The weekend’s terror attack on the Indonesian island of Bali was a monstrous atrocity. Does it have revolutionary implications? I think it does, because it’s closely aligned with Indonesia’s brave self-transformation into an authentic democracy in 1999. The terrorists who struck Bali were trying to destroy Indonesia’s fragile democracy – at a sensitive time. With fuel costs soaring and the rupiah battered, these evil people were going after an economic power center, and they intended their attack as economic warfare. It’s something they are betting can topple democracy.

Do I think they can do it? No. Indonesians treasure their democracy too much and there are too many of them who do. But the terrorist actions do hit at the continuous weakness of Indonesia’s legal system. Time and again terrorists are getting soft sentences if not let off the hook. Doing this encourages more terrorism. More terrorism is more blows to democracy. Eventually, democracy succumbs. I don’t think it will happen now. But if Indonesia doesn’t start getting serious about stomping out its terrorists with Schapelle-Corby-like sentences, there’s no question that the terrorists will eventually win. This war, not law enforcement. Indonesia needs to win this.

The Counterterrorism blog points out that rumors of Jemaah Islamiyah’s demise is greatly exaggerated and swiftly pinpoints the terrorists’ intentions:

Why Bali again? In October 2002, days before the first attack on the resort island, Osama Bin Laden issued a statement in which he warned that “we will target the nodes of your economy.” That was the line and most attacks outside or Iraq since then have followed suit. By targeting Bali they
first are striking the economy, and hence the stability of the apostate regime. The other leg of the Indonesian economy – natural resource exploitation may be beyond their means. Second, targeting Bali drives out westerners, whom they believe are a corrupting force on society. In their eyes, Islam can never triumph the west as long as it is infected with impurities.

Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters has a superb post describing, by process of elimination, what the real intentions of this grisly terror attack was:

It seems that all the usual answers Americans hear for their responsibility in provoking the Islamists’ rage don’t apply to Bali or the Balinese. What could keep al-Qaeda coming back to bomb the people and businesses of Bali? Perhaps the fact that Bali, part of mostly Muslim Indonesia, has a majority Hindu population could have something to do with Jemaah Islamiyah’s obsession with bombing the Balinese. It provides the only consistent thread for AQ’s attacks around the world: an all-out holy war against all non-believers, simply on the basis of their non-belief.

This should dispense with all of the blather about how our foreign policy of global engagement creates terrorism. Let’s quit blaming the victims and start really fighting the war that the terrorists have declared on us.

The Swanker at Macam-Macam has photos of the blown-off heads of the three suicide bombers (ick) and questions about who gets caught and who doesn’t in the acts of terrorism:

The hunt for the bombing masterminds is stepping up. But how is it that Azahari Husin and Noordin Top have been able to evade capture since October 2002, three whole years?

His initial post here with lots of photos is well worth reading. too.

Dr. Farish Noor at Brand New Malaysian writes that the West is moving too fast to blame Islam, and notes that widespread discontent with the incumbent westernized elite may have many sources of discontent. I do not agree with it but it’s an unusual argument:

Four years after the events of 11 September 2001, it appears that we are none the wiser and the world has become a more dangerous place for ordinary people; the generation of consensus proceeds in earnest and shows no signs of abating in the near future. An enemy is in the making, and that enemy it seems has a name: Islam.

In scenes reminiscent of the hysteria and orgy of finger-pointing that occurred barely twenty-four hours after the Oklahoma bombing incident of 1995, a host of self-proclaimed ???????experts???????? have come to the fore to grace our television screens and newspaper pages to inform us that ???????? despite the obvious absence of concrete, irrefutable evidence ???????? those responsible for the recent Bali attacks were ???????most probably???????? members of the nebulous ???????Jama????????ah Islamiyyah???????? group.

Investor’s Business Daily has an editorial that criticizes Indonesia’s thus-far soft response to terrorists in a string of responses, sending these terrorists the inevitable message that practicing terrorism is ‘cheap’:

These repeated failures of the system, based on misplaced legalism and politically vulnerable courts, are making the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists bolder than ever.

With Indonesia’s economy in a parlous state over the rising cost of fuel, don’t be surprised if terrorists strike again, as Indonesia’s president warns. So far, the beneficial impact to the terrorists is huge and the cost is dirt-cheap.

For Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country, the economic consequences from terrorism could be as bad as the 1997-98 currency crisis, meaning real political problems.

Indonesia desperately needs to start looking at terror attacks as something greater than just criminal problems in a democracy. The fact is, these attacks are against the democracy itself.

Jakarta Post says basically the same thing, warning Indonesia that it’s time to get serious about winning the war on terror:

It always takes another terrorist attack to remind the Indonesian security authorities of the importance of constant vigilance against terrorism.

It is no exaggeration to say that Indonesia’s security policy on terrorism is at best fragmented and very much characterized by a competition for power and money. For instance, the police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) want to get their respective share from the distribution of the antiterrorism funding given by donor countries.