Jakarta – The Wahid Foundation together with civil society networks held a “Working Group Meeting on the National Action Plan for Combating Extremism Based on Violence Leading to Terrorism” on April 30, 2019, at the Multifunction Room, Harris Hotel, Tebet, South Jakarta.
Alamsyah M.Dja’far, Wahid Foundation Program Manager, explained that this civil society group meeting was a follow-up to the meeting on 21-22 November 2018, precisely when BNPT in collaboration with the Wahid Foundation held a National and International Knowledge Sharing Forum “Coordination Meeting” on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) “at Four Points Hotel, Bandung, West Java, which initiated the formation of a working group with CSOs as a vehicle for advocating for regulations derived from Law Number 5 Year 2018 Concerning Terrorism.
“This meeting is to see the process of developing RAN-PE at BNPT and what needs are needed so that the RAN-PE is immediately signed by the government as a presidential regulation.” He said in the introduction to the forum.
The meeting which was attended by various civil society organizations also aimed to discuss and strengthen the role of CSOs in working groups in advocating RAN-PE to the Ministries / Institutions in accordance with the capacity of each CSO.
In addition to being attended by representatives of civil society networks, this meeting was also attended by government representatives such as the National Development Planning Agency and the National Counterterrorism Agency, each represented by Wariki Sutikno, Director of Politics and Communications Deputy for Political, Legal, Defense and Security Affairs, and Andikaika Chrisna Yudhanto , Director of Regional and Multilateral Cooperation Deputy III BNPT National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
According to Wariki, activities like this are very good to strengthen the role of civil society organizations in collaboration with the government. The same thing was said by Andhika. For him, the same perception is needed, especially between civil society organizations and government still found differences obstacles such as the definition and implementation of RAN PE.
The meeting then produced a number of notes that encouraged the focus of the working group not only on the RAN PE advocacy effort, but also on mainstreaming violent extremism. In addition, it is also necessary to hold a discussion of the content contained in the RAN PE in greater depth by involving cross-sectors, especially the participants involved in the working group.
As a follow up, the CSOs involved are expected to lobby and advocate immediately to the ministries/strategic institutions according to the focus of their respective institutions.
