Author(s): Mardenis, Hilaire Tegnan
No country in world can be said to be free from the deadly scourge of terrorism and Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country is no exception to this reality. Over the past 13 years, Indonesia has made significant progress in becoming a stable, democratic country with a strong civil society and independent media. However, serious human rights concerns remain, especially in the fight against terrorism, which really began in 2000 with the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, followed by the deadly Bali Bombing in 2002. These two attacks constitute the threshold of the fight against terrorism in Indonesia as the government passed Regulation No. 1/2002 on Combating Terrorism, which was followed by Law No. 33/2003 on Terrorism Eradication. However, this fight against terrorism has not only raised human rights concerns but it has not also been very successful in tackling terrorism, as there has been over 25 major terrorist attacks since its initiation in early 2002. This is a socio-legal research seeking to address the question as to how to design a proper counter-terrorism legal policy without compromising human rights and democracy in Indonesia. The study reveals that besides being ambiguous, provisions of the counter-terrorism law are also in contradiction with some provisions of the Indonesian Criminal Code. The study also shows that the enforcement of these provisions not only violates some human rights principles such as equality and nondiscrimination. This is harmful to the unity and stability of Indonesia as a multiethnic and multicultural nation.