It looks like Indonesian police just missed catching Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect over the weekend. But the operation to hunt down Noordin Mohamed Top and the related defusing of a bomb plot aimed at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono still speak well of that country’s counterterror efforts.
Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism force, Detachment 88, has been hunting Noordin since the 2002 Bali bombings. The Malaysian-born terrorist is the head of a small splinter faction of al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiya and is thought to be the mastermind of a string of attacks culminating in last month’s Jakarta hotel bombings. On Saturday, Indonesian authorities raided a farmhouse several hundred miles from Jakarta and another house near the capital, arresting five and killing three. Despite early reports Noordin was among the dead, he’s probably still alive. But Jakarta is getting closer to nabbing him.
This weekend’s raids will go down as another victory in the larger war on terror even though Noordin is on the loose. Detachment 88 has rounded up hundreds of Jemaah Islamiya members since 2002, including Jemaah Islamiya leader Abu Dujana in 2007, to the point where the group may no longer function as an effective terrorist operation. (Noordin’s splinter faction is the exception, and even then has only about 30 members.) Success breeds success: Suspects arrested in the wake of the July 17 hotel attack in Jakarta tipped off authorities to the location of Noordin’s safe house.
Just as importantly, police thwarted an apparent assassination plot against President Yudhoyono Saturday when they recovered hundreds of kilograms of explosive materials from another house near Jakarta. Terrorists allegedly intended to set off an explosion near one of the president’s houses or his motorcade. It’s unclear whether they would have been able to pull off such an act, but last month’s hotel bombings showcased how sophisticated Indonesia’s terrorists can be.
One important factor that has helped Indonesia’s fight against terrorism is that the government has thrown itself wholeheartedly into the effort. Mr. Yudhoyono extended his “highest gratitude and respect” to the police for their “brilliant achievement” on Saturday. Detachment 88 is among the best-funded police units in the country. Jakarta has also embraced the help of Australia and the U.S., which have helped train Indonesia’s antiterror forces.
Now Indonesia’s political class needs to step up its fight on the ideas front. Up to now, Jakarta has been tolerant of radical teaching and preaching despite its successes arresting terrorists. Witness the release in 2006 of Abu Bakir Bashar, convicted of conspiracy in the Bali bombing and well known for his radical teachings, or last year’s antipornography law passed as a sop to Islamic parties. That may be starting to change after religious parties lost ground in this year’s elections. There are signs Mr. Yudhoyono’s next cabinet appointments may take Islamic-party politicians out of key posts.
Mr. Yudhoyono won election in 2004 in part of a platform of security, and he won re-election earlier this year with an even larger mandate to defend Indonesia’s tradition of moderate Islam. This weekend’s events show how far Indonesia has come in the fight against terror, and how much more remains to be done. Mr. Yudhoyono would do well to stay the course.
