Jokowi Asks to Take Extraordinary Measures in Fighting Terrorism
22 May 2018 19:20 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo or Jokowi said an extraordinary action is needed to fight terrorism, which is an extraordinary crime. According to the president, Indonesia has been focusing on fighting terrorism in repressive (hard power) form of law enforcement, to hunt down and expose the terrorist network to the roots.
“Hard power approach is very necessary but not enough yet. It’s time to balance it with soft power,” said Jokowi when leading a meeting in Presidential Office in Jakarta on Tuesday, May 22.
Soft power as said by Jokowi is to put forward a preventive step. The preventative effort is not enough with deradicalization process for terrorist convicts but it needs to be supported with cleaning up the educational institutions in Indonesia from radicalism concepts.
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“Clean up the institution; starting from kindergarten, elementary and, middle school; high school, college, and public spaces, from the ideology of terrorism,” he said.
According to Jokowi, learning from the suicide bombings in Surabaya and Sidoarjo that involved children and women, the preventive step was important. The case indicated that radical ideology has spread in schools and families.
“This is a warning to all of us, a wake-up call, of how a family becomes a target of indoctrination on terrorism,” he said.
Jokowi commanded to integrate the repressive and preventive approach, so the prevention and countermeasures of terrorism could be more effective.