The Jakarta Post, December 26, 2003
2003: A year of living in fear of terror
Kanis Dursin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Ever since his wife told him in early November that she had to go home to Hong Kong
to attend her younger sister's wedding, James had been restless.
Fears of terrorist attacks similar to that of Sept. 11, 2001, when a band of
cold-blooded killers hijacked commercial airlines in the United States and plunged
them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York and the
Pentagon in Washington, taking over 3,000 innocent lives with them, overwhelmed
James, a researcher working as a consultant here.
"I have spent many sleepless nights, thinking what might happen to my wife's plane. I
shared my feelings and fears with her, but she told me to leave it all to God," he said.
Putting faith aside, James booked three return tickets with one of Asia's arguably
safest airlines -- one for his wife and two for his daughters, a three-and-a-half-year-old
and an infant of 21 months.
"I don't mind paying more if it means safety for my wife and daughters," said James,
who had put up with the relatively high ticket prices just to ease a little of his fears.
Come Dec. 14, the date of their departure, James drove his wife and daughters to
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, checked in for them and obtained fiscal-free
clearance for his two daughters while paying the whopping Rp 1 million (US$115)
fiscal for his wife.
When it was time for his wife and daughters to go to the boarding gate, James tried
hard to hold his composure, waving good-bye to his family with teary eyes until they
disappeared into the immigration hall.
But James did not leave the airport immediately. Telling his two nephews and maids --
who accompanied him to the airport -- to wait, James stayed until his family's
connecting flight to Singapore took off.
For the next one-and-a-half hours, James anxiously waited for the departure of the
flight scheduled for 12:25 p.m. Although there were many vacant seats in the
departure terminal, James did not want to sit down. He paced to and fro, his right
hand grasping a cellular phone. When the plane carrying his family to Singapore
finally took off, James, his nephews and maids rushed to the car in the parking lot.
There, before driving home, he called a sister-in-law to let her know that his wife and
daughters had taken off for Singapore en route to Hong Kong, instructing her to fetch
them at the Hong Kong airport.
James went home anxious about what might happen to his wife and daughters, and
felt relief only later that evening when he talked to his wife, who told him that they had
arrived safe and sound in Hong Kong.
Such is the impact of the series of terrorist attacks that have continued to plague the
world in the past three years. Call it cowardice or paranoia if you want, but terrorist
attacks have changed the way people around the globe interact with each other.
Trust has been replaced by suspicion, as fear takes control of mankind.
The New York and Washington terrorist attacks, the Bali bombings, the JW Marriott
Hotel attack, the residential bomb explosions in Saudi Arabia and the recent terrorist
attacks in Turkey have one and the same message -- there is no place on earth that
can still be considered safe.
The World Trade Center was a symbol of America's economic power and the
Pentagon, its military might. Both, however, were helpless in the face of a group of
poorly equipped terrorists out to create maximum damage with minimum means. Over
3,000 people perished, most without a trace, when the criminals turned commercial
planes into deadly missiles and plunged them into the twin towers and the Pentagon
on Sept. 11, 2001.
Bali, the country's prime tourist destination, was considered the safest place in
Indonesia and even in Asia until powerful explosions ripped through two popular
nightclubs in Kuta, Denpasar, killing over 200 innocent vacationers and injuring some
300 others, mostly foreigners.
Air travel, even short-distance flights, is now becoming a nightmare not because of
below-par services but because of fears that the Sept. 11 attacks have inspired other
zealots to follow in the footsteps of the bloody killers.
Shopping is no longer as leisurely as it used to be, hanging out in cafes and
restaurants has become a risky venture and going to a bank has become a risky
business. Even sleeping in a heavily guarded residence now implies resignation to a
bloody, violent death. Fears of terrorist attacks have overwhelmed the universe, with
world leaders struggling to find the solution.
The fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the trials
and death sentences handed down to masterminds of the Bali bombings, the arrest of
dozens of suspects in the Marriott attack, as well as the confiscation in September of
a huge amount of explosives in Central Java are welcome developments, but are
inadequate to assuage fears among hundreds of millions -- or perhaps billions -- of
people in Indonesia and around the globe of possible terrorist attacks.
Much of the terror-related fears among Indonesians find their roots in the fact that
authorities -- the government, police, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and even the
country's National Intelligence Agency (BIN) -- are not prepared to face, or are simply
incapable of tracking and cracking down on terrorists.
One disturbing question often raised by the people after the Bali bombings and
especially after the Marriott attack is this: Why did the police and military fail to
detect and anticipate the attacks? Are those crooked bloody killers such geniuses
that even the sharpest and most well-trained intelligence officers cannot foresee their
movements?
The Bali bombings took place after series of warnings from neighboring and friendly
countries like Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and even the United States that
terrorists were imminent in Indonesia.
The attack on the Marriott hotel in South Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003, also came after
reports that terrorists were about to strike again in the country, including in the
capital, Jakarta.
Kudos to the National Police, who have successfully tracked down some of the killers
of the Bali bombings. Over 30 people, including key masterminds Amrozi, Imam
Samudra and Mukhlas were arrested in East Java, West Java and East Kalimantan,
respectively. Most have been tried and three have been sentenced to death, while
others received long jail sentences, including life imprisonment.
Praise must also go to the National Police for their arrest of suspected masterminds
of the JW Marriott Hotel attack that killed at least 14 people, including the suicide
bomber. The dossiers of these suspects are mostly complete and ready for trial.
Police also uncovered in July tons of explosives in Central Java and arrested their
alleged owners.
Despite these unprecedented successes, the government's antiterrorism campaign
has failed to allay the fears among the people, who have come to believe that the
country has become a haven for terrorists, especially for regional terrorist network
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).
Founded by two Indonesian clerics -- the late Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar
Ba'asyir -- JI has been campaigning for a pan-Asia Muslim country encompassing
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and southern Thailand. JI has been blamed for a
series of terrorist attacks in the country, including the church bombings on Christmas
Eve in 2000, the Bali bombings and the JW Marriott Hotel attack.
Ba'asyir was tried for his alleged roles in a number of terrorist attacks, treason,
immigration offenses and document fraud, but was sentenced only to four years'
imprisonment for aiding terrorist attacks and immigration and document fraud. He was
later exonerated by the Jakarta High Court of his terrorist links, and his sentence was
reduced to three years for document fraud only.
Almost immediately after the Bali bombings, the government set up an anti-terror
desk under the auspices of the coordinating ministry for political and security affairs.
But the desk has yet to deliver. Few people, even now, are aware that such a desk
exists.
In the meantime, moves are underway to amend the Antiterrorism Law to allow the
national intelligence force to play a greater role in fighting terrorism. But for a country
still haunted by the bitter and traumatic experiences under former president
Soeharto's 32-year leadership, when intelligence kept tight control over people's
movements, such moves demand a thorough evaluation.
The existing law already gives enough of a headache to the people, as it allows police
to detain, without questioning, a suspected terrorist for as long as seven days. It also
gives police the leeway to arbitrarily arrest and detain suspected terrorists -- as
already seen in the arrest of some Muslim activists in Central Java.
All in all, police have arrested over 100 or so suspected terrorists, but these still fail to
reveal the actually number and strength of terrorist networks operating in the country,
much less the danger they pose. As the people's call grows in volume, the
government and its security elements must enhance their capability to fight terrorism.
A failure to exterminate terrorism may turn foreign tourists off and keep the
much-needed foreign investment at bay -- a situation that would not only delay the
country's economic recovery, but could also plunge the country into a fresh round of
economic crisis.
The people and the government must join hands in fighting this evil.
Back to James and his family -- as it turned out on Dec. 14, no airline was downed or
turned into deadly missiles. Except for several explosions in Iraq following the arrest
of former tyrant Saddam Hussein, the world was relatively peaceful on that day.
But the fears are real and pervasive.
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