Edition 29: Suicide Bombing at a Police Station in Bandung
A Note from the Editor-in-Chief
Dear WIUI The People readers,
We have an update about the newsletter.
The WIUI team has evaluated the newsletter and in the end, we have taken the difficult decision to take an indefinite hiatus until further notice. This will be our last newsletter for the time being.
We’d like to be transparent so here’s the truth on why.
Churning out a newsletter on a weekly basis turned out to be substantial workload-wise, considering we are all still a team of volunteers.
Not only that, but since the newsletter subscriber base grew so fast (thank you!), WIUI needs to pay a premium fee to release newsletters and there hasn't been enough premium subscribers to compensate for the costs.
Despite how much we enjoy doing the newsletter, from a time, effort, and financial perspective, it is not making sense at this point in WIUI’s journey to continue. So it is time to pivot.
We’d like to say a special thank you to our premium subscribers who have been so generous to us. With this, please feel free to cancel your monthly subscription (unless you still wanna throw us money lmaoo).
Fear not though! We plan on translating our newsletter content into our social media in some form, so keep an eye out early next year for this.
If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to let us know!
Best regards,
Editor-in-Chief Hirzi, on behalf of the newsletter team Mike, Vincent, and Sharon. 💘
Suicide Bombing at a Police Station in Bandung
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/UMKMUKVY6VL6PGEW5FD3LYHPKE.jpg)
Source: Reuters
On Wednesday, December 7th, a suicide bomb attack killed one other person and wounded at least ten at a police station in Bandung. Also found near the scene was a blue motorbike suspected to have been used by the attacker.
Attached to the motorbike was a piece of paper stating that the new Criminal Code is shirk or kafir, with a call to fight the “demonic law enforcers”. In Islam, shirk refers to the sin of idolatry or polytheism, while kafir refers to a person who is a non-believer.
The paper references the Qur’an, specifically verse 29 of the At-Tawbah, which is often interpreted by extremists as a call to war against the non-believers.
Senior Security Analyst at Concord Consulting Todd Elliott voiced his opinion that the attack had likely been planned for some time.
He claimed that militant Islamists are against the changes in the Criminal Code passed by the People’s Representative Council (DPR) last week as it disallows ideologies that go against Pancasila (i.e. including extreme Islamist ideology).
The Alliance of Criminal Code Reform, also vocal in its critiques of the revised Criminal Code, demanded that the National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo apologize for his statement on the attacker.
According to the alliance, the Police Chief had prematurely stated that the attacker was affiliated with the Bandung Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an extremist group affiliated with the Islamic State that was responsible for the 2018 Surabaya church bombings.
The alliance accused Listyo of cornering two groups that may not have had anything to do with the attack, one being JAD and the other being civil society groups that rejected the ratification of the Criminal Code peacefully.
Moreover, they expressed their worries that the new Criminal Code will enable abuse of power by law enforcement officials.
The National Police responded by stating that their allegations had come from counterterrorist investigators and the West Java Regional Police who had established that the attacker did have ties with JAD as well as previous convictions.
The largest suicide bombing attack in Indonesia was the 2002 Bali bombings which left 202 people dead.
One of the leading perpetrators, Umar Patek, was given parole on Wednesday. Authorities claimed that he was successfully deradicalized and reformed in prison, and that they will use him to deradicalize other militants as well.
This angered Australian authorities, whose countrymen comprised 88 out of the 202 victims.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the parole will cause further distress to the families of the victims.
Albanese had also tried to convince the Indonesian government to delay Patek’s release during the G20 Summit last month.
What Is Up, Indonesia?
🌎 Politics, Law & International Relations
Government Summons UN Official over KUHP Comments: According to Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Teuku Fauziyah, the government expressed its displeasure towards a United Nations official for the UN Office in Jakarta after comments were made critiquing the new Criminal Code.
Law and Human Rights Building Catches on Fire: A fire broke out on Thursday morning on the fifth floor of the Law and Human Rights Ministry building caused by a similar short circuit that caused the fire inside of the server room of the National Police Intelligence Service.
📈 Economics, Business & Technology
Investors Wary at Lofty IKN Goals: Despite many countries signing letters of intent, no firm or government has signed to invest in IKN as many feared a change of leadership in the upcoming elections will upend the plans for the expensive new capital project.
GoTo Market Value Drops to Half of Rival Grab: The crown jewel of Indonesia’s emerging tech industry has seen nearly three quarters of its market value wiped in public markets as both retail and institutional investors remain unconvinced of GoTo’s path towards profitability.
🏛️ Society & Culture
UK Universities to Set Up Indonesian Campuses: 13 UK universities recently completed a delegation to Indonesia to meet with ministers and academic institutions. The delegation committed to commencing the work on establishing branch campuses in four cities across Indonesia.
Expats Anxious Over New Visa System: With the introduction of the ‘second home visa’ that requires Rp 2 billion (roughly USD 128 billion) in savings, current expats in Indonesia who do not meet required savings levels fear that their visas may not be renewed in the transition to the new system.
What We're Reading
The LGBTQIA+ community has faced increasing backlash over the years with faith-based moral panic being at the forefront of the rejection of queer communities across Indonesia. But for some, faith can be the source of healing they’ve been looking for their entire life, showing that queerness can coexist with faith.
For Indonesia’s transgender community, faith can be a source of discrimination – but also tolerance and solace “Publicly, and privately, reconciling faith and transgender is not an easy journey. Indonesia’s transgender community experiences religious trauma and transphobia but can also find its faith to be a source of empowerment and solace” - Sharyn Graham Davies (Monash University), The Conversation
WIUI Recommends
Inside Indonesia's War on Terror (SBS Australia)
This 2005 documentary from Journeyman Pictures explores Indonesia’s War on Terror that piggybacked on the West’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. It delves into some evidence points to many terrorist groups having deep connections with Indonesia’s State Intelligence and National Police apparatus.
Join our community!
Disclaimer: We are not professionals. We are prone to bias and error so please verify and double-check everything! We highly encourage you to do your own research.