July 26, p. 1
Officials from the National
Antiterrorism Agency (BNPT), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the
National Police have agreed that the TNI must take the initiative
domestically to curb religious radicals.
“We have demanded TNI’s
participation through its vast network of territorial commands to
persuade individuals or groups to abandon radical teachings,” BNPT chief
Ansyaad Mbai.
“For example, the TNI might visit a cleric who
spreads hate speech and radicalism during Friday prayers, and persuade
him to deliver more peaceful sermons.”
The TNI, Ansyaad said,
could also enlist the Babinsa, non-commissioned officers assigned to
villages to promote development, to counter radicals.
Your comments:
But why will a radical listen
more to an army officer and less to a police officer?
This is
like the police saying that they are incapable of handling simple
radical clerics and alike.
When will the TNI learn to be a
professional Army, rather than trying to find ways into internal small
issues and get a grip on power? The defense minister should be sacked,
if he permits such petty issues be handled by the Army.
Only, if
the matter was out of proportion, perhaps, could a larger security
force be involved. But radicalism is not a very big issue largely with
Indonesia. Corruption and poor human resources are a bigger problem.
Carlo
Bali
This
is a dangerous new move when a military defense force is tasked to
“domestically curb religious radicals”.
It will definitely turn
back the clock to Soeharto days. Who will curb the radical behavior of
the TNI let lose on religious radicals?
One has to ask whether
letting the TNI off the chain was their idea or is an official policy of
the elected government.
Who is in command and what guidance
will govern their new role? Are the police so bad that they cannot do
their job and have to call in the defense forces?
Will the TNI
now extend use of their new found weapon of a “smile” in Papua province?
Nairdah
Sydney
It is the role of the police to
enforce the law, not that of the military. The TNI should stay in their
barracks. We all know what kind of “persuasion” the TNI uses to deal
with perceived dissent. Look at the way the TNI treats civilians in
Maluku and West Papua, and all over the Indonesian archipelago.
As
for Pramono, that guy should first appear before a human rights
tribunal and respond to his alleged role in the Timor Leste mayhem in
1999.
Filippo Giancarlo
Jimbaran