Indonesian authorities bet on "soft" approach when it comes to the anti-terror fight, Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told a forum.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The government of Indonesia is following a "soft" approach to combating terrorism and preventing it gaining widespread support in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Pandjaitan stated.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The government of Indonesia is following a "soft" approach to combating terrorism and preventing it gaining widespread support in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Pandjaitan stated.
"Indonesia very stable and very secure… Most of the terrorists have low education and work [in] low sector… That is why we emphasize the soft approach," Pandjaitan told the forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Tuesday.
Indonesia continued to enjoy great success in preventing terrorist organizations carrying out major attacks and in preventing them from winning popular support, Pandjaitan, a retired senior general and former chief of staff to President Joko Widodo stated.
"The biggest problem today is the lone wolf. [He is] very hard to [prevent]… We don't want to use the hard approach. The military approach is the last option for us," he explained.
The Indonesian government preferred to work with mainstream Muslim religious authorities to prevent and discourage terrorism and to educate the public against extremism, Pandjaitan added.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.