By: Ahmad Dzul Ilmi Muis)*
All people in the country fully support the efforts made by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) to prevent the potential emergence of terrorism ahead of the Christmas celebrations in 2023.
The government, through the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri), Muhammad Tito Karnavian, asked all regions together with the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) and also various stakeholders to strengthen joint synergy for their preparedness ahead of the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year (Nataru) celebrations.
The increase in synergy between various parties is clearly a very important thing because it will be able to further strengthen coordination, facilitation, control and be able to monitor how preparations are being made for the implementation of the Christmas holiday in the community.
The Minister of Home Affairs also asked the local regional government (Pemda) to map religious activities at home or places of worship, especially during Christmas worship celebrations. Not only that, but the Regional Government also really needs to establish good coordination with Forkopimda to carry out security as an effort to create safe, comfortable and orderly conditions.
Apart from that, it is also important for the regional government to control inflation by improving and optimizing monitoring of various prices and the availability of basic necessities, including fuel. The reason is, usually before the Christmas and New Year celebrations, prices of several basic necessities in society will increase. Therefore, in order not to burden the community, supervision and control need to be carried out from an early age.
Several steps that can be taken to control inflation so that prices can be controlled and do not increase significantly are through a number of strategic actions such as monitoring supply availability, stabilizing prices and also ensuring smooth distribution of staple foodstuffs and other important goods by the Food Security Unit. Area.
With this anticipation from the start, there is a possibility of a surge in demand from consumers, which when demand increases, it clearly has the potential to cause shortages. Therefore, the government is immediately trying to ensure the availability of quantities and stocks of basic food ingredients, Fuel Oil (BBM), Fuel Gas (BBG) and Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
Moreover, what is also very important to continue to pay attention to is that the Regional Government is asked to increase awareness of potential vulnerabilities and disturbances to security and peace during the 2024 New Year celebrations in various places that are likely to cause crowds.
It cannot be denied that with Christmas and New Year celebrations, the potential for terrorism usually increases. Therefore, the Regional Government needs to place various security elements at certain points in every busy activity by continuing to collaborate with joint security forces such as the Indonesian National Army (TNI), the Indonesian National Police (Polri), the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and other elements. other related.
It is indeed important for the local regional government to carry out very intensive coordination together with the security forces in carrying out early detection of situations and conditions of security and public order which have the potential to become disturbances caused by various kinds of actions. Some of these disturbances include acts of terrorism, theft, muggings, sweeping by certain community organizations (ormas) and other crimes.
Don’t be half-hearted, even coordination to improve security can be carried out from the smallest areas in society, such as from the RT and RW areas, to prevent terrorism and the possibility of theft in empty houses left by the residents during holidays.
Efforts continue to be made by the government to overcome various potential acts of terrorism in the country. Various strategies have been taken, starting from a hard approach through the actions of the Special Detachment 88 Anti-Terror of the Indonesian National Police (Densus 88 AT Polri) to also using a soft approach with the formation of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT). .
Through BNPT, collaboration with various stakeholders continues to be strengthened in an effort to prevent acts of terrorism so that it is possible to produce positive trends. We still need to be wary of the spread of various terrorist ideologies, such as intolerance, especially when it targets the younger generation. Because if it continues to happen, it will clearly be very counterproductive to the government’s efforts to create a golden generation in 2045.
Various efforts have been made by the government to be able to overcome the potential for many disturbances, especially terrorism during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays. Therefore, to further facilitate the government’s efforts, it is also important that all elements of the nation provide their full support.
)* The author is an Alumni of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Unair
