Intelligence and law enforcers involvement are inseparable from counter-terrorism efforts in the present times around the world, including Indonesia.
Doctoral student Troesto Poernomo studied double track approach for terrorism handling in Indonesia, namely law enforcement and intelligence.
“Both are different in terms of structural authorities or work method. But they are asked to collaborate to resolve the same problem,” he said in his doctoral promotion at Faculty of Law UGM on Friday (29/6) for his dissertation titled Handling of Terrorism in Indonesia through Law and Intelligence Approach.
He said the involvement of intelligence in terrorism include identification of actor that is involved, database, and risk identification, also clandestine counter-attack, disruption of the solidarity of terrorists, early warning and prevention of attacks, disruption of terrorist communication system and share information to partners selectively. In his opinion, terrorism handling by intelligence is of softer approach beyond legal tracks.
“Intelligence serves to prevent each threat against the national interest and security, including from terrorism whether nationally, regionally, or internationally scope,” he said.
He added that despite the important role of intelligence, intelligence is not the only one that can help law enforcers deal with terrorism. Continuous monitoring is needed that involves other elements in the society such as religious figures, public figures, NGOs, and victims of terrorism.
“Terrorism cannot be beaten just by military power, law enforcement, or intelligence operation,” he said. Bottom-up element from society is needed, too, for policy making on terrorism handling.
“It’s the society that knows their surroundings. So, they feel it’s their calling to help the safeguarding of their surroundings and narrowing of terrorism manouvre because terrorists live among society,” he said.