JAKARTA: Despite the wave of violence that has swept Indonesia in recent years, the country's police have enjoyed "remarkable success" in cracking down on domestic terrorism, according to national police chief Tito Karnavian.

Just last May, the city of Surabaya was hit by the deadliest terror attack in Indonesia since the Bali bombings. A series of suicide bombings carried out by families, some involving children as young as eight, ravaged three churches and a police station. The devastation claimed 28 lives.



Yet, Karnavian, in an interview with Channel NewsAsia's Conversation With, has cautioned against making one’s judgment based on media coverage.

“Once you have got an attack, media will come over, they will flock and expose to the public but if we foiled the attacks then you are not really interesting,” he lamented.

Karnavian said the police in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country have in fact foiled many terror plots, “more than 500 since 2012 to 2018”, he reckoned.

Last month, radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death for masterminding various terror attacks across Indonesia in 2016.



Aman is considered one of the key ideological leaders of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a militant group of Islamic State supporters in Indonesia. JAD was also responsible for the recent Surabaya bombings.

Karnavian believes that justice will be meted out to the perpetrators of the Surabaya attacks soon.

“We have got already almost 80 per cent of the full picture of the mosaic of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah,” Karnavian said.

The passing of tougher anti-terror legislation in May will make the law enforcers' jobs easier. The new laws allow the police to detain suspects for much longer without trial – up to 21 days, instead of a week.

Karnavian added that in the past, the police could not make any arrests without evidence, which has hampered their anti-terror operations.

“Our power for preemptive strike … is now much, much bigger than before,” the police chief explained.

With the new legislation in place, Karnavian is optimistic that domestic terrorism can be kept under control.

“Indonesia has the second biggest police force in the world after China … so we strongly believe we are on top of them. Don’t worry,” he said.

Catch the full interview on Conversation With, Thursday at 9.30pm SG/HK.

