Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Head of the National Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT) Pol. Gen. Suhardi Alius claimed to have given input to Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on handling terrorism for the first presidential candidate debate that will take place on Thursday night.

"We have given input on what we have done so far," Alius said, on the sidelines of the Working Meeting and the Signing of the BNPT Performance Agreement in 2019, on Thursday, Jan 19.

According to him, one of the inputs given was regarding the effort to overcome terrorism through a "soft approach" or a subtle approach, such as deradicalization and education, considering that this approach was appreciated by the international community.

"In fact, we have become role models. Indonesia is a role model after Jokowi became a speaker at the Arab Islamic American Summit in 2017 in Riyadh. Handling of terrorism is not only a single approach, namely `hard approach`, but also a `soft power approach,`" he stated.

According to him, Jokowi has mastered the way of handling terrorism because it was his "speech."

"Indeed, we are prepared, but his speech is really a policy that has been developed so far in deradicalization programs, including the contract," he added.

This subtle approach includes de-radicalization and socialization through education. Of course, it cannot be done by the BNPT alone, but we must include relevant ministries and institutions too.

"We identify upstream issues and must not play in the downstream. We must synergize with relevant ministries and agencies to determine what causes terrorism," he remarked.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Wiranto justified the importance of synergy between related institutions in tackling terrorism. The suppression of the circulation of terrorism in the community can affect the security and political system of the country.

"We now have to maintain political stability and security, because the correlation between security and politics is wrong," Wiranto stated.

Reporting by Syaiful Hakim
Editing by Eliswan Azly

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Azizah Fitriyanti
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