By Kusumasari Ayuningtyas
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Islamist militant group once linked to al-Qaeda, has publicly disbanded, marking a potential turning point in Indonesia’s fight against terrorism amid concerns that clandestine activities could continue.
The announcement by JI leaders on Sunday drew mixed reactions, with some experts expressing skepticism about the group’s motives and the potential for continued clandestine activities.
JI has carried out some of Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attacks, targeting Western interests and Indonesian security forces, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
“We are ready to actively contribute to the progress and dignity of Indonesia,” Abu Rusydan, one of the group’s leaders, said as he read a prepared statement in the presence of other senior members at an office of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency in Bogor, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Jakarta.
Mohammad Adhe Bhakti, executive director of the Centre for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalisation (PAKAR), said JI had already moved away from violence under the leadership of Para Wijayanto, who was granted leave from prison to attend Sunday’s statement.
“The senior JI officials… chose the most logical path by dissolving the JI,” Adhe told BenarNews.
He expressed concern, however, that lower-level members might not follow his lead.
“I fear that splinter groups will emerge at lower levels,” he said.
Abdul Rahim Ba’asyir, the son of one of the founders of the JI, Abu Bakar Bashir, also welcomed the decision.
“It is a good thing for them to dissolve and declare their return to the Indonesian state,” Abdul Rahim told BenarNews.
“This helps to dispel the misconception that Muslims are terrorists.”
The JI was created in the 1990s with the explicit goal of creating an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.
In addition to the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, the group was behind the 2003 and 2009 attacks on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, as well as the bombing of the Australian embassy in the Indonesian capital in 2004.
The Indonesian government cracked down on JI after the initial Bali bombings, arresting and imprisoning several of its leaders.
The group was officially banned in 2008, but it has continued to operate underground, recruiting members, raising funds and conducting military training, officials and analysts said.
The decision to disband comes after years of pressure from Indonesian authorities, who have arrested dozens of JI members in recent years.
The group’s current leader, Para, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for terrorism in 2020, is said to have favoured a more moderate approach, focusing on Islamic awareness and education rather than violence, analysts said.
However, the dissolution has been met with skepticism by some, who believe it may be a ploy to protect the group’s assets and funding sources, particularly its network of Islamic schools.
Sofyan Tsauri, a former JI member, said he had observed some anger within JI’s internal groups following the dissolution declaration. He warned of the potential formation of a new, perhaps more radical “neo-JI.”
“After the dissolution, there must be follow-up and guidance, which is the government’s responsibility. Without this, the dissolution is meaningless,” Sofyan told BenarNews.
He also expressed concern about the group’s network of nearly 100 schools, which he said teach a literal and puritanical version of Islam.
“This has to change,” he said.
In their statement, JI leaders pledged to revise the curriculum of the group’s schools to align it with core Islamic teachings.
Sidney Jones, a senior adviser at the Jakarta-based Institute for Conflict Policy Analysis, described the dissolution as “the culmination of a long movement to end the JI’s existence as a secret organization and operate openly in the interest of Islamic outreach and education.”
“It is a reality. In a way, the movement started in 2009, but it gained momentum after Para Wijayanto became emir,” she told BenarNews.
However, she also recognised the potential for splinter factions to form.
“Some within the JI will surely see this as a betrayal,” she said.
In a May interview with BenarNews, Ali Imron, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, said JI had been leaderless since the mid-2000s.
The Indonesian authorities’ crackdown on extremist groups has left the JI without a clear direction, he said.
“There is no official leader of JI now,” Imron said, adding that an internal agreement suggested JI had ceased to exist as an official entity.
Amidst the decline in JI-led violence, the Islamic State-inspired Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) has emerged as a new threat.
Founded in 2015 and now banned, JAD is responsible for attacks on churches in Surabaya in 2018 and on a cathedral in Makassar during Palm Sunday.
A JAD-affiliated attacker also bombed a police headquarters in Medan in 2019. However, no JAD attacks have been reported since then.
Irfan Idris, director of prevention at the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), said the JI leadership’s declaration was a tangible success for security forces and society in combating terrorism and achieving “zero attack” status in Indonesia.
“We act within the law and will remain vigilant against any threats that may arise,” he said. “Terrorism and its ideology represent a serious danger to the unity of the nation.”
The announcement of the JI’s dissolution may seem like a positive development at first glance, but a closer look reveals a more complex and potentially worrying reality, according to Bilveer Singh, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore.
Singh warns that the history of extremist groups in Indonesia, such as JI, is one of transformation and re-emergence.
“Radical groups have never disappeared in Indonesia since 1945,” he told BenarNews, adding that JI itself has a habit of evolving every 15 to 20 years.
He warned that the disbandment could be seen as a strategic move, with some members continuing their activities underground and potentially forming a new, more dangerous group.
“The Bogor Declaration could dissolve JI, but there is a risk that a more dangerous organization than JI could emerge in Indonesia,” Singh said.
Arie Firdaus in Jakarta contributed to this report.
