JAKARTA - Indonesia is stepping up efforts to combat religious radicalism,
officials said Tuesday after a spate of terror-related incidents, but analysts
accused the government of churning out empty rhetoric.
Vice President Boediono announced
a "deradicalisation" programme involving 24 government ministries and
agencies after a closed-door meeting with ministers and counter-terrorism
experts.
"This deradicalisation
blueprint must certainly be comprehensive to achieve our goals," he said
on his website, without giving details. Like many Indonesians, Boediono goes by
one name.
Officials said the programme is
still being worked out and is expected to be implemented next year.
Indonesia has won praise for
rounding up hundreds of Islamist militants since it became a key battlefield in
the "war on terror" in 2002 when local radicals detonated bombs on
Bali island, killing 202 people, mainly Westerners.
But analysts say Islamic radicalism
and religious intolerance are on the rise, blaming the authorities for failing
to crack down on violent vigilante groups in the world's most populous
Muslim-majority country.
"I'm extremely sceptical
about the latest initiative. The government hasn't done enough. It has always
been rhetoric, without a single, concrete effort by the government that we can
see, touch and learn from," terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail told AFP.
The latest government
announcement comes after a spate of terror-related incidents, including last
week's explosion at a house suspected of being a bomb workshop in Depok, near
Jakarta, in which three people were injured.
Earlier this month, a shootout in
Solo in central Java left two terrorist suspects and an anti-terror officer
dead.
An Indonesian terror suspect who
surrendered himself Sunday had confessed to a suicide bomb plot against
Buddhists in Jakarta to protest against Myanmar's treatment of Muslim Rohingya.
Ansyaad Mbai, who heads the
country's National Anti-Terror Agency (BNPT) tasked to facilitate the latest
initiative, said "the government is now in one voice in its commitment to
fight terrorism."
"It's not enough to be
reactive, taking action only after something happens. Ministries have a role to
play to fight terrorism and radicalisation, laws must be strengthened, we
cannot let terrorists win," he added.
Mbai suggested the government
could take steps such as shutting down websites which spread religious hate and
providing rehabilitation to convicted terrorists released from jail.
He said recent incidents
indicated that "terrorism is still alive although the old key players were
dead or behind bars."
- AFP/ir
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