Indonesia Studies

When most college students think about terrorism or related topics such as weapons of mass destruction, they probably think about places like the Middle East, North Korea, maybe Russia, etc. They probably do not think about Indonesia. Yet Indonesia is also a site of terrorist attacks. More importantly, as the world’s largest Muslim-populated nation, Indonesia has taken an active role in the global war on terrorism, especially with its policies towards North Korea and Iran, according to its ambassador.

More than 80 percent of the population of Indonesia’s 17,000+ islands is Muslim and there are two major Islamic groups claiming over 90 million followers, although Indonesia is not an Islamic country, the ambassador insists. “We are following a more moderate culture of religion rather than an extremist or radical one,” Parnohadiningrat explained. “The war on terrorism will not undermine Indonesia’s democratic transition,” the Indonesian Ambassador to the United States, Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, said in a recent forum at the National Press Club. Groups such as Amnesty International have taken issue with various Indonesian policies in the past.

The ambassador reported that to combat terrorism Indonesia has implemented two general approaches: 1) The short term approach which intends to directly disrupt the activities of the terrorists and terrorist groups through police intelligence gathering, better control of border crossings and monitoring of information sharing, and 2) The long term approach which intends to deal with the root cause of terrorism and focuses on terrorist ideologies and religious extremism. The Indonesian Ambassador believes that these approaches will help globalization, and by following this general strategy more than 300 alleged terrorists/ terrorism advocates have been arrested in Indonesia in the past five years.

Indonesia works very closely with the Australian police, and other neighboring countries like the Philippines to help in the global war on terror, the ambassador reported. In fact, Indonesia and Australia combined forces to establish the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC), which helps to “uproot and crush terrorist organizations in Indonesia,” as the ambassador puts it.

Indonesia is being very active in their foreign policy with Iran and North Korea, in hopes of cracking down on terrorism in those countries as well, the ambassador claimed. “Indonesia has friendly relations with both Iran and North Korea,” Parnohadiningrat said. The ambassador also made clear that Indonesia renounces the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Indonesia also encourages Iran to “abide by all the provisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to the ambassador.

As part of its foreign policy relations with North Korea, Indonesia attempts to be the mediator for North Korea and South Korea. “It’s a country we think we can do something about…we feel obliged to do something in North Korea, even though we are a small country,” Parnohadiningrat said in response to questions concerning Indonesia’s ability to mediate in such a hostile region.

Indonesia also shared the concerns of the international community over the missiles test-fired by the DPRK on July 5th, and urged North Korea to “re-establish its moratorium on missile testing.”

So how active is Indonesia being with Iran in this global war on terror? “We fully adhere to the Non-proliferation treaty. We fully implement the treaty, and encourage other countries to do the same. There is still room for negotiations with Iran, and they can respond positively to the ‘six party talk’,” Parnohadiningrat said.

“We would like to see North Korea and Iran actively participate in this aspect of the Non-proliferation treaty.”

In light of the recent terrorism scares in the United Kingdom that so greatly affected airport security and traveling in the U.K. and the United States, the Indonesian Ambassador said that his country “works very closely with the Department of Transportation in the U.S. to help combat the airport terrorism scares that we are recently experiencing.”

The essence of cooperation is working to address the practical issues that will strengthen Indonesian capacity to deal with terrorism. “We focus on what we (Indonesian and American governments) can do together to combat terrorism.”

Elizabeth Young is an intern at Accuracy in Media, Accuracy in Academia’s parent group.