Radicalism Group Wary of Brainwashing Utilizes the Covid-19 Pandemic Issue

By: Ihsan Maulana (Chairperson of the Banten Regional Publication Literacy Movement)

The impact of the Corona Virus spread has been felt by many Indonesians. Economic and health factors are the main priorities anticipated by the government at this time and various ways have been done to prevent the spread of the virus from massive tests, care and treatment, the application of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), to the provision of social assistance to the community.

Not only the government, a number of foundations and communities have also tried to assist in handling Covid-19. Various donations and social assistance have also been distributed to residents affected by Covid-19. The community is also considered to have worked together and helped each other to suppress the spread of Corona Virus and provide support to those who have been exposed to Covid-19.

However, from the many efforts of the government and community groups, there are still groups of individuals or individuals who do not like it, even exaggerated on social media for the slightest deficiencies related to its handling. They continue to blame the government and feel the most understanding about the prevention and control of the Corona virus outbreak. In fact, in any country, this epidemic is very difficult to overcome, even a country as advanced as America alone has reached more than 1.3 million cases.

The existence of this pandemic is an opportunity for these interest groups, especially radical groups who continue to spread their influence so that people are antipathy towards the government, including President Jokowi. Various kinds of government policies continue to be found guilty and then narrated as if the government does not care about the people. The method is like brainwashing the public so that one mindset with the radical group.

The motives of the terrorism movement are religious motives and revenge. They will continue to fight until the Islamic Khilafah system is successfully obtained. They will say that the handling of covid is wrong because the state does not adopt a khilafah system. Many of the government policies that they value are not in favor of Islam, such as may not be held and tarawih, even though the policy was made to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

Radical news is one of the current media markets. There is a dilemma, some media unwittingly become partners for radicalism, because indirectly, the media actually provides promotion for them. But it can also be vice versa. The media needs to balance out propaganda information from the radicals. 

WFH and PSBB policies make people interact longer with the internet media, one of which is social media. With this, radical and extremist groups use the situation to aggressively articulate ideas without being seen. Without a good filter, people will be very easily exposed to the understanding that is spread.

Therefore, people need to be aware of the group’s propaganda, because they have clearly used the momentum of this pandemic to gather the masses to be anti-government which is then associated with religious teachings for political purposes.

The facts about government are twisted as if the government was wrong. Though it becomes a normal thing with the dynamics of conditions that can still be overcome. The government is not a god that everything can go according to plan and expectations. However, the government is tasked with maintaining the stability of the nation and state, so it must be supported by a spirit of patriotism. The public needs to fight those who want to create instability in the beloved Homeland.

For these conditions, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) will issue a Perpres related to Law Number 5 of 2018 on Combating Terrorism, in which regulates in detail the involvement of the TNI in dealing with terrorism. 

The Perpres will also regulate repression of terrorist activities, as in article 9 of the draft Perpres regulating the types of terror attacks that the TNI can overcome. This regulation also does not violate the norms of general justice, because it is clearly regulated in article 10 of the draft Perpres that the results of the action are immediately given to the Indonesian Police for legal processing.     

Therefore citizens together with the community must unite and work together to publish positive narratives and support the Government against radical ideas and intolerance that can disrupt the existence of Indonesian sovereignty in the midst of this pandemic. Not only that, the community also needs to be involved in the ambassadors of literacy so that awareness grows and reminds each other and has the responsibility to implement it.

Together the success of government programs through efforts to deradicalize and other programs by grounding and implementing the Pancasila Values ​​in daily life. Starting with yourself and your immediate family. The determination to defend the nation and the archipelago will continue to uphold with our common concern.