29 January 2016

Editorial: Indonesia to Boost Deradicalization After Islamic State Attack

By Prashanth Parameswaran

Top presidential adviser says more funds are on the way for deradicalization programs.

Indonesia will look to boost its budget for deradicalization programs as the country faces a rising threat from the Islamic State (IS), a top adviser to the country’s president said Wednesday.

Speaking just weeks after terror attacks rocked Jakarta on January 14 and left eight people dead, Coordinating Minister for Political, Security and Legal Affairs Luhut Panjaitan said that the Indonesian government planned on increasing funding for deradicalization efforts in the Muslim-majority nation.

“We have not yet discussed it but we do have such a plan,” he said according to Indonesian media outlet Tempo.

Pandjaitan’s comments are the latest in a series of statements expressing concern about Indonesia’s deradicalization efforts after police revealed that one of the gunmen in the terrorist attack was a previously jailed militant who was indoctrinated into IS while behind bars. Experts say Arif, who was jailed for seven years but was released early in mid-2015 for good behavior, may have been gradually radicalized behind bars by his cleric cellmate Aman Abdurrahman but managed to hide this from the authorities.

Radicalization in prisons is hardly a new concern for Indonesia, and many similar concerns were heard when the country confronted the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah in the 2000s. According to Sidney Jones, a longtime terrorism expert who now directs the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta, pro-ISIS networks are still able to freely disseminate information and contacts in Indonesian prisons today since every inmate has ready access to a smartphone, while the dozens released every year after serving their sentences are not monitored by the authorities.

Read the full story at The Diplomat