Jakarta – The Minister’s Expert on Social, Political and Security Affairs, Haru Tamtomo accompanied by two other Expert partners, welcomed the US Embassy’s Political Officer visit, Moulik D. Berkana in the Saharjo room, of the Secretariat General of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Setjen. Kemenkumham), Friday (20/2/2015).
The meeting was organized to share the results of the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, held by the US President, Barrack Obama. The Summit, held 17 to 19 February of 2015 in the White House, Washington D.C., was attended by high ranking officials from several nations’ delegations, included the Indonesian delegation which was represented by RI’s Ambassador to the USA and its former Religion Minister, Nasaruddin Umar.
Berkana said that the motivation for the Summit was concerning the violence issue which is spreading globally and overwhelming many countries, such as Syria, Iraq, France, Australia, Denmark, and others. “The US Government sees that countering global violent extremism isn’t just in the USA interest, but also in that of other countries”, Berkana said.
Later on Berkana said that the US Government has invited many senior officials to discuss and to share thoughts, find solutions to the main violence issue or even groups which engage in violence globally, e.g. the spreading ISIS movement in the Middle East.
In the Summit, President Obama firmly stated that in his mind the USA does not have a war against religion, but against people who are exploiting religion. At present, the USA is making a pilot program for countering violent movements or extremism in 3 (three) big US cities, Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. The program, which is intended to anticipate emerging violent ideologies, embraces many groups of NGOs, religious figures, societies, and youths.
In addition, Berkana also asked a few questions, such as: What is the ministry’s role in countering terrorism? Will there be any changes to the regulations over the terrorism issue, according to the current situation with the ISIS movement? What is the situation and condition of Correctional Institutions at present? Since these institutions are under the Ministry’s authority.
Through Mr. Haru, the Experts explained in response to the questions that, Indonesia in President Jokowi’s term has a vision and mission, embodied in “Nawacita”. One of them is that the state must have a presence in the people’s interest. It could be in form of a regulation or other legislation.
The Ministry of Law and Human Rights does have a strategic role in the legislative process. If there is a need to revise legislation on terrorism, the ministry will facilitate it through a revision initiative, proposed by institutions which are in charge of terrorism issue, ie. BNPT and POLRI.
The Ministry also performs tasks and functions in the Integrated Criminal Justice System along with POLRI, RI’s Attorney General, and the Supreme Court, implemented by the Directorate General of Corrections (Ditjen. Pemasyarakatan).
“It needs to be explained that prisoners in terrorism cases who are under the assistance of the Directorate General of Corrections until now numberof 264 people, spread among 27 correctional institutions all-over Indonesia. The ministry has also cooperated with some institutions such as BNPT, Densus 88, Satgas Anti-Teror, RI’s Attorney General and related NGOs, there are the Prasasti Perdamaian foundation, the Search for Common Ground, and many others.” Said Haru.
There are problems which are still unresolved in correcting terrorism case prisoners, such as a lack of understanding among correctional officers regarding the terrorist correctional method. Furthermore, the population between terrorist inmates and common criminals is jumbled together. And the shortage of standardized security instruments and protection assurance for correctional officers, including their family members.
Closing the meeting, Haru Tamtomo said many efforts have been made such as organizing Capacity Building for correctional officers, setting a correctional pattern/method for terrorist inmates, and also establishing a particular correctional institution for terrorists in the time ahead.
Also participating in the meeting, were the team from the Public Relation and Foreign Cooperation Bureau comprising the Head of Information and Communications, the Head of Foreign Cooperation, and the delegation from the US Embassy. (Reynaldi, foto: Zeqi. ed. TMM. translation: Agung).
