Jokowi Instructs Police to Annihilate Cowardice Acts of Terrorism

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has asserted that the government will take decisive and forceful measures against terrorists committing terrors in Indonesia, especially suicide bombers, whom the president viewed as a cowardice act.

“This needs to be asserted, we will fight against terrorism and we will annihilate terrorism down to its roots,” said Jokowi today after attending a national coordination meeting in JIExpo, Jakarta.

Jokowi also mentioned that he had ordered National Police chief General Tito Karnavian to put an end to the series of bomb attacks that had happened since Sunday.

“I have ordered the police chief to act decisively in stopping these acts of terrorism,” said the president. 

Read: Rudiantara Urges Public Not To Spread Bomb Terror Contents 

Furthermore, the president also called on the House of Representatives (DPR) to immediately ratify the Law on Terrorism in the next House deliberation period, considering it has been in the making for the past two years. Jokowi also reminded the DPR that the government would issue a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) if it the Law on Terrorism was not ratified on time.

A series of suicide bombings shook Surabaya on Sunday, May 13, at three different churches and claimed 13 lives, including six that have been identified as a family that perpetrated the bombings. Another bomb went off in Sidoarjo and the latest exploded this morning at the Surabaya Police headquarters.

AHMAD FAIZ IBNU SANI