected of being involved in the destruction of a mini market.

The Police is still investigating the suicide bombing case, among others by raiding the houses of Syarief's parents, his brother, and his father in law.

The suicide bomb blasted exactly one month after the first Book Bomb exploded at Utan Kayu, East Jakarta on 15 March 2011, that caused a Police officer to lost his right arm. Unfortunately, until this moment the Police still unable to name a suspect responsible for the delivery of Book Bombs to certain public figures in various parts of Jakarta.

Considering that Muhammad Syarief was active in several public protests, destruction of mini market and suspected of killing an Army officer, I felt that it was very weird that he was able to enter the Police's Mosque without being noticed.

Under normal circumstances, a man with such reputation should have bein in the Police's Most Wanted Person List and monitored very closely by the intelligence network.

Happy Birthday Indonesia

On 17 August 1945, the people of Indonesia declared independence from the Japanese occupation and established the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia.

Later, the Dutch, who occupied Indonesia from the 16th century until the Japanese came in 1942, tried to invade Indonesia again, but after four years of unsuccessful military actions, the they gave up.

Since 1950, Indonesia faced separatist movements by local people supported by foreign countries who either want to turn Indonesia into an Islamic country, or a Federal country, or a Communist country.
On 30 September 1965, seven high ranking Army officers were bloodily killed, and the Army accused that the Indonesian Communist Party were responsible for this.

On 11 March 1965, President Soekarno handed power to Army General Soeharto, who later became president and hold power for 32 years. Soeharto successfully maintained stability especially in the fields of Economy, Politics and Security because he was fully supported by Western countries like the USA, Australia, Japan and Western Europe. Besides, he built effective intelligence networks, special security agency, and maintained an Anti-Subversive Law which enables unlimited arrest without warrant. He limited the number of political parties into 3, Golkar, PDI & PPP which must adopt one ideology i.e Pancasila i.e. five principle: Belief in God, Unity, Democracy, Humanity and Social Welfare.

After the Reformasi (Reform) on 20 May 1998 Vice President Habibie replaced Soeharto as president. In 1999, Megawati’s PDI won 35% votes in the General Election, however she only became Vice President, and Abdurrahman Wahid became President. During his term, several changes were made like: deletion of Anti Subversive Law, allowing fanatic religious movements. Two years later, Megawati became President.
Since 2002, some fanatic people who claimed to be Muslim and want to force the adoption of Middle East tradition have carried out campaign of terrors by killing themselves and hundreds of innocent people (many were Muslims) in Bali, Poso, Ambon, and Jakarta.

In 2004, the first presidential election was held and Soesilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) won with 60%. But considering SBY’s Partai Demokrat only got 7% in the Parliamentary election, therefore his 5 years term seemed to be ‘shaky”. This is obvious because SBY must to rely on the support of Vice President Jusuf Kalla and his Golkar Party who has the majority 25% seats in Parliament.

Last week, the General Election Committee (KPU) announced SBY’s Partai Demokrat as winner of the Parliamentary Election with 20% votes, and SBY as winner of the Presidential election with 60.8% votes. Therefore, SBY will once again be the President of 235 million people of Indonesia as the world’s largest Muslim country and the third largest democracy.

Earlier, on 17 July two Suicide Bombers made twin attacks on Hotel JW Marriot and Hotel Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, killing five innocent people and more than 50 wounded. In three weeks, the Police successfully identified those responsible and killed or captured some of them.

Considering the above, I hope that the President would now be more confident in leading the people to overcome any problems created by anyone, individual or group, local or foreigners, whatever their basis (politic or religion). The best way would be to eliminate any reasons for people to commit suicide bombings or other crimes that is by creating many jobs and low cost education. For which purpose, a conducive condition must be created for business development, e.g. freedom from any fear, guaranteed security, so that business people would want to invest money in Indonesia.

Long live Indonesia, Happy 64th Birthday!

Image: Courtesy of Wikipedia