A police officer combs the blast site allegedly from a suicide bombing act in Kampung Melayu terminal, East Jakarta, Wednesday (24/5). Three police officers and two civilians believed to be the suicide bombers were killed in the incident.
The deliberation of the Antiterrorism Bill seems to be so slow in the House of Representatives at a time when the threat of terrorism is clear.
Bombs in Manchester, Britain; bomb blast in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, and crisis in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, indicate a real terrorism threat. The city war between the Philippine military and the Maute militant group in Marawi City has the potential to have an effect on Indonesia. Indonesia will become the closest entrance as the impact of the conflict. Even as quoted by this daily, there are 11 Indonesian citizens in the southern Philippines.
The real terrorist threat should awaken our awareness that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) followers and sympathizers are already in Indonesia and carrying out their actions in Indonesia. Will this situation continue to be left without attention, while our social order continues to be disrupted? The terror perpetrators in Kampung Melayu linked to ISIS targeted police officers. The police have the duty to maintain security and social order.
The Antiterrorism Law in lieu of Law No. 15/2003 on the fight against terrorism crimes is badly needed so that the deliberation of the bill should be accelerated. The spirit of Law No. 15/2003 was how to criminalize the Bali Bomb perpetrators in 2002.
The situation with regard to the threat of terror has changed. The National Police need a legal basis to prevent acts of terror in the country. The government submitted the draft revision of Law No. 15/2003 following the bomb blast in the Thamrin area in January 20016. Since the Thamrin bombing, in January 2016, there have been six terror acts, including the bomb blast in Kampung Melayu, meanwhile there has not been much progress in the deliberation of the Antiterrorism Bill.
Indeed, several articles of the Terrorism Law can be considered to violate human rights, such as in relation to the period of detention, involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in counterterrorism operations, and the polarization between national security and civil freedoms.
The social condition changes must be reflected in the law, with the consideration of deradicalization programs or Indonesian citizens who join terrorist groups overseas. The problem must be resolved. Do not let a terror act happen again while Senayan politicians are still engrossed in debate over the revised draft of the Antiterrorism Law.
