5 Ministries and The Pressing Issue of Freeing Abu Bakar Baasyir

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly explained that the government formed a team specially tasked to discuss strategies and the following implications of Abu Bakar Baasyir`s prison release.

Discussions were mainly the worries of freeing the convicted terrorist despite his refusal to declare allegiance to the NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia).

Such allegiance is a requirement for terrorist convicts that file for parole. “There is an essential procedure that has yet been fulfilled and we are still studying it thoroughly,” said Yasonna at his office on Tuesday, January 22.

The team consists of five state-institutions comprising of the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Coordinating Ministry of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, the Indonesian National Police, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The foreign affairs were involved because of a United Nations resolution regarding this matter,” Yasonna explained.

Each state ministry was tasked to deeply study the legal, ideological, and security implications of freeing a convicted terrorist. These studies were then reported in the meeting for further intense deliberations.

According to Yasonna, Abu Bakar Baasyir`s reluctance to declare his allegiance to the NKRI and Pancasila (Five State Ideologies) is a fundamental problem the team faces which is why they have yet produced a verdict but hopeful of Baasyir’s cooperation. “This is not an easy task, which is why we have yet decided.”

M ROSSENO AJI