By: Ahsan Zoelva *)
Jakarta, CIDISS – Earlier this week, publics were shocked by the news that the Indonesian-flagged vessels was being ambushed by the terrorist in Philippines. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not been able to give a complete description, the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency (BIN) has confirmed the attack. According to the Head of BIN Sutiyoso, the vessel was being ambushed on Saturday (26/3).
According to the information, there are 10 citizens who were on the vessel’s board. Assailant was ambushing the ship then continued at a standoff. 10 Indonesians were then taken by boat by the attackers, who allegedly headed to the Sulu or Basilan Island. The vessel then has been found to be empty by the Police in Tawi-Tawi. The attackers had contacted Philippine authorities and demanded a ransom of Rp 15 billion. The information circulated widely in the public also named the Abu Sayyaf as an actor behind the hostage.
The issue then got such a wide reactions from the public. Most of the public believes that the Indonesian government needs to act firmly to address the issue. The firmness is absolutely necessary, given what is at stake here is the lives of Indonesian citizens. The firmness that is meant by the public, is such to deploy an anti-terror owned both by military and police. Although there are several options left like using the ransom negotiations as a “bargaining point”, the public tends to the option that the Indonesian Government should be repressive in the face of the terror group.
Those public tendency to be such a natural thing. Public consider that the Indonesian Government needs to show “fangs” to all terrorist’s networks in the region. Thus, the public was likely to be happy if the hostage was released by using the anti-terror forces.
However, the public will apparently cannot simply be done by the Indonesian government, especially in the perspective of cooperation between ASEAN countries. It should be noted, that the location of the ambush was in the Philippines, which incidentally is outside the Indonesian’s authority. In other words, if the government is careless to deploy an anti-terror force in there, it can be regarded as a step which disrupt the sovereignty of the Philippines. This of course can lead to a bad record for the relationship between Indonesia and the Philippines
The issue about standoff this time will be a crucial test for ASEAN cooperation in combating terrorism. It will be seen in this issue, whether the function of coordination and cooperation mechanisms that apply in ASEAN is effective or not. Moreover, since this year ASEAN Political-Security Community, which also regulates the counter-terrorism cooperation, have come into force. Thus, the process of saving citizens who were held hostage in the Philippines will be an important lesson for ASEAN countries to determine effective mechanism for cooperation in the field of counter-terrorism. [AZ]
*) CIDISS Contributor