Indonesians worried attacks may spread to RI

JAKARTA. A majority of Indonesian people are worried about the possible spread of terrorist attacks to the country, following the recent incident in France that killed 129 people, a survey has said.

According to Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) researcher Fitri Hari, 84.62 percent of survey respondents expressed their concern that such an attack may occur in Indonesia, while 13.19 percent of respondents were not concerned and 2.19 percent did not respond to the question.

Kompas.com reported on Thursday that the LSI surveyed 600 respondents from 33 provinces from Nov. 15 to 17 with a 4 percent margin of error.

According to Fitri, there were four reasons that caused Indonesians to worry about possible terrorist attacks.

First, the Paris attacks were masterminded by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and members or sympathizers of the group had been found in Indonesia. The National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism squad has arrested a number of alleged IS members in Bogor and Tangerang.

Second, Indonesia has been a target for terrorist attacks several times in the past. Some 82.50 percent of respondents expressed their concern that such attacks could recur, while 10 percent were not worried and 7.50 percent did not know or did not respond.

Third, the current economic slowdown may prompt the reappearance of acts of terror from radical groups in the country. According to the survey, 83.78 percent of respondents believed that executors of terrorist attacks came from families with economic problems.

“It is because they learn that many terrorists in the past came from families that experienced economic difficulty,” Fitri said.

The fourth reason, she stated, was that there were still many cases of intolerance against minorities, as seen recently in Tolikara, Papua; Singkil, Aceh; and Bogor, West Java.

“Some 50.62 percent of the respondents believed that discrimination against minorities could spark violent and even terrorist actions,” Fitri added.