Urgency Of A Wide Role For BIN On A Revision Of Terrorism Low

If the society and state agree that terrorism is classified as extraordinary crimes, the  state must be given a greater authority to launch a war statement against terrorism. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's instruction that his cabinet revised the law on terrorism failed to provoke the pros and cons of the issue as it is seen merely as a verbal instruction from the head of state and government.
 
Terrorism observer who completed his postgraduate study from the University of Indonesia, Erlangga Pratama, has assessed the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Sutiyoso's proposal for  revising the law on terrorism to enable the agency to have a wider role and authority in countering terrorism, particularly the authority to arrest the suspects. This idea should be appreciated  and it is not a mistake if, in the revision of the law on terrorism, we give a wider role for BIN in countering terrorism.
 
The reason for giving BIN a wider counter-terrorism authority is because in present-day Indonesia, democracy and human right can potentially be manipulated as a bumper or fender for terrorist groups to spread their organization's ideology and ideals and their influence to ordinary people.  In their point of view,  if the government authorities have decided to ban some organizations alleged to be part of terrorist groups, this kind of policy  will be blamed by pro-democracy groups at home and abroad.  
 
The other reason is that BIN is not in an authorized position to take actions for preventing acts of terrorism from happening though the intelligence apparatus have been aware of certain indications that the terrorist groups will take actions jeopardizing national security.  Intelligence just has the authority to inform and to make the condition unfavorable for the terrorist groups to realize their terror plans.
 
More importantly, our legal system and coordinating mechanism may be potential to create legal gap, which implicates a security gap. This condition can finally be used by terrorist groups for launching their terror attacks in our country.  The police have done a good job regarding the nation's effort to counter terrorism while the intelligence apparatus work on the basis of prevention and early warning signals. Thus, the primary mission of our intelligence apparatus is to give signals and initial reports  on potential threats to national security. Without having the authority to detain the suspected terrorists as stipulated in law construction, the intelligence agency cannot function its principle mission to prevent the occurrence of acts of terrorism.
 
In the meantime, when the intelligence apparatus give the initial reports and early warning signals to the police, the police have no legal authority to take action before the terrorist groups conduct their acts. Thus combating terrorism cannot be conducted at the maximum level. This condition has made the terrorist groups have a chance of launching their attacks against our nation, said Erlangga Pratama. “I am sure Soeleman Ponto as a former chief of Military Intelligence Division (BAIS) knows that very well.”
 
One more thing. When BIN has much wider role and authority for combating terrorism as suggested by Sutiyoso, all stakeholders of the national security must pay a serious attention to revise the Law on Terrorism. The idea of strengthening BIN's counter-terrorism authority is fully supported by Hendropriyono, former BIN chief who has now been a member of Presidential Advisory Council. Hendro pointed out that the idea of strengthening the  BIN authority on combating terrorism is based on a consideration that BIN will not be trapped like a German shepherd that can only bark without doing nothing  while a thief is entering our house because its legs are tied.

*) The writer is a researcher at Galesong Institute, Jakarta.