Suhardi Alius: Radicalism grows during extracurricular activities

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - On July 20, President Joko Widodo appointed Pol. Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius to head the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) to replace Tito Karnavian, who was recently appointed as National Police chief. He flew straight to Poso in Central Sulawesi, following his swearing-in ceremony to observe the location where the Tinombala joint task force had shot and killed terrorist suspect Santoso on July 18.

Suhardi stressed that BNPT must always anticipate all forms of terrorism, including the new trend of crashing a car onto crowds of people, like what happened in Nice, France on July 14. "In the past, it was bombings. People hated bombs. Bombings meant failure," Suhardi said during a visit to the Tempo office last week.

When he was reassigned from his position as chief of the Police crime investigation unit in January 2015, Suhardi's name somewhat disappeared from the radar screen. He was then appointed as first secretary of the National Defense Institute (Lemhanas) before his current appointment as BNPT chief. "When I no longer held the position of crime investigation chief, a reporter said I had been exiled to Lemhanas. I scolded him and told him that Lemhanas was an honored institution whose task was to train national leaders," recalled Suhardi. Excerpts of his conversation with Tempo:

After Santoso's death, what other major threats do you see? 

Evidence of his influence (acts of terrorism) still exists.

Should terrorist suspects be pursued and shot to death? 

I don't look at the process, but there is an SOP (standard operating procedures). Nothing is sudden, there are sequences.

Is killing terrorists the only way to stop their actions? 

People's expectations continue to rise. Before, when bombs exploded, we were expected to solve the case immediately. Today, people don't want bombings at all. When one does happen, it means we have not succeeded. So, we work without stop in order not to fail. Many Densus (counterterrorism unit) members don't come home for months. We need to see what we're doing clearly, particularly when the public is so concerned about human rights. Yet, development is about ensuring security and stability and one of the threats is terrorism. If there is fear, how can we persuade people to invest (in the country)?

Should old pockets of terrorism like Bogor, Tasikmalaya and Bima continue to be monitored? 

The monitoring must be intensified, because there are pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) that have not previously been watched, where the teachers don't allow students to honor the flag or sing the Indonesia Raya national anthem. But we (law enforcement) are unlikely to be monitoring them up close, so we ask the help of (religious groups) NU (the Nahdlatul Ulama) and the Muhammadiyah. This is not an easy job. This is the social responsibility of all people.

What about the information technology used by ISIS? 

That's the difference between the old and the new terrorism. The old school needed to meet physically, form friendships and family relations. It used to be the physical world, today it's the cyber world. Instructions come through the Internet. We understand that Bahrun Naim (suspected mastermind of the Thamrin bombing) got his instructions (from ISIS) in that way. Self-radicalization is a dangerous thing. Who ever thought that a terrorist can act on his own? A person can be brainwashed through the Internet. He can find his own amaliah, such as in the case of Nice in France. The man had no bombs but he had an armed truck so he rammed it into a crowd of people. Those are the kind of acts we must be prepared for.

So what preventive steps should BNPT take today?

Well, in protecting citizens, the most likely problem is the continuing growth of radicalism and how to address it. This means deradicalization is not just for those affected, those serving time in jail but also their families. I told the President, "When there are 100 terrorists, there will be 100 communities that we must look at whether they have radical views." This is what we need to look at first. So, we meet with the religious leaders from the NU and the Muhammadiyah. Last Monday (August 8), we also met with Father Magnis Suseno. All methods are considered halal (permissible) by ISIS.

Is blocking radical websites an effective deterrent? 

They cannot all be blocked, they would just make new ones. Surveys show that 20 percent start up again. So, their home addresses and location of their families must be mapped. Efforts must be made to influence them because they could potentially become radicalized. We had a discussion recently with the director-general of corrections at the justice and human rights ministry, which oversees 72 penitentiaries and detention centers that fear radical doctrine and ideology. Unfortunately, they have limited personnel (manning the prisons). (*)

Read the full interview in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine