At school today, I first heard about the news about the bombs that went off in Sarinah, Thamrin, Central Jakarta: In a police post and in front of a Starbucks Coffee store. Several people lost their lives, including several terrorists that got shot in the following firefight. This invited the attention from other nations worldwide, but that also means that Indonesia's economy might fall once more due to mistrust.
Who did this foolish act, nobody knows for sure, however some state ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or Daesh) as the possible mastermind. What point they are trying to get across, nobody also know at this point. Now, if terrorism couldn't immediately deliver a message, even after sacrificing the lives of suicide bombers, then it has a flaw, ineffective.
Terrorism has no one definition all scholars, military men, and governments agree on, however a broad term able to at least give a clearer picture of what it is, is that terrorism is violence toward civilians not done by a state, to convey a political or ideological message. Using violence, possibly resulting in the deaths of the terrorist him/herself and innocent lives while the message itself isn't effectively delivered is, for certain, incredibly dumb. In this essay we'll stick to this broad term, and refer to the actors of terrorism as terrorists.
But just how effective is terrorism? While it does scare the public, and could make the standing government seem less credible in protecting its people if sequential acts occur, at the end, terrorism just makes the people wroth rather than surrendering, then directs the governmental and worldwide focus to the terrorists, at the end hampering the spread of the ideology itself.
First of all, everyone (perhaps, save for deranged men who love violence) will stir in anger if they find out that innocent lives have been lost, a truly immoral act. True, that the people living in the vicinity of the event (such as myself, who live in Jakarta) will be on high alert, perhaps scared. Repeated terrorism may scare the public enough to give pressure to a government to hand over concessions to the terrorists, but proud, nationalistic men will not stand for innocent lives being lost, would we? At the end, the terrorists will just face the wrath of the people, multiple calls for the root cause to be exterminated.
The people now will pressure the government to react, and then the entire world's eye will turn against the organization. Before long, many more will join the fight against the ideology. This happened in the aftermath of 9/11, after which the United States declared the war on terror. At the end, the same fate to the terrorists shall happen like the Al-Qaeda: their head lopped off.
That being said, the citizens are indeed still scared at the aftermath of the attack. Several investors flee, fearing for the safety of their money, which may lead to a crisis if this goes on. Shall we just cower in fear? Why should we submit to fear, the very thing that those terrorists want to instill? Should the trending hashtag be #prayforindonesia? I say not. #indonesiamustfight should be better. The government should and will protect the citizen, and we should go on with our lives, carefully. Indonesia already had went through much attempts at terrorism. We still stand proud.
At the end, the hashtag shall be #prayforterrorists, who all shall burn in their hell.
___
Who did this foolish act, nobody knows for sure, however some state ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or Daesh) as the possible mastermind. What point they are trying to get across, nobody also know at this point. Now, if terrorism couldn't immediately deliver a message, even after sacrificing the lives of suicide bombers, then it has a flaw, ineffective.
Terrorism has no one definition all scholars, military men, and governments agree on, however a broad term able to at least give a clearer picture of what it is, is that terrorism is violence toward civilians not done by a state, to convey a political or ideological message. Using violence, possibly resulting in the deaths of the terrorist him/herself and innocent lives while the message itself isn't effectively delivered is, for certain, incredibly dumb. In this essay we'll stick to this broad term, and refer to the actors of terrorism as terrorists.
But just how effective is terrorism? While it does scare the public, and could make the standing government seem less credible in protecting its people if sequential acts occur, at the end, terrorism just makes the people wroth rather than surrendering, then directs the governmental and worldwide focus to the terrorists, at the end hampering the spread of the ideology itself.
First of all, everyone (perhaps, save for deranged men who love violence) will stir in anger if they find out that innocent lives have been lost, a truly immoral act. True, that the people living in the vicinity of the event (such as myself, who live in Jakarta) will be on high alert, perhaps scared. Repeated terrorism may scare the public enough to give pressure to a government to hand over concessions to the terrorists, but proud, nationalistic men will not stand for innocent lives being lost, would we? At the end, the terrorists will just face the wrath of the people, multiple calls for the root cause to be exterminated.
The people now will pressure the government to react, and then the entire world's eye will turn against the organization. Before long, many more will join the fight against the ideology. This happened in the aftermath of 9/11, after which the United States declared the war on terror. At the end, the same fate to the terrorists shall happen like the Al-Qaeda: their head lopped off.
That being said, the citizens are indeed still scared at the aftermath of the attack. Several investors flee, fearing for the safety of their money, which may lead to a crisis if this goes on. Shall we just cower in fear? Why should we submit to fear, the very thing that those terrorists want to instill? Should the trending hashtag be #prayforindonesia? I say not. #indonesiamustfight should be better. The government should and will protect the citizen, and we should go on with our lives, carefully. Indonesia already had went through much attempts at terrorism. We still stand proud.
At the end, the hashtag shall be #prayforterrorists, who all shall burn in their hell.
___
References. Read further about this in the following sites:
[1] Steinsson, Sverrir. 2014. Is Terrorism an Effective Way to Attain Political Goals?. Retrieved 6:28 PM, 14 January 2016, from http://www.e-ir.info/2014/06/22/is-terrorism-an-effective-way-to-attain-political-goals/
[2] Thomas, Jakana. 2014. Actually, Sometimes Terrorism Does Work. Retrieved 6:30 AM, 14 January 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/22/actually-sometimes-terrorism-does-work/
On further note, people usually associate terrorism with Islam, and Islam may have been tainted in the world by that. The fact that terrorism strikes in Indonesia, the largest Islamic nation, proves that it is not Islam that is the problem, but the people. Do not hate Islam, but fight the terrorists.
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