25
June 2006
Bashir’s release may revitalize militancy
Radical Indonesian cleric Abu Baker Bashir (68), the spiritual head of the allegedly Al-Qaida-linked
South Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has recently been released after 26 months in jail for his role
in the deadly 2002 Bali
massacre and several other bombings in Indonesia.
The
event has generated a wave of debates and speculation over its possible impact on terrorist activities in the country. Some analysts have argued that Bashir’s release would help revitalize JI and spark more terrorist attacks. According to them, Bashir’s stature has grown
in prison and he is now seen
as a symbol of defying the West. This will make him a star at many mosques
throughout the country, as well as at every
anti-West rallies, where he
can make impassioned speeches and consequently pollute the minds of young
Muslims with his radical ideas. Bashir’s
release, on the other hand,
will harm the emerging success
of an official policy of lobbying Muslim
leaders to help the government’s
effort to curb extremism among devout Muslims.
Australia,
which lost 88 of its nationals in the Bali attack, and the United
States are of the same
opinion. Criticizing the
release, Australian Prime Minister
John Howard said he had written to Indonesia’s president urging him to monitor Bashir’s activities
and reminding him that a UN Security
Council resolution had listed the
man as a terrorist who must
be subject to an assets freeze, restricted international travel and a ban on accessing arms.
Indonesian
authorities, however, disagreed with such analyses, saying JI has become decentralized and weak, owning
to the government’s anti-terrorism operations in the last two years,
and Bashir no longer holds the influence he once did over
the militant group.
Many
believe that Jakarta had faced a dilemma
as Bashir’s jail sentence was
coming to an end, given limited options at its disposal.
If it kept him longer in jail without a court decision, it would be
criticized by local and foreign human rights
organizations of violating the law and
juridical principle. And if it released
him, the action would provoke strong
criticism from allied nations and might be seen
as wavering in the fight against terrorism.
To solve the problem, Jakarta resorted to the second option but simultaneously
announced that it would put the
controversial cleric under police surveillance.
Observers,
however, argue that while the authorities
can restrict Bashir’s movements, it will
be difficult to monitor his rhetoric as there are countless ways to channel his instructions to his followers and incite people against Indonesian and other governments
without leaving evidence behind.
Let us not forget that his
plans are to retake his
positions at the head of the Islamic
boarding school that he jointly
founded at Solo (300 miles from Jakarta) with his colleague Abdullah Sungkar in 1972, and at the head
of his legal Islamic organization, the Council of Mujahideen for Islamic Law Enforcement (CMILE) which was formed in 2000 as an umbrella group for people seeking
to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state. This will give him
excellent access to communicate
with and pass radical ideas to members of the militant groups and others.
Bashir’s immediate soft statements upon his release led to a conclusion that his jail term
had tamed his extremist rhetoric
and agenda. In those statements, he condemned the use of bombs and weapons
in a non-conflict zone, called
on Malaysian-born terror chief Noordin Mohammad Top and his followers
to revise their violent methods, and accused
them of misguiding young men. This, of course, was a dramatic change, given his repeated
support for fugitive Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, whom he once described
as “a true Muslim warrior”, not to mention his role in sending young Indonesians to the southern Philippines for military training at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) camp. According
to a terrorist involved in the 2003 suicide bombing of
Jakarta’s Marriott Hotel, Bashir visited the MILF camp when he was undergoing
military training, and gave
a speech about the need to strike against foreign interests.
Such
new rhetoric, however, did not last long. Soon after his return to Solo, Bashir urged Muslim
to fight for Islam, described
the militants as holy warriors, promised to continue his fight for a strict Sharia state, and accused Washington and Canberra
of conspiring against
Islam. Furthermore, he called Howard and US President George Bush “infidels” and urged them
to convert to Islam, saying
it was “the
only way to save their souls”.
Now
that Bashir is free, existing tensions between moderate Islam represented by the 40-million strong Nahdatul Ulama (NU) and hard-line Islam represented by the CMILE and the
Islamic Defenders Front (IDF) is
expected to increase. NU, led by former president Abdurrahman Wahid, has repeatedly opposed attempts by CMILE and IDF to apply strict social codes, and called for the banning of both organizations.
*Academic researcher and lecturer on Asian affairs