“Real or fake conspiracy of the Islamic State of Indonesia”, asks, in the title of its edition of the week, Koran Tempo. The cover of the weekly features an illustration of the red and white Indonesian flag, augmented with the crescent and the star, planted in the center of the island of Sumatra by a giant hand. “Whose hand is this?” seems to wonder the title.
“They want to overthrow the government expecting chaos. To know before 2024”told the newspaper Densus 88 Counter-Terror Task Force spokesman Aswin Siregar. “They” are the members of the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII). Sixteen of them were arrested in April 2022, in West Sumatra, in possession of some ammunition and machetes. Founded in 1949 by an enthusiastic Muslim, Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo, who opposed the secular Constitution of the newly created Indonesian republic and advocated the establishment of Sharia, the Islamic State of Indonesia has since spawned various terrorist movements such as the Jamaah Islamiyah, author of numerous attacks in the archipelago, including that of Bali in 2002.
Koran Tempo asked terrorism expert Al Chaidar, who doubts that West Sumatra’s NII can overthrow the government of President Joko Widodo armed only with machetes: “Right now they are focusing on recruiting activists for the da’wa [prédication] and on their financing”, explains Al Chaidar. The expert also wonders about the figure put forward by the Department of Counter-Terrorism, evoking 1,225 militants in two districts of West Sumatra: “Fake factions are created by the government or by intelligence agencies”he says.
He suspects that this announcement of an upcoming coup d’etat is a pretext to postpone the presidential election of 2024. A maneuver initiated several months ago by relatives of President Joko Widodo, in order to allow the latter to make a third mandate, in violation of the Constitution. According to Al Chaidar, the NII threat has already been used by the governments of Presidents Sukarno (1945-1967) and Suharto (1967-1998) to extend their terms or postpone elections.
Koran Tempo calls on the security forces to dispel the secrecy around the Islamic State of Indonesia: “Because the NII is often seen as close to the intelligence services and would often have been instrumentalized for various political interests.”