Megawati forced to face hard decisions

By JANE MacARTNEY

SINGAPORE - The net is closing on an Islamic group in the hunt for the Bali bombers, but whether Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri can summon the will to shut the group down is the question hanging over her leadership.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong did not mince words when it came to linking the Jemaah Islamiyah - or Islamic Community - with the Bali attack.

"The bomb blasts in Bali confirm what we have warned all along: that terrorists are shifting their theatre of operations to Southeast Asia," he said.

"Terrorism is not a faraway problem. It is here at our doorstep."

Goh described as "very real and very serious" the threat posed by Jemaah Islamiyah, a shadowy group believed to have links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and that wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia.

Megawati has for many months ignored calls from neighbours and in particular from Singapore - which foiled several planned attacks late last year - to tackle what fellow regional leaders have identified as a terrorist network in her own country.

"This could be used as a turning point," said Wimar Witoelar, a prominent Indonesian newspaper columnist and political commentator, referring to the Bali bombings.

The tragedy confronts Megawati with an unprecedented challenge, mounting international pressure and an almost irresistible obligation to track down any possible suspects.

Those suspects could include the Jemaah Islamiyah.

"You don't have to be big to be bad," said one expert on security in Southeast Asia who declined to be identified.

The popularity of the group in the world's most populous Muslim country makes Megawati's task all the more difficult. And she has long displayed a reluctance to tackle the Jemaah Islamiyah.

What if the detention of the group's pivotal figure, thin bespectacled cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has dismissed any connection to the bombings, sparked protests, triggered instability and were to bring down her Government?

And how would she cope with charges that her Government was behaving like a puppet of the United States?

Such criticisms are already being voiced by more radical Islamic figures in the sprawling and ethnically diverse archipelago. The arrival of an FBI team in Bali has only provided grist to their mill.

Weighing such concerns in the balance may have already concentrated Megawati's mind.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said: "I have a very strong suspicion that it is either an al Qaeda-directed operation or inspired by al Qaeda ... [which] does have connections with cells that have been operating in Indonesia.

"This is a subject on which we have expressed concern repeatedly to the Indonesian Government and so have the Americans and others over a period of time."

Indonesia has taken a first step.

Defence Minister Matori Abdul Djalil drew a connection on Monday between al Qaeda and the attacks on the nightclubs.

And signs were that Megawati would not this time sit by.

"They have been pretty shaken by this frankly," the security expert said.

Indonesia has begun assembling a new intelligence structure and may even draft an anti-terrorism presidential decree before a long-delayed law can be passed.

The chorus of voices raised against the Jemaah Islamiyah extends well beyond Singapore.

Australia has demanded that the group be listed by the United Nations as a terrorist organisation. Additional reporting by Andrew Browne in Jakarta and Belinda Goldsmith in Canberra.

- REUTERS


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Feature: Bali bomb blast

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