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New York TimesJAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government’s crackdown on militant Islamic groups has been widely praised in recent years, particularly by the United States. Proof of its success rested in the fact that, after annual terrorist attacks earlier this decade, none had taken place in nearly four years.
But as a clearer picture has begun emerging of Friday’s coordinated suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels here, terrorism experts and some Indonesian officials are focusing on what they describe as weaknesses in Indonesia’s antiterrorism campaign. Although the authorities have arrested hundreds of militants and severely weakened Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terrorist network, they have had much less success in uprooting the culture that breeds extremism.
The authorities have failed to aggressively check the radical clerics, Islamic schools or publishing houses that allow extremists to recruit and raise money for their operations, these experts said. Even moderate, politically powerful religious leaders, who are against violence, oppose any perceived government interference in their affairs. And as democracy has become entrenched since the fall of Suharto a decade ago, the authorities have appeared hesitant to use tactics that may recall the era of military rule.
“The bombings should be a catalyst for Indonesia to develop a more comprehensive approach,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “They’ve been too focused on catching operators when they need to be tougher in actually preventing terrorism. They should take the boxing gloves off.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/world/asia/23indo.html